Give Jaylen the Respect He Deserves
There’s been so much going on this season in the NBA. The Bucks have been historically good, the Grizzlies have made a sudden rise to playoff contention, Zion Williamson had an insane debut… and that whole “suspended indefinitely” thing. There have been so many events throughout the course of the season, that everyone forgets how stupid fans were in October. There were actually people who thought that Jaylen Brown got overpaid. Well you all look real stupid now, don’t you?
Let me be outlandish for a moment - Jaylen Brown very well may be a top 5 shooting guard in the NBA right now. Hear me out here while I make the case.
According to ESPN, Jaylen Brown is the 9th highest scoring shooting guard in the league. That being said, of those 8 players above him, I only consider 6 of them real shooting guards. The two others are Paul George, who I consider a small forward, and D’Angelo Russell, who I consider a point guard. I think most basketball fans would agree with me on those two points. With that out of the way, the only shooting guards in the NBA who score more points per game than Jaylen are James Harden, Bradley Beal, Luka Doncic, Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell, and CJ McCollum.
Before I even dive into the stats, I just want to point out that all of these players, aside from CJ, are the number one scorers on their teams by far. The only one that’s even debatable is Mitchell, but I don’t consider Bogdanovic or Gobert to be anywhere close to him in terms of an offensive option for the Jazz. Brown on the other hand, is the third scoring option for the Celtics. Even if you want to take injuries into account, there are zero games this season where both Kemba Walker and Jayson Tatum did not play, meaning Jaylen was at most the second scoring option on the team at any given time - and he’s still averaged 20.4 points per game.
With stats in mind, he’s averaged as many rebounds as Harden, with only Luka averaging more than them, and while his assists numbers may seem low, you have to consider the fact that Jaylen Brown is rarely the primary ball-handler on the team. In fact, all six of the shooting guards above him in points per game rank top 45 in the league for usage rate. If you don’t include CJ McCollum in that list (26.3% usage rate), the rest all sit in the top 20, and 3 are in the top 6. Meanwhile Jaylen Brown’s usage rate of 24.5% ranks 61st in the NBA. That’s over 15 spots below CJ, and over 40 spots below anyone else.
Now what really separates Jaylen from the pack is defense. In my opinion, Jaylen could very well be one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA. His defensive rating of 108, which ranks around 144th in the NBA, is better than every other shooting guard I’ve mentioned aside from Luka, who has the exact same defensive rating, but ranks 136th. Now I would argue that Brown is a much better defender than Luka, and I think anyone that watches the NBA would agree. So considering that, by the stats, Brown is pretty much the best defender out of the bunch, is it that much of a stretch to say he’s top 5?
I suppose if you include injured players like Klay Thompson, and players who are listed at a different position like Zach LaVine, you could change things up. Klay is probably better than Brown, but you never know with the injury, and I would say Brown is better than LaVine solely based on his defensive ability. That being said, to wrap it up I’ll just give my informal rankings off the top of my head. Luka and Harden are the top 2 by far, in my opinion. After that I honestly think it’s a toss up. Mitchell is the next best defender after Brown in my opinion, so you could have him up there, and Booker is the best scorer outside of the top 2, so that’s debatable as well. I don’t think CJ is as good as Brown, once again, because of the defensive difference. If I had to give my true rankings, I’d have to go with this -
1. James Harden
2. Luka Doncic
3. Bradley Beal
4. Donovan Mitchell
5. Jaylen Brown
Don’t get me wrong, Devin Booker is a great NBA player, but he is just not nearly as good of a defender as Jaylen Brown. If you try to tell me that defense isn’t everything, then you just don’t understand the NBA, because neither is offense. A guy, like Booker, can put up 25 points a night all he wants, but if he’s unable to guard the other team then what use is it? Brown not only has the ability to put up 20 points per night (as the third scoring option), but also takes on the task of guarding the best player on the other team a lot of the time, and does so successfully. The argument for Brown over Mitchell is even pretty close, but I gave Donovan the edge because he’s shown that he can lead a team, even in the playoffs.
Not only is Brown an great player on the court, but he’s one of the smartest players in the league, does so much for social change, and overall seems like an amazing dude. He’ll go down in history as a good player, but a better person.
If you have a different opinion on his NBA rank let me know, but I really do think Brown is one of the best shooting guards in the NBA. Offense isn’t everything, people. Brown was worth every penny.
