When Jaylen Brown returned for the Celtics after a three-game absence, he found his team on a three-game winning streak. It was a loud bit of coincidence. Boston’s sudden turn in fortune wasn’t really about Brown, in part because so little with the Celtics had been. One of the most fascinating young players in the league had become one of its preeminent wallflowers. To even notice Brown became a sort of indictment—evidence that his game, on that particular night, had tilted so far out of its usual balance as to command attention.
Brown, more than any other Celtic, has seen his game shaped to fit over the past year.