Insider: Jaylen Brown Has ‘Good Chance’ For Career-High Scoring

ESPN’s Andre Snellings and Eric Moody recently revealed “one bet to make” on each NBA team ahead of the 2025-26 season.

For the Boston Celtics, Snellings said that taking Jaylen Brown’s odds (per ESPN BET) of averaging 28-plus points per game (+225) is “solid value.”

Much of this argument has to do with the fact that Celtics top scorer Jayson Tatum is expected to miss most, if not all of the season as he recovers from a torn Achilles.

“Brown will be Boston’s top scoring option this season with Jayson Tatum out injured. Over the past two seasons, when Brown played without Tatum his scoring average increased from 22.2 PPG to 26.8 PPG. Expect Brown to take a good chunk of Tatum’s 20.3 field goal attempts per game this season, and with the team featuring him, those looks should come from advantageous spots,” Snellings wrote. “Brown has averaged as many as 26.6 PPG over a season (2023-24) while playing next to Tatum, and he has a good chance to set new career marks this season.”

Interestingly, “JB’s” odds for averaging 26-plus points per contest are at -175. Brown’s only time scoring that much was during that 2023-24 campaign (26.6 points), with his next highest average coming in his first All-Star season (2020-21) when he posted 24.7 points per game.

The 28-year-old also has the 10th-best odds (+5000) in the league to lead the NBA in scoring in 2025-26, behind a quartet of MVPs in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid, among others. Brown is notably ahead of the likes of Victor Wembanyama, Donovan Mitchell, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry as well as a host of others on that list.

If the former third overall pick wants to set a new career-high in scoring and help lead Boston to the playoffs, his health will be crucial.

Brown is currently nursing a hamstring injury and is questionable for the team’s first game of the season, Wednesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers.