Three major changes to the Celtics' offense without Jaylen Brown

With the news that Jaylen Brown's hip flexor injury will keep him from at least one more contest, I wanted to examine how the team's offense changes without him on the floor. Brown's injury has clearly impacted his game (his field goal percentage is far worse from almost anywhere on the court), so hopefully some rest will do him some good.

However, the show goes on. Taking last year into account, we have a pretty good example of how the team's style is changing without Brown, so let's break it down.

Less rim pressure and fewer free items

Jaylen Brown leads the Celtics in drives per game this season with 13.3, almost twice as many as Jayson Tatum's second-place finish at 7.6 (the gap wasn't as big last year, but Brown still led with 10.1 to Tatum's 9.1).

In a related note, Synergy says Boston as a team only played eight isolation plays in each of the Atlanta and Charlotte games; In the previous six games they had averaged 15.8.

And of course, fewer drives mean fewer free throws. The Celtics are far more likely to get a blowout if Brown is on the court. He creates a lot of free throws himself, but forcing the defense into rotation also makes it easier for other Celtics to attack defenders out of position and make free throws as well.

More passing

If you have fewer isolations, it makes sense that you would have more passes, right? This is perhaps the change that is most visible to the naked eye.

In general, Boston's offense is not particularly pass-heavy and has ranked in the bottom half of the league every year during coach Joe Mazzulla's tenure. Of course, this isn't an indictment of the record-breaking offensive system; The Celtics simply don't have to work as hard as other teams to get a good shot!

Brown's role is far more about finishing a game than being a playmaker, and he has the fewest number of net passes on the team (he receives 46 passes per game but only completes 31). However, without Brown's ability to get to the rim, the team does They need to create more openings through passes than through creating on the ball. In the last two games without Brown, the team averaged nearly 15 more passes per game. This is neither good nor bad, but it is noteworthy.

A climb in three steps

To compensate for Brown's lack of on-ball creation, the team is shooting tons more threes – this year, the Celtics' three-point attempt rate increases by 9.9% when Brown is off the floor, a huge change in the litter diet. Last year the change was more than 5%. (This also partially explains Boston making fewer free throw attempts without Brown).

With the loss, Brown spreads his shots among the Celtics' other capable players, each of whom (except Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta) shot more than half of their three-point attempts (compared to Brown's relatively low 30%). Sixth Man of the Year candidate Payton Pritchard increased his scoring output from 14.7 points with Brown to 20 in the two games without him despite playing an identical minute load, and last year it was an even bigger jump!

In summary, the Celtics are focusing even more on their long-range accuracy, even if this requires a little more passing ability. The team's offense has never struggled with or without Brown (they went 12-0 without him last year and are undefeated in two games this year), but things look a little different.

Brown's head-down attacks to the basket are a key source of the Celtics' offense, especially on the rare occasions when the three-pointer doesn't fall. In the playoffs, having as many opportunities to score points as possible remains paramount. But going into the regular season, we have plenty of evidence that the team can survive without him for short periods of time.