Jaylen Brown career points: Why is Celtics forward nearly 1500 points behind Jayson Tatum? Explaining scoring disparity
Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have been the Boston Celtics' undisputed leaders and the franchise's best chance of claiming a record 18th NBA championship. On Saturday, Tatum became the youngest Boston player to reach the 10,000-point mark and the 10th NBA player to do that before his 26th birthday.
Following his 32-point game against the Brooklyn Nets, Jayson Tatum has now scored 10,016 points in his career. Meanwhile, Jaylen Brown has scored 8,541 points in his career.
Tatum joined the league in 2017 as the third overall pick and quickly became a focal point in Celtics' offense. After his first two years (13.9 ppg and 15.7 ppg, respectively), he elevated his game and became Boston's leader. Since 2019, Tatum has averaged 23.4 ppg, 26.4 ppg, 26.9 ppg, 30.1 ppg and 30.2 ppg in the last five seasons.
For his part, Jaylen Brown joined the NBA a year before Tatum did (2016), but it took him three years to become a major part of Boston's offense.
In his first three seasons, he had averages of 6.6 ppg, 14.5 ppg and 13.0 ppg. From the 2019-20 season onwards, though, he improved his numbers tremendously and averaged 20.3 ppg, 24.7 ppg, 23.6 ppg, 26.6 ppg and 22.6 ppg.
Still, his numbers were below Tatum's, which explains why Brown trails his teammate by 1,500 points in career numbers.
This year, Jayson Tatum is averaging 30.2 ppg, 9.6 rpg and 3.4 apg, on 55.0 percent from the field and 45.2 percent from three. Meanwhile, Jaylen Brown has averages of 22.6 ppg, 6.0 rpg and 2.6 apg, on 44.7 percent from the field and 36.1 percent from beyond the arc.
Jaylen Brown addresses NBA In-Season Tournament
The Boston Celtics will play their opening game in the NBA In-Season Tournament on Friday when they take on the Brooklyn Nets at TD Garden.
Jaylen Brown addressed the inaugural edition of the tournament and whether he believes it will give extra motivation to the players. He told reporters Saturday:
"The whole idea behind it was to try to create some more revenue, get more fans watching, get people more engaged. It’s a long season.
"Around this time of the year, the viewership takes a big dip, turns the fans watching and people participating. So this is a way to try to re-engage the fans, re-engage the players and hopefully make for better business down the line. It’s definitely mixed reviews all amongst the league."
Following their 124-114 road win over the Nets (3-3), the Boston Celtics remain the only undefeated team in the NBA and lead the way in the East with a 5-0 record.