The 2018-19 NBA season hasn’t gone the way Jaylen Brown or the Boston Celtics had hoped.
When the third-year guard has been on the court, he’s been pedestrian, if not downright ineffective: 11 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists, 39.8 field-goal percentage and 25.3 3-point percentage. And in the two games since Brown went down with back bruise, the Celtics have beat the New Orleans Pelicans the Cleveland Cavaliers by a combined 50 points.
Brown has started in all 19 games he’s played, but some have suggested that Celtics head coach Brad Stevens bring the 22-year-old off the bench once he returns. And if that change is made, Brown says he’ll take it in stride.
“Possibly (his role might change), especially if we are winning. Whatever it is that needs to be done to figure it out,” Brown, when asked if Stevens would make lineup changes once he returns, said Friday, via NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg. “Everybody has talent, everybody has ability, but, obviously, we have to make something work here. We don’t want to be looking down the line and trying to figure out, ‘What if?’ or ‘Woulda, coulda,’ whatever.
“Whatever it is that we can make it work now, I’m totally happy with that. Winning answers everyone’s questions and figures everything out. If we win, everything else will be fine.”
It was a refreshingly honest and humble answer from a player who, quite frankly, has struggled to show humility since Boston’s improbable run to the Eastern Conference Finals last season. If Brown and his teammates really can adopt this perspective moving forward, then they just might turn their season around.
Then again, many Celtics players said before the season they’d be willing to sacrifice for the greater good, yet the team has looked selfish throughout its disappointing 12-10 start.
