Brown is now averaging 30.1 points per game for the Boston Celtics this season, ranking fourth in the NBA in scoring. Few would quibble with any suggestion that he’s among the very elite at scoring the basketball.
And with all due respect to the 500 NBA players lingering down the list of the league’s leading scorers (and to all the recreational hoopers worldwide still waiting for their call-ups), it seems fair to suggest that Brown simply needs to be the best defender among the NBA’s other top bucket-getters to lay claim to the “best two-way player in the world” championship belt.
For the purposes of this exercise, we’re narrowing our field to Brown’s chief competition for another lofty NBA honor: Most Valuable Player. We’re crunching his defensive metrics compared to Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic, Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, New York’s Jalen Brunson, and Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey.
Squeezed out here are Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, and Victor Wembanyama, who are all uncertain to reach the NBA’s 65-game threshold for award voting due to injuries. All three could make strong cases as the best two-way players in the world based on their overall impacts, but the top two-way player has to hit 65 games for this debate.
The case for Brown centers on the caliber of opponent he frequently defends. His declaration came Saturday night after he logged a game-high in matchup time against a previously white-hot Kawhi Leonard, and limited him to nine points on 3-of-7 shooting over seven minutes of matchup time.
Over at the stat-crunching site BBall Index, they group players into six tiers based on usage to monitor how much time players spend defending various tiers of talent. A high usage rate doesn’t immediately confirm superstar talent, but [if you look at this year’s usage leaders](https://www.nba.com/stats/players/usage?CF=GP*GE*20), there are very few outliers among the stars who dominate the top of the list.
Brown not only logs the highest percentage of Tier 1 matchups compared to our field, but nearly 57 percent of his total defensive time is spent against players in Tiers 1-3. By comparison, that number sits just south of 36 percent for someone like Brunson (the worst among our candidates).
Isn’t the best two-way player not just the best player?
100%
On defense he is *absolutely* better than most of those guys. Comparing his defensive game to Luka or Brunson is honestly laughable
The question at this point is: does anyone else?
Really stupid premise. If you’re making the case he’s the best two-way player, you can’t ignore all the top two-way players just because they’ve been injured. That just results in best two-way player among a much smaller group. Include LeBron, Giannis, Kahwi, etc., and then see where he falls.
Yes. End of discussion.
If Giannis is out, Tatum and brown are the best 2 way players. Tatum is better than brown with off ball defense tho
An interesting question might be if any team would trade their super star and include draft compensation for Jaylen Brown? And whether the Celtics do a deal if approached? Not advocating, just asking the question, as am a big fan of JB and hope he finishes his career in Beantown.
Sure, he’s in that convo. As always C’s D is a team concept, so he’s not standing out like Giannis, or Wemby. But offensively he’s better than both.
Yet hes barely being discussed for MVP and Joe is not being discussed as COY at all. How is this possible
It’s a race between him and Tatum
Everyone else is behind
I don’t know. He is absolutely one of the best so far this year. There is no argument to the contrary. But to say that he is one of the best permanently is a bit of a stretch for me.
What JB is doing on the offensive end is absolutely ridiculous. He is shooting something like 57-58% on long 2s. His career average is in the low 40s. That’s flat-out ridiculous and, in my opinion, totally unsustainable. He is eviscerating the league with long 2s. There will be upcoming periods (plural) when he starts to slump, and his shooting percentages regress to the mean. The MVP and best two-way player in the game talk will die at that point.
He has been absolutely incredible this year. No one could have predicted just how amazing he’s been. And he deserves major credit for that. But I’ll be shocked if his current play lasts all season. Shooting almost 60% on contested 2s well outside the paint simply isn’t ever seen. Guys who shoot 60%+ are all bigs who get their shots in the paint (with plenty of layups and dunks).
We’ll see what happens, but I’m VERY skeptical that it continues at this rate.
Honestly, the only other two-way player who even comes close to this discussion is Jayson Tatum
15 comments
From Chris Forsberg:
Fresh off matching his career high in scoring with [a 50-point outburst against the Los Angeles Clippers](https://www.nbcsportsboston.com/nba/boston-celtics/live-updates-clippers-highlights-jaylen-brown-kawhi-leonard/757691/) on Saturday night, Jaylen Brown boldly declared his belief that he is the best two-way player in the world.
