{"id":421613,"date":"2025-12-03T10:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T10:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/421613\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T10:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T10:41:10","slug":"jaylen-brown-praises-young-celtics-starter-playing-like-a-grown-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/421613\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaylen Brown praises young Celtics starter: \u2018Playing like a grown man\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 Jordan Walsh started the season barely able to get off the Celtics bench<\/a>. He played in just four total minutes across three games in October. The C\u2019s tinkered with their lineups and rotations early on, but Walsh just didn\u2019t get off the bench much.<\/p>\n

But the third-year wing has blossomed over the past few weeks, starting the last nine games. His crunch-time play popped off in the Celtics\u2019 win over the Knicks<\/a> on Tuesday at TD Garden. Walsh was seemingly everywhere making a play to fend off New York\u2019s comeback attempt. He\u2019s credited Jaylen Brown<\/a> for some of his development, and the C\u2019s star praised the young wing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m starting to see Jordan playing like a grown man,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s amazing to see. Just from him coming out of his shell. Being aggressive. He\u2019s learning every day. So I\u2019m loving it.\u201d<\/p>\n

C\u2019s coach Joe Mazzulla turned to Walsh midway through the fourth quarter to help close the game. Walsh did it all from the moment he checked back into the game. On back-to-back C\u2019s possessions, he scrapped for an offensive rebound and put-back bucket. Then he got a steal on the Knicks. Then he got another offensive rebound off a Derrick White missed 3-pointer. <\/p>\n

On the more subtle side, Mazzulla said there was an \u201cevolution\u201d aspect for both Walsh and Josh Minott<\/a>. The Knicks started doubling the red-hot Brown, who was on his way to a season-high 42 points. So when Brown passed out of the double team to a wide-open Walsh, he made the right read that led to open 3s for Minott.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more just a read,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cUsually JB\u2019s the guy in the middle and making the play through the seam. It ended up being me and Josh a lot tonight. I ended up finding him, he hit a 3. I found him again and he didn\u2019t make it. But we got good possessions out of it. I think it was just the flow of the game, making the right read, being aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh\u2019s improvements have been evident in real-time. He\u2019s earning his first real taste of a rotation spot and making the most of it every night. Walsh\u2019s abilities defensively have been eye-opening. His length, physicality and instincts have caused issues for stars across the league.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still a long way to go for the 21-year-old, but the early returns have impressed. He figures to be part of the Celtics\u2019 future even beyond this season. The smaller things, like making the right reads, is also crucial for when Jayson Tatum is back on the court at full strength. Being able to play complementary basketball with the Celtics stars \u2014 like he did with Brown \u2014 should go a long way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m way more calm, way more focused and obviously has slowed down a lot since my rookie year,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cI was a mess rookie year. I was just running around.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 Jordan Walsh started the season barely able to get off the Celtics bench. He played in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":421614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-421613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115655218614918220","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}