{"id":4867,"date":"2026-07-13T12:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4867"},"modified":"2026-07-13T12:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:35:11","slug":"jaylen-browns-stats-are-what-they-are-but-a-closer-look-at-game-situations-paints-a-clearer-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4867","title":{"rendered":"Jaylen Brown\u2019s stats are what they are, but a closer look at game situations paints a clearer picture"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<p><span>In the aftermath of the Celtics ending an era by trading Jaylen Brown to the 76ers \u2015 and also in the wake of criticism that many advanced metrics didn\u2019t view him as one of the NBA\u2019s elite players despite his accomplishments over his 10-year career \u2015 the part that might get lost is that when Brown was on the floor, the Celtics were really good.  <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4865\">What we know about Lindsey Graham\u2019s final days<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>They racked up 56 wins and were the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference last season. They scored 120.8 points per 100 possessions overall and when Brown was on the floor, they scored 119. In both instances, that ranked second in the league.  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Celtics allowed 112.7 points per 100 possessions as a team \u2014 the fourth-best defensive rating in the NBA \u2014 and when Brown was on the floor they allowed 113 (10th in the NBA).  <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><span>Get Starting Point<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><label>Enter Email<\/label><\/p>\n<div><button>Sign Up<\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>But whether Brown made the Celtics better or worse depends on the lens.Without question, when Brown was off the floor, the Celtics looked different.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>With Brown on the floor, the Celtics shot a higher field goal percentage (47.5 percent on, 45.5 off), got to the free throw line at a higher rate (22.1 on, 18.5 off), took a larger share of their shots in the paint (39.8 percent on, 36.5 off), and played at a slightly faster pace (97.7 possessions per game on, 94.7 off).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>They pushed the tempo, pressured the rim, and got to the free throw line.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>When Brown was off the floor, the Celtics took a higher proportion of their shots from 3-point range than from inside the arc (51.8 percent compared with 44.2 percent). Their assist ratio (18.3), assist-to-turnover ratio (2.1), and assist percentage (61.7) were all higher, and a greater share of their made baskets came off assists (61.7 percent;  56.6 percent when he was on).<\/span><\/p>\n<div><span>Related<span>: <\/span><\/span>NBPA executive director David Kelly says second apron hurts players, teams, and fans<\/div>\n<p><span>They spaced the floor, moved the ball, and found shooters who could do damage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The other wrinkle was that the Celtics also defended better when Brown wasn\u2019t on the floor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Opponents scored 113 points per 100 possessions with Brown on the court, 106.7 when he wasn\u2019t.   <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But context matters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Brown is one of the few players in the league who carried a primary scoring role while also spending most nights guarding the opposing team\u2019s best scorer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>When Bam Adebayo scored 83 against Washington in March, his primary defensive matchup was Alex Sarr. When Luka Don\u010di\u0107 scored 60 against Miami nine days later, he spent much of the night guarding second-year wing Pelle Larsson. When Nikola Joki\u0107 scored 56 against the Timberwolves on Christmas, he was defending Rudy Gobert. When James Harden scored 55 against the Hornets in November, he defended rookie Sion James. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Brown\u2019s biggest scoring nights often came with a different kind of workload.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He matched a career high with 50 points on Jan. 3 against the host Clippers while spending most of his defensive possessions on Kawhi Leonard, who went 3 for 7 while Brown was the primary defender, according to NBA matchup data.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Brown scored 43 in Miami on April 1 while matched up with Tyler Herro, who went 1 for 6 against Brown.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span>With Brown on the floor, the Celtics consistently built leads. While he was off, his teammates maintained them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4863\">McDreamy for Senate wasn\u2019t hard to imagine. It would have been another step in pop culture\u2019s political takeover.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>Brown played 71 regular-season games last season. Over those games, he checked into or out 223 times \u2014 essentially working 223 different shifts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>His first job each night was helping the Celtics establish a lead. More often than not, he did.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Brown handed teammates a lead at the end of 40 of his 71 opening shifts by an average of 7.7 points. Once Brown left the floor, his teammates maintained 35 of those leads and blew five of them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>From there, it became a relay.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>More often than not, the scoreboard was already in Brown\u2019s favor when he checked in. He inherited 100 leads. The average margin when he entered was 9.4 points. By the time he checked out, it had grown to 10.4. He preserved 83 of those leads and let only 17 slip away \u2014 14 deficits and three ties.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>His teammates handed him 45 deficits. On average, the Celtics trailed by 9 points when Brown checked in. By the time he checked out, he had trimmed those deficits to 6.8 points.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He erased deficits entirely 12 times, including Dec. 26 in Indiana. The bench handed Brown a 5-point deficit with 9:54 left in the second quarter. Brown stayed on the floor for the next 21 minutes, scored 18 points on 9-of-12 shooting, and helped turn a tight game into a 140-122 blowout.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>There were nights when things went the other way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>On Feb. 6 at home against Miami, the Celtics were still adjusting after acquiring Nikola Vucevic. The new lineup stumbled out of the gate, missing 20 of its first 22 3-pointers. When Brown checked out with 2:10 left in the first quarter, he handed teammates a 15-point deficit that grew to 22 in the second quarter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Brown scored 24 points on 9-of-20 shooting through his first 23 minutes to keep Boston within striking distance, but the breakthrough didn\u2019t come until after he checked out with 6:53 left in the third quarter and the Celtics trailing, 79-76. Without him, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard and Vucevic fueled a 30-9 run that carried Boston to a 98-96 comeback victory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Brown left the Celtics in a hole, but he also helped dig them out of it. His teammates finished the job.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>For the overwhelming majority of his stints, Brown handed teammates a lead when he left the floor \u2014 140 times. When non-Brown lineups inherited deficits, they erased them 19 times.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>When Brown handed teammates a lead, they rarely gave it away. They played to two ties and blew only seven leads before Brown returned. In general, the scoreboard looked much the same when he checked back in as when he left. The average lead was 11.6 points when Brown checked out and 11.5 when he checked back in.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>On-and-off metrics implicitly treat every possession and every shift the same. Brown\u2019s season suggests they rarely are.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4861\">I feared the World Cup in Boston would let me down. It wasn\u2019t at all what I expected.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many advanced metrics do not favor Brown, but looking at the circumstances of his game action provides context the numbers can&#8217;t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jaylen Brown\u2019s stats are what they are, but a closer look at game situations paints a clearer picture - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4867\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jaylen Brown\u2019s stats are what they are, but a closer look at game situations paints a clearer picture - 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