Jaylen Brown, Cal

Age: 19 years old     Size: 6’7, 223 pounds

Last Year’s Stats: 14.6 points; 5.4 rebounds; 2.0 assists per game

Percentages: 43.1% from the field; 29.4% from three-point; 65.4% from the free throw line

There is no player in the NBA draft outside of the consensus top two picks who has better physical tools than Jaylen Brown. Being 6-foot-7 and 225 pounds, while sporting an overwhelming seven-foot wingspan at 19 years old, is staggering. Brown has elite athletic ability. He can float among the stars, while blowing by you with his quickness and impeccable body control. He possesses the most effortless and powerful ability to go hoop to hoop in college basketball last year.

The first thing you need to know about Jaylen Brown is that he not just an athlete. He is so intelligent, an NBA executive once dubbed him “too smart for the league.” His unquenchable curiosity and incredible IQ has been perceived as a negative to some, which is utterly baffling. He may not fall into the normal criteria of an NBA player, but to find a prospect that was taking graduate classes as a freshman at one of the most prestigious non-Ivy League schools in the country should not be taken as a negative but as a massive positive. Brown is so high minded he was taking Global Poverty and Student Activism as a freshman so that he would be able to help homelessness and poverty in the United States. Prospects like him are almost non-existent.

Not only is he representing himself after interviewing five well-known agents, but he has created a panel, of sorts, consisting of Hall of Famer Isaiah Thomas and Cal Berkley star Shareef Abdur-Rahim to help him as advisors while he learns the NBA collective bargaining agreement himself. He had a fantastic quote with The Undefeated explaining his representation.

“The resources I have and the people around me have all done this before,” Brown said. “Isiah Thomas has been through it. Shareef Abdur-Rahim has been through it. I’ve got educators, teachers with Ph.D.s, that are scholars who [are] around helping me out and advising me. I know they know what they are doing and what they are talking about.”

When talking about Brown’s offensive game it all starts with his athletic ability. He is a terror in transition, with or without the ball. He has strong hands and a ridiculous 8-foot-9 standing reach. He makes his living as a slasher and getting to the free throw line. Brown is elite when in space and has absolutely no fear when going to the rim. He has incredible body control when focused. Brown could be elite going to the rim if he can polish his court awareness.

Brown as a defensive player is a slightly more muddled discussion. He has shown the ability to do truly whatever he wants on the defensive end of the floor. Brown possesses the quickness to lock down guards on the perimeter and close out so quickly it’s as if he teleported. He is strong and wide enough to switch onto power forwards in the post and hold his own, as well as box out and secure the defensive rebound. A player who has the physical ability to guard four different positions is one of the most desirable traits and can transform a team’s philosophy. If he can reach that potential is another argument.

On the other hand, Jaylen Brown has some large issues with his court awareness. For all the talent Brown has, he loses focus on defense far too often, whether on or off the ball. He misses rotations and forgets to help weak-side consistently. A lot of these awareness issues are not a basketball IQ problem; they seem to stem from the fact that Brown has been able to get by based on pure athletic ability.

This had led to deficiencies in many different areas. Brown has good handles but tries too much with the ball in his hands. He has decent shooting mechanics but they are not consentient. He tends to fade either direction or force up tough shots. This may have a lot to do with the awful spacing that Cal had this year on offense, but shooting only 43.1 percent from the field and 29.4 percent from three-point is not acceptable for an NBA wing of his caliber.

Whether or not Brown reaches his potential will mostly depend on which team drafts him. He is not ready to contribute to a winning team right away and will have an obnoxious amount of rookie mistakes in his first season. When it comes to the Nuggets, I like his fit more for long-term purposes rather then for right now. Having two non-shooters is going to lead to spacing issues that may not be cured very easily.

Jaylen Brown’s upside is too much to pass on with the seventh pick. Michael Malone may be the perfect coach to tighten up his game and is just as curious and driven as his potential seventh pick. Combining Malone’s defensive chops with Brown has the potential to change Nuggets basketball.