Jaylen Brown’s Fatal Flaw Isn’t Getting Any Better For Celtics
Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown doesn’t need to prove to anyone that he’s a winner. Brown has more postseason wins than a handful of franchises. He’s already snagged an NBA Finals MVP trophy and two Finals appearances before turning 30. Brown’s the real deal, so don’t get too carried away with what’s about to be said.
Among all the good things that JB brings to the table on both ends of the basketball court, and among his constant hunger for improvement, which has been evident in Brown constantly growing as a player on a yearly basis, there’s always remained one quality of Brown’s that hasn’t approved: his ball security.
Sadly, for Celtics fans who have watched Brown develop as a player in so many different facets, the fact that he still has butterfingers on a consistent basis while dribbling (particularly in traffic) suggests that this is something that Brown simply won’t ever be able to shake. It’s just a permanent part of who JB is as a player, and everyone has to accept it.
And while Brown’s sloppy dribbling is usually just a slight annoyance, it can become maddening when it begins to legitimately affect winning.
Brown’s performance against the New York Knicks on Friday was the most recent example, as he committed seven turnovers at Madison Square Garden.
Brown averages 2.1 turnovers per game for his career, and he’s not expected to turn into a turnover machine in 2025-26, by it’s still alarming to think about how this Celtics team is going to rely more heavily on JB in the coming months, which means more usage for a player who commits head-scratching giveaways off the bounce … sort of on a reliable basis.
It’s not that Jaylen’s other qualities don’t far outweigh his biggest weakness (they do, of course); it’s that Boston’s margin for error is far thinner this season, meaning that the Celts won’t ever survive a big turnover game from Jaylen like they’ve been able to in the past.
If Jaylen’s stats through two games were to hold moving forward (in regard to the turnovers), the Celtics would be in trouble. That’s a minuscule sample-size, obviously.
The mystery of Jaylen’s slippery hands has never been more difficult to ignore than it will be in 2025-26. What’s so weird about the issue is that it seems so avoidable. How can a player who is so dynamic all over the court not be able to keep his dribble consistently?
We’ll probably never know the answer.