Jaylen Brown's stark improvement this season comes at a massive time, one in which he would have been prompted to validate the multi-year extension of his rookie contract he received earlier in the summer.
Brown had just finished a rollercoaster 2018-19 season with the Boston Celtics, finding himself in and out of the starting lineup. After that came to an end, it didn't take long for Celtics assistant coach Tony Dobbins to get a text from the young guard following two-a-day workouts.
“We just finished the other day,” Dobbins told Brown, according to Tom Westerholm of MassLive. “You sure you don’t want to take a step away, take some time?”
“Nah. Let’s get it,” said Brown. “Let’s get after it.”
Brown was hoping to get some work in with two-a-days prior to a trip to Egypt, in case he couldn't find a gym there.
“I wanted the front office, I wanted the people on the coaching staff to see my face,” said Brown. “See I’m in here, see I’m getting better so it’s easier when you’re building an offense, building a team, it’s easier to have me a part of it because I’m here all the time.”
The Cal standout can swear by Dobbins' work, crediting him for his attention to detail and his sticktoitiveness through the summer.
“Tony’s got some stuff, man,” said Brown. “He’s got some really good stuff in his bag. He leaves no detail, no stone unturned. … He understands it too. I only did his training, but he played the game at a high level, so he knows what I mean when I say, or he knows because he actually did the move before, which is just a little different to me than Brad (Stevens) trying to tell me something. But Tony’s really good.”
Brown is averaging a career-high 19.9 points per game as the Celtics' third-leading scorer, also enjoying career-bests in rebounding, steals, and free-throw percentage.
