Jaylen Brown has patiently waited for his chance to be the No. 1 option.
During his first season, Isaiah Thomas lit up the box score and hearts of NBA fans. The Celtics then drafted Jayson Tatum, who became an instant star.
But with Tatum out for the foreseeable future as he recovers from an Achilles injury, Brown has finally gotten the opportunity to be the primary star. And he’s taking it in absolute stride.
Through Boston’s first 24 games, he’s averaging the third-best scoring season in Celtics history with 29.1 points per gam. It places him just behind Larry Bird’s 29.9 in 1988 and Tatum’s 30.1 in 2023.
As of Dec. 11, the Celtics are the third seed in the Eastern Conference with a 15-9 record. It’s an impressive feat for Brown, as he leads a roster that should just be clawing at the door to make the play-in, but his exceptional play is driving them to overachieve.
It’s reminiscent of Scottie Pippen’s 1994 season, where he became the first option in an era defined by Michael Jordan’s excellence.
Pippen’s dominant 1994 season
When Jordan retired for the first time in 1993, the keys to the franchise were handed over to Pippen for the first time. Despite Jordan’s absence, Chicago didn’t miss a beat. They finished the regular season with a 55-27 record as Pippen averaged career highs in points and rebounds while finishing third in MVP voting.
In the postseason, they swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round before falling to the New York Knicks in a tough seven-game series.
Despite falling short of the championship standard Chicago had become accustomed to with Jordan, Pippen held down the fort in the absence of Air Jordan and maintained the Bulls’ winning culture.
Will Boston win 50+ games this season? It still seems highly unlikely. But if Brown can continue to maintain his early success through the next few months and Tatum is able to return later this season, the Celtics could easily make the playoffs as an under-the-radar threat in a wide-open Eastern Conference.
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