Celtics’ Payton Pritchard sets record straight on Jaylen Brown All-NBA snub

Pritchard wonders how the Celtics—a team that easily finished with the best record in basketball at 64-18—could only have one player make the All-NBA teams, and he makes a solid point.

Boston was the most dominant club during the regular season by a fairly wide margin, and Brown was the second-leading scorer on the squad. He averaged 23 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.2 steals over 33.5 minutes per game while shooting 49.9 percent from the floor, 35.4 percent from three-point range and 70.3 percent from the free-throw line.

Brown is also the definition of a two-way player, as he is a terrific defender in addition to being a very good offensive player.

The 27-year-old specifically had a great argument over Tyrese Haliburton, who made the All-NBA Third Team.

Jaylen Brown is still somewhat polarizing, even among Celtics fans

There is no question that Brown is a good player. The question is, how good?

Tatum is clearly the Celtics’ best player. I don’t think anyone would deny that. But one can make a legitimate argument that Brown is not even the second-best player on his own team.

Let’s face it: Kristaps Porzingis is really good. Now, obviously, Brown is more consistent, as he played in 70 games. He isn’t exactly an ironman, but he definitely does not have the same type of checkered injury as Porzingis, who appeared in just 57 contests during the regular season and is currently sidelined with a calf injury in the playoffs.

When both players are healthy, however, Porzingis may actually be the more impactful Celtic.

Porzingis was significantly more efficient than Brown, posting 51.6/37.5/85.8 shooting splits. Plus, as good as Brown is defensively, his presence is not nearly as felt on that end of the floor as Porzingis, who is a fantastic rim defender and completely changes the game for Boston.

This isn’t meant to turn into a Brown vs. Porzingis comparison. It’s merely meant to display that Brown, while very good, is not quite elite. He also still has his fair share of detractors even in Beantown, mainly for his limited bag offensively and for his penchant for somewhat disappearing for stretches.

Obviously, Brown was one of the biggest reasons why the Celtics won Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers. He hit the game-tying three-pointer that sent the affair into overtime, and he finished with 26 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals on the night.

No one is questioning his importance to the C’s, and again, if I had to pick, I probably would have gone with Brown over Haliburton on the All-NBA Third Team. But there are some areas in Brown’s game that can be frustrating, and he isn’t quite outstanding enough to be a shoo-in for any of these types of accolades.