BOSTON — Jaylen Brown surprised me most this training camp.
Nothing that happened on the floor changed my view on how this season will play out for him, Brown as likely as anyone to ride the highs-and-lows of suffering the losses and major injury that these Celtics did. But his first statement upon arrival Media Day late last month did alter my expectations for how this year could play out for Boston. Above all else, in my mind, Brown would use 2025-26 to show what he’s capable of, prove he can lead a team and emphasize how much he’s sacrificed to help the Celtics win. He shut down the most obvious storyline on day one.
”I feel confident in myself,” Brown said, stepping onto NBC Sports Boston’s set. “I think that’s more of the media narratives between the 1As and the 1Bs and all that type of stuff. Mentally, I don’t partake in that.”
Sitting upstairs, awaiting Brown’s full press conference that day, it became clear he wouldn’t embrace what he has in other interviews in the past. As recently as this offseason speaking to CelticsBlog, Brown reflected on being asked to do what other stars haven’t, the sacrifice it’s taken to make the dynamic with Jayson Tatum work and his confidence in being able to lead his own franchise. Brown, instead, sounded at ease throughout training camp with where he stands, the challenge in front of him and believing, following a championship that affirmed him with NBA and East Finals MVP awards, that he’s enough.
Still, when Brown reached the podium that afternoon, the questions followed. I wondered if he’s looking forward to showing the basketball world what he’s capable of. Others wondered about whether he hears and weighs the outside expectations. Brown pivoted toward differing to others around him, play-making and even approaching this year with a defense-first mentality.
“I find, at times, it tries to enter my brain, but not really,” Brown said. “I feel like I’ve shown that at different times in my career. That’s the narrative or storyline that everybody wants to go with, but I’m gonna approach it the same way I’ve always approached it. Obviously, I’m gonna have more responsibility with Jayson not being here, but it also gives a chance for other guys to step up. So empowering other guys, trusting your teammates more, trying to accelerate guys’ learning curve and play some good basketball. I think that’s what people want to see.”
Brown wants to make the All-Defensive team, he’s discussed more recently. He teased maybe focusing more on the most challenging defensive assignments while leaning on others around him for offense. The style the Celtics teased throughout the preseason, more movement, speed and defensive aggressiveness, suited his strengths. Boston plans to approach this season by utilizing depth and a collective approach over asking for more from any individual player, and in line with Brown, Payton Pritchard expressed a willingness to continue coming off the bench. Derrick White expressed that, during other moments of his career, he put pressure on himself to do more and it didn’t go well. He’s focused on consistency this year.
There’s an assuredness flowing from Brown these days. He’s smiling more, letting his guard down and using new mediums like Twitch to express his personality. He’ll even stir up some controversy occasionally, poking at Knicks fans this week by revealing that Tom Thibodeau showed ways that New York beat Boston during his practice visit. During the now infamous media vs. coaches game, he watched above from the dining room, laughed at the carnage and asked after if anyone would do a post-game interview.
Brown rarely used to chit-chat with reports and does so regularly now. He spent the summer greeting fans for hours at various community events. He’s also telling it like it is — there’s obviously less talent here than in recent years, he reflected this week. So they had to embrace a new play style while maintaining key sensibilities from throughout his tenure. That’s where the Celtics will rely on Brown, White and Pritchard to recreate defensive techniques, ball control and other little things that sustained the team’s competitiveness going back one decade.
“I think the Celtic Way that we’ve been able to establish is unselfishness, versatility, being able to empower our guys to step up and feel comfortable enough that they can be themselves,“ Brown said. ”Also, setting the tone on defense, making sure that we continue to maintain our effort on that, and just playing hard. Playing hard, playing unselfish, playing fast. I feel like that’s the identity that we’re going to build and we’re going to continue to emphasize throughout training camp, and I’m excited. We got some new faces, some new guys, some new energy. Obviously, my teammates who are no longer with us I appreciate dearly. They helped bring us banner 18 and a championship, so I wish them well on their next phase, but now we’re here. This kind of feels like a new era a bit, where we got some new people and things feel a little different, but I feel great. I feel very optimistic about this year.”
Still, there are words and there are actions. Many teams talk about playing fast during training camp. The Celtics did it in the preseason. Continuing to do so all year will prove to be a different challenge. A Boston team that rarely lost over the last three seasons will do so far more often, and responding to each of them will require fortitude the team last needed to flex in the 2023 East Finals after going down by 0-3. You have to go back to 2021 turning into 2022 to find the last serious Celtics regular season stumble.
The Celtics lost significant portions of their roster from last season. Pritchard acknowledged Tatum’s availability forced them to give him the ball above the three-point arc, because he’s a top-five player. Kristaps Porziņģis’ game led to him catching the ball at the elbow often while everyone spaced out. Brown plans to not attack head-on or play with a chip on his shoulder and instead utilize White, who averaged 7.5 assists per game in the preseason, Pritchard’s ability to shoot and facilitate more, along with strong three-point shooters remaining like Sam Hauser. He continues to stress being the smartest team, in line with Joe Mazzulla’s emphasis on a read and advantage-based offense that’ll remain at the core of their system.
“I’ve been one of the top transition leaders the last five, I don’t know how many years,” Brown said. “We gotta play fast, but we gotta play smart at the same time. That’s what we’re working on, building great habits. We want to play with tempo, but also know what we’re doing when we’re playing at that pace. So getting used to it, so that we can think, think fast and make quick decisions, and make the right reads even when we’re playing at that pace.”
The memory of Tatum falling in Game 7 of the East Finals and Brown forcing the issue too much, turning it over eight times in a devastating home loss becomes more distant with each passing year. You hear fewer left hand jokes. Brown gets off the ball faster now, can manipulate a defense in his own ways while playing with an urgency that’ll fit the calculated risks the Celtics want to take this season. It started with him not making it about himself.
And in the preseason, Boston finished second in defensive rating, Anfernee Simons led the team in scoring and Brown took 7.7 shots per game. A hamstring injury that forced him to leave the finale last week left him questionable ahead of opening night, and this team can’t suffer another loss among it stars. But on that night, White’s shooting and a Xavier Tillman Sr. floater pushed the team across the finish line with a win.
“I feel like in the past, the outside voices, I’d be lying if I said they didn’t motivate me, because they did,” Brown said. “At this phase of my life, I’m not sure if I gain motivation from that. I feel like maybe the narrative that we have grown to see the one option or whatever the case may be, to me, that’s never really been a thing. I think basketball is not like that. People that know the game, it’s like any given night, anything can happen, etc. and then you have number one options on offense, but you also have number one options on defense and stuff like that. We only focus on the offensive side of basketball, but what about defense? People who are purists of the game know how important defense is. It’s equally as important as offense, if not more, but we only care about the entertainment, the step-backs and the offensive part, but number one option has to do a lot with defense as well.”
