Ahead of the Boston Celtics 2025-26 regular season schedule’s start, most NBA analysts (and to be honest, many Celtics fans) believed the Celtics would have a so-called ‘gap year’ in the absence of injured star Jayson Tatum as the St. Louis native recovers from a torn Achilles tendon. But Tatum’s costar on the wing Jaylen Brown stepped up in a major way, playing well enough to warrant serious consideration for the league’s Most Valuable Player award this season.<\/p>\n
After being snubbed for the Association’s Player of the Month award for December despite earning Player of the Week for two of the three weeks that counted, Brown put up a career-high tieing 50 points vs. the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> on Saturday (Jan. 3). When asked about whether he expected a season like this after the dazzling outburst from Brown, teammate Derrick White replied (via<\/a> CLNS Media), “you never really know going into the season.”<\/p>\n “But I was pretty confident in the summer that we would do a lot of good things,” added the University of Colorado – Boulder alum. “Obviously, we had a lot of new faces, new roles, and so you don’t know how quickly it’s going to happen.”<\/p>\n “But I was pretty confident going into the season that the work that we put in, I’ve seen — I mean, a lot of guys do that work behind the scenes that you guys probably haven’t seen before, and now you’re surprised that they’re playing the way they’re playing,” he added.<\/p>\n “So it’s just been fun to see all those guys get their opportunity and make the most of it.”<\/p>\n Listen to “Havlicek Stole the Pod” on:<\/p>\n Blue Wire: https:\/\/tiny.ee\/CdKp<\/a><\/p>\n