Even as someone who avoids the Twittersphere at all costs, it isn’t hard to surmise that Jaylen Brown’s ball handling ability and turnover rate have been highly scrutinized during the playoffs, especially in Boston’s series against the Heat. It is true that Miami has undoubtedly targeted Jaylen as a player they can at times force into making careless mistakes, especially while handling the ball on transition. It’s also true that during games when he especially struggles with handling the ball, such as last night, his turnovers are ugly and are undoubtedly frustrating to watch. However, when looking at the big picture, it may not be quite as bad as it seems.

Despite a rough start in the first half, Jaylen Brown scored 25 last night and put up an impressive 19 in the second including an impressive dunk over Heat Center Bam Adebayo

 Yes, Jaylen had 4 turnovers in the first half of the game against Miami last night, but he had 0 in the second half and led the second-half blowout that allowed the Celtics to secure their third win in the series with a 93-80 victory. For the entire ECF series itself, which is when he’s certainly received the most criticism, h’s averaging 3 turnovers per game. While that isn’t an ideal statistic by any means, there certainly are star players who have turned over the ball more, even during this year’s playoffs. For instance, although it is different situation due to his incredibly high usage, Luca Doncic is currently averaging 4.5 turnovers per game in the Mavericks v. Warriors series. So while I do think Brown undoubtedly would benefit from working on his ball-handling specifically this summer and I can only imagine the entire Celtics coaching core as well as even Brown himself would heartily agree there are certainly upsides of Jaylen’s game as he’s averaging 23.1 PPG, 6.9 RPG (Especially high for an SG), and 3.3 APG. That being said, I do wonder if Brown would be much more effective if he shifted into a more off the ball role in which he is asked to catch and shoot more would benefit both his career and his team alike.

Averaging 2.7 more APG in the playoffs than Brown, Tatum has more easily been able to adjust his game in order to facilitate ball movement, though Browns regular season and playoff APG were notably higher than career totals (3.5 &3.3 v. 2.0)

For those who think I’m undermining Brown’s pros as an isolation player with incredible athleticism who can get right to the rim in a number of ways: I’m not saying he should cut those aspects of his games, I’m just saying it may be time to dial back some of his tendencies. It’s no revelation that Jayson Tatum is the best player on the Celtics at this time, who like Brown, has historically enjoyed the role of a ball dominant scoring wing with a tendency to initiate plays in isolation. As the team has grown under their new coach, however, Tatum has meshed these aspects of his game with an increased knack for selfless ball movement and playmaking in order to make the right play at the right time as opposed to attempting to score in every opportunity he can. Now Brown has made improvements in these areas as well, but he continue to show flashes of these tendencies more so than Tatum does while also just simply not being as effective. He also simply isn’t as good of a ball handler as Tatum. Furthermore, the team has a more than adequate handler in point guard Marcus Smart and his back-up Derek White does a wonderful job as his backup in this regard, so Brown really isn’t required to do a ton of handling up and down the court in transition. We also need him doing a lot of it from the half court either. While he continues to show instances of brilliant isolation plays, this isn’t something any player in the NBA really should be doing constantly, especially a player who is currently exhibiting sub-par ball-handling skills for an NBA guard

If the Celtic’s growth offensively over the course of this season has told us anything it’s that an emphasis on ball movement creates more opportunities to score and while it’s true that Brown has got to be the guy you need to take over when Tatum’s getting doubled and the teams in a rough spot, he also needs to learn to rely on his team to move the ball so that he can find more off the ball opportunities and get open for some easy shots and dunk opportunities. If he could do this, I think he’d quickly become an infinitely more efficient player.

Brown’s 39.6 3P% in the playoffs is a career high after five post-seasons.

The notion that Brown should shift to playing a more off-the-ball style of offense not only stems from the rest of the team’s strengths, but also from my confidence in his own growing prowess as a shooter. Even aside from numbers, Brown’s deep mid-range and three-point-shot as of late are looking prettier and prettier, especially when he’s open off of a catch and shoot opportunity. The statistics also back the intangibles here, however, as he is essentially shooting about 40% (39.6%) in the playoffs (For those who don’t give much mind to statistics, this is essentially the baseline shooting percentage from deep when looking for efficient three-point shooters).  

Sure, one could argue that Brown’s shooting percentage was lower in the regular season despite highs in 3P% and FG% the previous year this season, but that also is likely due to the growing pains that came with adjustment this season: Like Tatum he’s had to adjust over the season as the team’s emphasis on team-offense and ball movement, which isn’t necessarily a style Brown has been entirely used to as he was the #1 with a lot to prove in both high school and College, and he’s also had a slightly more difficult time adjusting as Tatum has proven to be a more natural ball handler as well as playmaker/shot creator for others.

In last night’s game 5 victory v. Miami, Brown shot an impressive 5-9 from beyond the arc last night, which accounted for 15 of his 25 points

While Tatum’s clearly the better overall player, I personally think Brown has the potential to be the more efficient shooter of the two and it’s started to show in the playoffs. Tatum is averaging 3.1 3P per game off of 8.6 3PA while Brown is averaging 2.6 3P off of 6.6 3PA. Therefore, Brown on average takes two less-three-point shots than Tatum is in the playoffs. He also has less opportunity to as Tatum is often will shoot threes after taking the ball up to the top of the key. While Tatum initiates a lot of his threes by his own volition, it’s notable that Brown should have more opportunity to shoot open threes off catch and shoot as Tatum is typically going to be priority number one for defending teams. In conclusion, it is my opinion that the Celtics should work to create more opportunities for Brown to shoot from deep off of the catch while he himself should at least be open to the idea of sliding into a role which not only requires less ball-handling, a relative weakness of his, but also will help distinguish him as a star, who is although complimentary, unique from Tatum in terms of the skill-set he is able to bring to the table.