FanPost

Jaylen Brown is rushing water


Air is the mental plane. Of the mind. Somewhere up there, violent motion causes rain droplets to collide, gather and leap toward Earth. It gathers energy and contorts to the most efficient shape. The inevitable collision looms.

There is no lack of confidence in a charging drop of water. It fills the lane, leaps from a step inside the stripe and puts a right hand through the hoop. It starts at the left sideline hatch mark, moves left past his counterpart, splits two defenders and finishes with a left handed layup high off the glass. It gets a pass from Hayward and again goes left, finishes left over a seven footer.

The key is motion. A moving JB surges past defenders turned the wrong way. A moving JB plays through contact, is more engaged, puts momentum into his passes.

We have seen JB attack the basket before, but this doesn’t look the same. We have seen him take on multiple defenders, we have seen him dunk over opponents, but lefty high off the glass? That’s a point guard finish. We have not seen him this comfortable. This fluid.

He is keeping his dribble low. He has a move to the left hand— it’s not anything special, it doesn’t have a bit of guile, it is just an effective, quick between the legs move but it is in rhythm. It is in control.

He talks about riling up Smart. Says his best workout is playing him one on one. Smart, he says, is the best on ball defender in the game. But only if he is a little mad. So Jaylen stirs him up. Gets him going.

Is this what the time with Team USA was like? Taking Pop’s half-second rule into combinations of two on two? Brown and Kemba v. Tatum and Smart? Games to twenty one, ones and twos, clear everything but air balls, call your own foul, make it take it, gotta win by two?

He is also staying on the ground a step longer.

Of course preseason stats are a farce! Nonetheless, after three preseason’s worth of stats there are some interesting departures:

1. After posting fg% between 41.9-42.9 the past three preseasons, he is shooting 53.4% this time around.

2. His ts% is 58– nine points higher than his norm.

3. Player Impact Estimate (PIE) is a whopping 22.9! MVP last year, G? 21.8. Runner up Harden? 20.1.

4. The D has always been there, but a DEFRTG of 63.9 is comical. He is more disruptive (higher rates of steals, blocks) while fouling less (1.7/per 100, notably lower than his best ever 4.1/ per100.)



Ok. We know he can score efficiently, he posted 59 ts% after the all star break last year. And the defense is expected, so, statistical jumps aside, what is significant about this preseason?

The book on him says guard his right hand. This has been effective as Jaylen has had a propensity to go to his dominant hand and use his strength and athleticism to try to overpower. Even when he went left he would come back to his right to finish. He would pick up his dribble early, leap into the defense and either force up a flailing kind of scoop shot as he was falling away from the hoop or try a kick out. This was a bad play that led to bad things.

Now he is keeping his dribble lower and leaving his feet later, this has dramatically lowered his turnover numbers from roughly 22% of the team’s turnovers to 8.7%. He is also slinging passes quickly and with gusto, posting a Chris Paul-like 3 assists for every TO, having not done much better than 1:1 at any time before.

And he is going left. He is less predictable.

The gathering storm is what we have been watching. "Promise" and "Potential" written in flashes of electricity. A coalescing of shards of ice. The turbulence hardwired into his game has found its purpose. The ‘Old Man’ moniker and geometric flat top have been replaced with ‘Jaylen the Creator’ and a do more ...hydrodynamic.


Stay moving, young fellow.



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