Now that we have the 3rd overall pick

[Eja117]

This is the closest I can find to a poll of who we all wanted Ainge to pick.

Kudos to the one poster who picked Brown.

I picked Hield.

To be fair Hield and Jamaal Murray are both doing quite well. I think we would have quite possibly been happy with them but in retrospect it would have added to a logjam while this year's top picks are all guards.

However...also to be fair.... we couldn't have really predicted the incredible improvement this year from every single one of our guards. Nobody knew Avery's passing, rebounding, and scoring would all improve. Nobody knew Rozier would improve. Nobody knew IT would go from borderline all star to borderline MVP. Nobody knew Smart would improve his shooting and playmaking.

[smokeablount]

Yep, I had never seen Jaylen play and the analytics crowd hate for him led to me siding with Hield, despite it going against a tactic I really like, which is to go with teenage talent that was top 3-5 in a given high school class.  This is one pick that I'm glad DA made, and I didn't, much as I'd love to be GM of the Celtics.

[csfansince60s]

I wasn't sold on Brown.

I had watched him play a bunch of times on PAC12 Network last year, and wasn't impressed.

One game at AZ which Danny attended and Walton did the PAC12N coverage on, he especially looked unimpressive. Walton was raving about him, though in a really strong way and made a big deal about Ainge being there at the game.

Turns out Cal's offensive scheme(s) (if there were more than 1) really sucked in the half court. The coach had Jaylen in the corner at the 3point line and had him either shoot or drive, with no motion in the offense. Jaylen forced a lot on his drives, often keyed on with 2-3 guys on the D and would barrel into the lane either pushing off with his arm or lowering his shoulder for the O foul.

Lucky for us Ainge saw a lot more than others, me especially.

EDIT: In retrospect, I'm not sure that I would trade him right now for anyone in that class, considering Simmons injury. 

[A Future of Stevens]

I wasn't sold on Brown.

I had watched him play a bunch of times on PAC12 Network last year, and wasn't impressed.

One game at AZ which Danny attended and Walton did the PAC12N coverage on, he especially looked unimpressive. Walton was raving about him, though in a really strong way and made a big deal about Ainge being there at the game.

Turns out Cal's offensive scheme(s) (if there were more than 1) really sucked in the half court. The coach had Jaylen in the corner at the 3point line and had him either shoot or drive, with no motion in the offense. Jaylen forced a lot on his drives, often keyed on with 2-3 guys on the D and would barrel into the lane either pushing off with his arm or lowering his shoulder for the O foul.

Lucky for us Ainge saw a lot more than others, me especially.

As soon as we made the pick, I dove into Cal's offensive schemes, and one thing became obviously clear. Their spacing and designs just did not fit Jaylen. Basically nobody on that team could score very well outside, and their only other good player (Rabb) was mostly an inside or post player. As you pointed out, Brown was almost always keyed on. As primarily a driver, its very hard to drive when everyone knows that's what you are going to do.

I honestly think one of the biggest reasons Jaylen has come on strong, is that he actually looks like a threat to score from deep. Players have to close out, and Jaylen is gone at that point. Plus our spacing is great for his development. I thought that the Horford signing (while designed for Durant) would help Jaylen's development immensely.

[footey]

 I thought the 2017 lottery occurred prematurely when I first read this, LOL.  Josh Jackson.

[Moranis]

I didn't see this thread, but I was a trade the pick guy and would have selected Bender if we kept the pick.  Still very early for Bender, but Brown thus far looks like the better player.

[clevelandceltic]

I wasn't sold on Brown.

I had watched him play a bunch of times on PAC12 Network last year, and wasn't impressed.

One game at AZ which Danny attended and Walton did the PAC12N coverage on, he especially looked unimpressive. Walton was raving about him, though in a really strong way and made a big deal about Ainge being there at the game.

Turns out Cal's offensive scheme(s) (if there were more than 1) really sucked in the half court. The coach had Jaylen in the corner at the 3point line and had him either shoot or drive, with no motion in the offense. Jaylen forced a lot on his drives, often keyed on with 2-3 guys on the D and would barrel into the lane either pushing off with his arm or lowering his shoulder for the O foul.

Lucky for us Ainge saw a lot more than others, me especially.

EDIT: In retrospect, I'm not sure that I would trade him right now for anyone in that class, considering Simmons injury.

I know exactly what game you are talking about. He had a terrible game at ASU at well. That weekend started a slide that lasted through the end of the season which was the conference tourney and NCAA.

I was actually sold on Brown a long time ago. I started watching him as junior in HS. Was a very explosive player in HS. Saw 1 or 2 o his AAU games. A few HS games. His all star games. When Rabb committed to Cal I was hoping Brown would go there as well because I had seen Rabb play a few times and thought it would be a good fit. Once Brown committed to Cal I ordered the Pac -12 network just to watch him play. I even watched their preseason Australia games to see how he had progressed. I dont know how many random night I was up to 1 watching them play. I probably watched 30 of their 33 reg season games.

Anyways, I rarely paid attention to the stats after awhile because honestly they didnt really tell the story. I was only looking for ways he was getting better. There were some standout obvious things that were unique to his time at Cal that hadnt shown up in many other places. Jaylen is great in transition but Cal never ran. He was used to getting to the rim but there was little space to work. People always talk about him playing with 2 bigs but Tyrone Wallace could not shoot and it was something Jaylen struggled with so you can imagine some of the problems.

I guess what Im saying here is that you really have to go back to HS to start to get a feel for some of these guys. I look at the NCAA as a measure of how a player is playing in relation to when I first saw them.

This year my top 3 is Fultz, Tatum, Jackson in that order. I think Fultz has come a very long way since I first saw him which says he really works on his game. Should be interesting come draft time.
 

[clevelandceltic]

Oh the one other thing that I would add to my comments is that alot of those charges where due to lack of space but many were also due this his struggles shooting off the dribble at the top of the key. Those one maybe 2 dribble pull ups. He really struggled then and its carried over to now.

He has the ability to get to the shot, he just doesnt have enough reps to make it go in. Once this happens he could be a 20pt a game guy but this has been a long standing issue.

[PhoSita]

I would have ranked Bender or Murray ahead of Brown.  So far, Brown has been better than I expected he'd be this early in his career.  I didn't think he'd be a contributor in his first season.

It's too early to say if Brown will be better than Bender or Murray.  They're all young.  Murray has shown flashes of being a really good offensive player.  Brown has shown versatility, focus, and effort on defense and surprising polish on offense.  Bender hasn't played a lot and he's really raw, but the potential for a versatile 3-and-D 7 footer is there.