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Jaylen Brown’s ‘Welcome To The NBA Moment’

The Boston Celtics are having high hopes that Jaylen Brown will develop into one of the league’s best players.

Fresh off a successful rookie campaign where he averaged 6.6 points and 2.8 rebounds 17.2 minutes per game, Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens expects Jaylen Brown’s minutes to continuously increase as time goes on. His rookie numbers do not jump off the charts, but consistent production off the bench and big-time slam dunks surely did not go unnoticed. Taking on defensive duties against LeBron James in the 2017 Eastern Conference Finals, Brown proved he would not back down from anyone and defended the four-time MVP exceptionally well. Brown’s numbers do not fully prove how he helped Boston in 2016-17. In an interview on Chris Mannix’s podcast, Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens hopes Brown could become one of the league’s best defenders.

“Jaylen [Brown] has to become a lockdown defender for us,” Stevens said. “That’s where, as you go into an offseason and you are an individual player, there’s a ton of things that you want to get better at, and there’s a ton of things you want to add to your game, but ultimately, when you get back to your team, it’s what do you do that’s different to make your team unique to give yourself the best chance of adding value to winning. We need him to become that.”

There will be more pressure on him this season, as expectations are rising. But Brown is ready to handle this pressure. In a great interview with Complex Sports (seriously, read the whole thing, it is amazing!) the second-year player was asked about his ‘welcome to the NBA moment’ from last year’s rookie season.

What was your welcome to the NBA moment last year?
Here in New York in the Garden guarding Carmelo [Anthony] in our first preseason game. The coaches didn’t give me no scouting report—I think they did this on purpose, they just said you’ve got Melo. I think they wanted to get my ass whooped a litt bit. Which is good and humbling and you learn from it because it’s preseason. But at the same time, I think I learned from it. Even though I showed I wasn’t afraid or enamored or shocked, I was. It was like a movie. That was the first time I played at the Garden. The floor was lit perfectly. And Melo’s got the ball. He’s shooting it. He’s hitting you with the jab. I’ve seen it probably a million times and it’s like, damn, I’m in the motherfucking league. I’m guarding Carmelo. You’ve got to do something. That was my welcome to league moment.