Jaylen Brown Was Philly’s Whole Offense For Seventeen Minutes

Jaylen Brown spent years getting buckets against Philadelphia. Now he’s wearing a Sixers jersey and decided the easiest way to introduce himself was putting 22 points on the defending-champion Knicks before halftime. 😂 Dude went 8-for-13 in 17 minutes, and that was basically his whole night. Philly won 120-97, VJ Edgecombe added 12 points and seven assists, and Jabari Walker gave them 11 points and 11 boards. Here's the part that actually made me look at the roster differently: LeBron James, Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid didn't even play. I'm not about to pretend beating the Knicks in an October exhibition is the same as beating them when their championship rotation is locked in. Brunson only played about 15 minutes himself. But Brown looked comfortable immediately. When a guy can come into a new team and get to his spots like he never left Boston, that's a real individual takeaway even if the final score means fuck all by November.

But the FanDuel part of this is where I really don't want us getting ahead of ourselves. Brown was getting his shots with three massive offensive names in street clothes. Add LeBron, Embiid and Maxey and those same possessions aren't just waiting around for Jaylen to take them. So the question for me isn't whether Brown can score. We already knew that shit. It's what his shot volume looks like when the entire offense is actually healthy, and whether Edgecombe can keep those assist opportunities once the usage gets spread around. Brown's 22 points might be impressive, but it's not a clean projection for an over without minutes and role. And the ugly thing about this game is Ariel Hukporti suffering a torn Achilles; that's another reminder that this stuff is more than entertainment and a bet slip. I want to see Philly healthy and see how Nick Nurse makes five different dudes who need the ball work together. That will tell us way more than one easy preseason win.

22 in 17 is a hell of an entrance. It ain't a regular-season prop projection.6IX / WHAT I'M TAKING AWAY