Brogdon's Leadership Will Be Key For The Celtics This Season

With all the outside distractions heading into this season, Malcolm Brogdon's heady brand of basketball has the potential to be a much-needed stabilizing force for Boston.

There is something to be said for experience as a leader, particularly when you're dealing with an unusual amount of outside noise like the Boston Celtics will this season.

That's how it goes when your head coach (Ime Udoka) is suspended for the year, one of your biggest offseason pick-ups (Danilo Gallinari) suffered a knee injury that'll keep him out for most of the season and the most athletic big on the roster (Robert Williams) won't be available until, at the earliest, Thanksgiving.

It's enough to torpedo a team's chances at soaring toward an NBA title, before they even take off.

And while the Celtics have a number of talented players who will be looked upon as leaders, Malcolm Brogdon's steady presence as a talented baller who seems to always wind up in positions of leadership, which may be the most important trait he provides the Celtics this season.

But he's too smart and too savvy a vet to come in and just try and force his brand of leadership down the throats of his new teammates.

"You have to pick your spots," Brogdon said. "Guys like Marcus (Smart), Al (Horford), they're vocal leaders. It's about making sure I'm not talking too much where I drown out, or too little where guys don't know I'm there."

In his seventh NBA season, Brogdon has shown no signs of struggling to find that happy medium when it comes to being a team leader.

A second-round pick by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2017, Brogdon quickly emerged as one of the team's leaders with his play and poise. And he did so in historic fashion as the first, second-round pick since 1965 to win the NBA's coveted Rookie of the Year award.

In 2019, Brogdon was the centerpiece of a sign-and-trade that sent him to Indiana. And once again, Brogdon found himself front-and-center as a key cog not only in his play but also as an example for younger players to emulate.

He led the Pacers in scoring each of the last two seasons and will be counted on to provide a much-needed offensive punch off the Celtics bench this season.

Before becoming teammates, Jaylen Brown thought highly of Brogdon as a player. But competing with him in practice on a regular basis, Brown's appreciation for Brogdon's skills on the floor has grown.

"Malcolm's good, smart basketball player," Brown said. "He's good, hard to guard. He's got a sneaky game that's been slept on a little bit for a while. We'll be able to put him in positions where he can be successful and for sure make us better."

Indeed, Brogdon's scoring ability will be a boost to a Celtics team that at times last season, struggled to generate much offense from its second unit.

But in Boston's quest to win an NBA title this year, Brogdon's leadership will be one of the keys to the Celtics effectively not allowing the outside noise surrounding the team and Udoka's unexpected departure, to impact the team's chances at winning this season.

"Stay locked in on what we're doing every day; trust in each other; continuing to build," Brogdon said when I asked him about dealing with off-the-court distractions. "You can't skip steps. You can't control what's going on, you can't control the noise. You just focus on what you can control and that's our focus each and every day."