Brown is now averaging 30.1 points per game for the Boston Celtics this season, ranking fourth in the NBA in scoring. Few would quibble with any suggestion that he’s among the very elite at scoring the basketball.
And with all due respect to the 500 NBA players lingering down the list of the league’s leading scorers (and to all the recreational hoopers worldwide still waiting for their call-ups), it seems fair to suggest that Brown simply needs to be the best defender among the NBA’s other top bucket-getters to lay claim to the “best two-way player in the world” championship belt.
For the purposes of this exercise, we’re narrowing our field to Brown’s chief competition for another lofty NBA honor: Most Valuable Player. We’re crunching his defensive metrics compared to Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic, Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, New York’s Jalen Brunson, and Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey.
Squeezed out here are Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, and Victor Wembanyama, who are all uncertain to reach the NBA’s 65-game threshold for award voting due to injuries. All three could make strong cases as the best two-way players in the world based on their overall impacts, but the top two-way player has to hit 65 games for this debate.
The case for Brown centers on the caliber of opponent he frequently defends. His declaration came Saturday night after he logged a game-high in matchup time against a previously white-hot Kawhi Leonard, and limited him to nine points on 3-of-7 shooting over seven minutes of matchup time.
Over at the stat-crunching site BBall Index, they group players into six tiers based on usage to monitor how much time players spend defending various tiers of talent. A high usage rate doesn’t immediately confirm superstar talent, but [if you look at this year’s usage leaders](https://www.nba.com/stats/players/usage?CF=GP*GE*20), there are very few outliers among the stars who dominate the top of the list.
Brown not only logs the highest percentage of Tier 1 matchups compared to our field, but nearly 57 percent of his total defensive time is spent against players in Tiers 1-3. By comparison, that number sits just south of 36 percent for someone like Brunson (the worst among our candidates).
[Read more here](https://www.nbcsportsboston.com/nba/boston-celtics/jaylen-brown-best-two-way-player-defensive-stats/758199/).
Isn’t the best two-way player not just the best player?
100%
On defense he is *absolutely* better than most of those guys. Comparing his defensive game to Luka or Brunson is honestly laughable
The question at this point is: does anyone else?
Really stupid premise. If you’re making the case he’s the best two-way player, you can’t ignore all the top two-way players just because they’ve been injured. That just results in best two-way player among a much smaller group. Include LeBron, Giannis, Kahwi, etc., and then see where he falls.
Yes. End of discussion.
If Giannis is out, Tatum and brown are the best 2 way players. Tatum is better than brown with off ball defense tho
An interesting question might be if any team would trade their super star and include draft compensation for Jaylen Brown? And whether the Celtics do a deal if approached? Not advocating, just asking the question, as am a big fan of JB and hope he finishes his career in Beantown.
Sure, he’s in that convo. As always C’s D is a team concept, so he’s not standing out like Giannis, or Wemby. But offensively he’s better than both.
Yet hes barely being discussed for MVP and Joe is not being discussed as COY at all. How is this possible
It’s a race between him and Tatum
Everyone else is behind
I don’t know. He is absolutely one of the best so far this year. There is no argument to the contrary. But to say that he is one of the best permanently is a bit of a stretch for me.
What JB is doing on the offensive end is absolutely ridiculous. He is shooting something like 57-58% on long 2s. His career average is in the low 40s. That’s flat-out ridiculous and, in my opinion, totally unsustainable. He is eviscerating the league with long 2s. There will be upcoming periods (plural) when he starts to slump, and his shooting percentages regress to the mean. The MVP and best two-way player in the game talk will die at that point.
He has been absolutely incredible this year. No one could have predicted just how amazing he’s been. And he deserves major credit for that. But I’ll be shocked if his current play lasts all season. Shooting almost 60% on contested 2s well outside the paint simply isn’t ever seen. Guys who shoot 60%+ are all bigs who get their shots in the paint (with plenty of layups and dunks).
We’ll see what happens, but I’m VERY skeptical that it continues at this rate.
Honestly, the only other two-way player who even comes close to this discussion is Jayson Tatum
Consider it