From Chris Forsberg:

On the final day of offseason workouts, right before the Boston Celtics shifted into training camp mode in late September, head coach Joe Mazzulla huddled all of the team’s youngest players in his office for lunch and a chat about the upcoming season.

The collective NBA experience at the table was minimal among a group that spent the dog days of summer grinding away inside the Auerbach Center. At least it was until an uninvited guest slipped into an open chair.

Jaylen Brown, the four-time All-Star and NBA Finals MVP who has played more postseason games (135) than the Raptors have in the entire 30-year existence (123), wanted to listen in on the conversation, and eventually offered his own advice to the team’s newest faces.

“He didn’t have to come, you know? But he came and he listened to what Joe was saying and he gave us some advice going into the season,” said rookie two-way guard Max Shulga. “His leadership is on a very high level and is showing every day.”

Brown easily could have disappeared this summer. Entering his 10th NBA season, he is a certified veteran who could have rehabbed from offseason knee surgery anywhere in the world. Instead, he chose to largely hang in Brighton.

What’s more, he organized multiple team-bonding events with Boston’s youngest players, including field trips to concerts and sporting events. Shortly after that end-of-summer meeting in Mazzulla’s office, Brown chaperoned a trip down to Foxboro to mingle with Robert Kraft and a bunch of the Patriots’ Lombardi trophies.

“We’ve got a lot of ground to make up,” said Brown. “Half of our team, half of our rotation is gone. People think you can just get out there on the court and make magic happen. It doesn’t always work like that. So you’ve got to build chemistry. You have to get to know guys, build trust. And some of that takes time, sometimes.

“I’m trying to accelerate some of those learning curves. Just getting guys together for events – football games, concerts, whatever – to spend some more time with each other. Because that kind of has a determinant of what you guys see in the product, is how much chemistry we have.”

Read more here.

Man, Brown’s been saying all the right stuff. He may not always have the efficiency we want, but he’s setting an example for everyone. He’s embracing the role he’s been put into and definitely saying all the right things. I could be wrong, but I feel like we are about to see an upstart IT-led Celtics type of season from this team.

All I want out of Brown is to not do too much. If he tries to take over the game with iso ball, it’s not going to go well or be fun to watch. Let the rest of the team pick up the slack of playing without Tatum.

We all love Jaylen Brown 💚 so blessed