Celtics’ Jaylen Brown’s Surprising Decide for Hardest NBA Participant to Guard

[ad_1] Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown has developed into being a extremely efficient NBA participant. He is identified for being an important scorer, however he is additionally stable defensively.

That being stated, there are a variety of extraordinarily proficient gamers across the NBA.

Brown has drawn fairly a couple of very tough matchups. He has needed to guard gamers like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Luka Doncic, and lots of extra.

Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics reacts after a no foul name in opposition to the Sacramento Kings throughout the second half of an NBA basketball sport at Golden 1 Heart on March 24, 2025 in... Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics reacts after a no foul name in opposition to the Sacramento Kings throughout the second half of an NBA basketball sport at Golden 1 Heart on March 24, 2025 in Sacramento, California. Extra Picture by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Photographs Lately, Brown opened up about who the hardest participant he ever guarded was. His decide was stunning.

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So, who's essentially the most tough defensive task that Brown has gone up in opposition to? He revealed that the participant is none aside from former San Antonio Spurs guard Marco Belinelli.

"Marco Belinelli," Brown stated. "Marco Belinelli used to mild me up, bro. He simply used to by no means cease transferring and I used to must chase him round, the system we had. I used to chase Marco Belinelli round all these completely different screens, and like, he is not even getting the ball. He is nonetheless transferring backwards and forwards so that you by no means know when he is about to take off full velocity and begin operating and catch the ball however... simply fatigued bro."

Nobody would have guessed that decide in the event that they hadn't heard his reply. Belinelli is a fairly forgotten title at this cut-off date.

Belinelli performed in 860 profession video games within the NBA and made 219 begins. He performed for 9 completely different groups all through his profession.

When all was stated and executed, Belinelli had profession averages of 9.7 factors per sport to go together with 2.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists. He shot 42.4 p.c from the ground and 37.6 p.c from the three-point line.

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Greater than doubtless, Belinelli wouldn't be picked by many different NBA gamers. He merely prompted a matchup drawback for Brown because of his exercise.

Heading into the 2025-26 NBA season, Brown will likely be requested to step up into an excellent greater position with the Celtics. Jayson Tatum is about to overlook many of the season if not all of it because of a torn Achilles.

Brown will likely be requested to grow to be the No. 1 choices offensive for Boston and might want to deal with a big workload defensively as effectively. It will likely be fascinating to see if he is ready to show that he could be a high participant with out Tatum on the court docket.