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Aron Baynes of the Boston Celtics was once under Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown during their time with the Australian national team. Mo Dakhil of thejumpball.net, who also served as the national team's video coordinator recalled one incident between the two.
Funny story, in my first year with the Australian national team Baynes had shot an elbow jumper in a scrimmage. Coach stopped the scrimmage and said to him, you can't shoot that shot unless you can go 7 out of 10. Baynes went 8 for 10 that moment and coach just said fair enough
— Mo Dakhil (@MoDakhil_NBA) May 1, 2018
Dakhil continued:
It was before Baynes made it to the NBA, and that coach was Brett Brown! I won't be surprised if he adds it to this game
— Mo Dakhil (@MoDakhil_NBA) May 1, 2018
In their Game 1 win over the Sixers, Baynes had six points and six rebounds in 29 minutes. He drilled two 3-pointers in three attempts. Perhaps, he had some extra motivation as he's facing his former coach.
Baynes revealed a few months before that he's been working on his 3-point shot. Prior to 2017-18 season, Baynes had only made 1-of-7 attempts in his career.
Brown himself has not commented on the surprise performance by Baynes. But he's certainly not taking the series for granted. His strategy not only includes preparing set plays and technical basketball strategy, but he also shares some historical background to his players. Per Marc D'Amico of Celtics.com, Brown said:
“I get the history of what goes on with our two organizations intimately, and I think that it’s just incredibly exciting,” said Brown. “And so to revisit that with my young guys and show them, before we even got into sort of Xs and Os and scout tape, (the message) was really: look at the history here. Have a real sort of knowledge-base of our two organizations. It’s something historic. It’s something very special.”
