How Jaylen Brown's approach, more than scoring, is what will fuel a Celtics' resurgence this season

He's far from a perfect player, but his approach to the game mentally is exactly what the Celtics need to get out of what has been a season-long malaise of mediocrity.

Jaylen Brown was everything for the Boston Celtics in the team’s first game in the year 2022, a 116-111 overtime win against the Orlando Magic.

He scored like he had never scored before, finishing with a career-high 50 points to become just the seventh player in the storied franchise’s history to do so.

“I didn’t feel like those guys could stay in front of me,” Brown said after the historic win. “I was just going to keep getting to the basket, keep blowing by them off the first step.”

Rebounding was on high alert as well, with him snatching down 11 to become just the fourth Celtics player in franchise history to score 50 or more points and grab double-digit rebounds in the same game.

It’s obvious to anyone who has seen Brown play that he has to become a better playmaker. In the overtime win against Orlando, yes, he had a career-high 50 points. But he also turned the ball over a career-high seven times while racking up just four assists.

For the season, Brown is averaging more turnovers (3.2) per game than assists (2.7).

Ouch!

And while Brown’s turnover-to-assist ratio is cringe-worthy, there’s beauty behind what he is attempting to do most nights, the kind of thing that will serve him and the Celtics well going forward.

That beauty is Brown’s fearless approach to the game.

He is far from a perfect player when he’s on the floor, even while currently averaging more than 24 points per game which is similar numbers to those he posted last year when he was an All-Star.

But Brown’s approach is a fearless one; the kind says a lot about where his head is at in Boston’s process towards once again becoming one of the top-tier teams in the East.

“You can’t be afraid to make mistakes,” Brown said after his career night scoring the ball. “You have to continue to keep playing, keep being aggressive regardless of whatever the situation, however the game may go.”

He’s right.

Too many times, Brown has had teammates whose play was sandwiched somewhere between being timid, and just flat-out playing scared and intimidated.

Forget about winning basketball.

You can't even compete if you're playing scared or fearful.

Of course, having that mindset in itself won't win games all the time.

There have been games and there will continue to be games in which Brown will make decisions that will cross over from the lane of being fearless, into the ongoing traffic of foolery.

He knows this.

And there will be other games like the one we saw on Sunday against Orlando when Brown’s aggressiveness will lead to a historic performance and a Celtics win.

He knows that too and isn’t shy about taking a victory lap or two.

There’s a balance that has to be struck between the two, no doubt.

Figuring out what that is, becomes even more complicated when you throw in the fact that Brown is also playing with another on-the-rise All-Star in Jayson Tatum who, like Brown, also has an evolving role in the team’s success going forward.

It is a challenge, one that Brown is more than up to meeting head-on.

And he’ll do it the way he has done everything in his NBA career thus far - without fear.