Sure, Kevin Durant is without doubt one of the most prolific basketball scorers of all time. Sure, he’s nonetheless a top-3 participant within the league, regardless of being 33-years-old. I imply, he averaged 29.9 factors per recreation on a 63.4 true taking pictures proportion. That’s unimaginable.
Buying and selling for Kevin Durant would undoubtedly put the Celtics over the sting for the 2022-23 season. Nevertheless, questions stay — a number of them. On the heart of the dialog: Jaylen Brown.
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Picture By Nancy Lane/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald by way of Getty Pictures
For years, the Celtics have constructed the group across the now 24-year-old Jayson Tatum and 25-year-old Brown. Each are athletic, supremely expert on each ends of the courtroom, and most significantly younger. Younger, athletic wings are the NBA’s hottest commodity proper now, and the Celtics have two of the most effective. In the meantime, Kevin Durant will flip 34 on September twenty ninth.
Other than Tatum and Brown, a plethora of core items haven’t even reached their 30’s — Marcus Sensible, Robert Williams, Grant Williams, Derrick White, and Malcolm Brogdon. With that, and the truth that the Celtics nonetheless have a number of first-round picks after 2023, the group is poised to compete for a championship for a lot of, a few years.
Chemistry, togetherness, and continuity are all essential when pursuing a championship, too. Fortuitously, the Celtics established one thing extremely particular culture-wise post-January, and Brown helped paved the way.
Individually, on the courtroom, Brown is a budding star. He averaged 23.6 factors per recreation final season. The 12 months earlier than that, Brown averaged a career-high 24.7 factors per recreation and was an All-Star. He dropped 50 factors in opposition to the Magic on January 2nd. He additionally poured in 34 factors in Sport 6 of the 2022 Finals.
Defensively, Brown has a profession 1.6 steal-percentage and a 1.1 block-percentage, two statistics that don’t actually showcase Brown’s high-level defensive skill. He’s nice on-ball, he’s nice off-ball. He was an influential part of the Celtics defensive powerhouse and helped cease the league’s finest scorer within the first spherical — Kevin Durant.
Total, Brown is a good two-way participant. He’s athletic. He can rating. He can shoot. He can defend. He’s nice all-around. However, an important purpose to carry onto Brown is that this: he desires to be in Boston. And that’s even with all of the commerce discussions.
According to The Athletic’s Jared Weiss, Brown desires to be a Celtic and proceed constructing a championship group. He desires to win a elevate a banner in Boston. With that, the entrance workplace ought to let Brown see it by means of to the top.
There’s an excessive amount of upside, too lengthy of a window, and an excessive amount of dedication from the Brown-led Celtics to surrender on. Even with the attractive alternative to commerce for one in every of this era’s biggest gamers in Kevin Durant, the Celtics ought to keep the course, with Jaylen Brown as a cornerstone.
