The Boston Celtics enjoyed a notable off period prior to the start of their run through the NBA playoffs.
While they waited for the league’s play-in tournament to conclude, there has been a lot of time for Celtics players, fans and media to take a look at things outside of Boston’s first-round matchup with the Atlanta Hawks. The most heavily-discussed topic? Jaylen Brown’s candidacy for All-NBA.
The conclusion of the regular season also marked the conclusion of voting for the NBA’s end-of-season awards and honors. Among them are All-NBA selections, where Brown’s candidacy has been in question due to the fact that he could fall under two different positional designations. Though that won’t be a problem under the new CBA, it is under the current one. So while some voters included Brown on their ballots, others have not.
That has led to questions as to whether Brown himself pays attention to the voting before the teams are announced. He doesn’t because he’s a firm believer that he’s earned a spot.
“For my own sanity I don’t keep up with it, but I would hope I’d be in the mix,” Brown said, per NBC Sports Boston on Twitter. “I think that winning, of course, is important, but if you look at the criteria for the last 20 years — I ultimately fit that criteria. I don’t even understand all the way why it’s somewhat of a debate.
“You’ve got a guy who’s averaging top 10 in scoring, second-best record in the league and is shooting the ball pretty efficiently from the field. I happily lead this team on and off the court. I think it should be a ‘proof is in the pudding’ type of thing. But I don’t let that control or dominate my thoughts, my goal this whole season wasn’t to be All-NBA, it was to get ready for the playoffs again.”
Brown is set to earn or lose a lot of money depending on his All-NBA status, as a selection would make him eligible to make approximately $10 million more per season. In turn, that would heavily incentivize him to remain with the Celtics via an extension, as they would be the only franchise allowed to make him such an offer.
That’s good news for Boston, especially if Brown is right in his estimation that things will only improve from his tremendous 2022-23 season.
“It would be great,” Brown continued. “It would be refreshing, but either way it goes, we’re still going to keep it moving. We’re getting better every single year. I’ve still found ways to get creative and grow my game, grow my mindset. I haven’t played my best basketball yet, and god willing, I stay healthy. I intend on taking it up a notch.”
The 26-year-old is experiencing a career year, with an All-NBA selection serving as a perfect way to cap things off. Brown averaged career highs in points (26.6), rebounds (6.9), assists (3.5), field-goal percentage (.576) and free-throw attempts and percentage (5.1; .765) per game.
