With the information that Jaylen Brown’s hip flexor damage will preserve him out of at the very least another contest, I needed to look at how the workforce’s assault modifications with out him on the ground. Brown’s damage has clearly been impacting his play (his area objective percentages are far worse from almost in all places on the court docket), so hopefully, some relaxation will do him good.
Nonetheless, the present goes on. Should you embrace final yr, we’ve got a reasonably good pattern of how the workforce’s type modifications with out Brown, so let’s break it down.
Much less rim strain and fewer freebies
Jaylen Brown leads the Celtics in drives per game this season with 13.3, almost twice as many as Jayson Tatum’s second-place 7.6 (the hole wasn’t as vast final yr, however Brown nonetheless led with 10.1 to Tatum’s 9.1).
In a associated notice, Synergy says that Boston solely ran eight isolations as a workforce in every of the Atlanta and the Charlotte video games; they’d averaged 15.8 within the six video games prior.
And, after all, fewer drives imply fewer free throws. The Celtics are way more probably to attract a whistle when Brown is on the court docket. He generates loads of free throws himself, however forcing the protection into rotation additionally makes it simpler for different Celtics to assault out-of-position defenders and draw free throws, too.
Extra passing
When you have fewer isolations, it is smart you’d have extra passes, proper? This is perhaps the change that’s most seen to the bare eye.
On the whole, Boston’s offense is just not significantly pass-heavy, rating within the backside half of the league every year of coach Joe Mazzulla’s tenure. In fact, that’s not an indictment of the record-breaking offensive system; the Celtics merely don’t must work as onerous as different groups to fabricate a superb shot!
Brown’s function is to be a play-finisher way over a playmaker, and he has the bottom variety of internet passes on the workforce (he receives 46 passes per game but only makes 31). With out Brown’s skill to get to the rim, although, the workforce does should manufacture extra openings by means of passing somewhat than on-ball creation. Within the earlier two video games with out Brown, the team averaged nearly 15 more passes per game. That’s not good or unhealthy, however it’s noteworthy.
An uptick in threes
To compensate for the shortage of Brown’s on-ball creation, the workforce shoots oodles extra threes — this yr, the Celtics’ three-point attempt rate goes up 9.9% when Brown is off the ground, a humongous change in shot weight-reduction plan. It was greater than a 5% change final yr. (This partially explains the less free throw makes an attempt Boston attracts with out Brown, as properly).
Shedding Brown redistributes his pictures to the Celtics’ different succesful gamers, each one in all whom (minus Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta) has shot greater than half of their makes an attempt from three (in comparison with Brown’s comparatively low 30%). Sixth Man of the Yr candidate Payton Pritchard has seen his scoring leap from 14.7 factors with Brown to twenty within the two video games with out him regardless of taking part in an an identical minutes load, and it was a fair larger leap final yr!
So, to summarize, the Celtics lean much more into their long-distance marksmanship, though it requires just a little extra passing to get there. The workforce’s offense has by no means struggled with or with out Brown (they went 12-0 with out him final yr and are undefeated in two video games this yr), nevertheless it appears just a little completely different.
Brown’s head-down drives to the basket are a significant supply of Celtics offense, significantly on the uncommon nights the three-pointer isn’t falling. Within the playoffs, having as some ways to attain as potential stays paramount. However for the common season, we’ve got ample proof to counsel that the workforce can survive with out him for brief spurts.
