Jaylen Brown’s raw playoff numbers were close to last season, when he was the Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals MVP: 22.3 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists a game, although his efficiency was down and he didn’t have the same explosiveness. Still, when the Celtics needed him, Brown stepped up with 26 points and 12 assists in Boston’s Game 5 win, and he was a solid 20 points with six rebounds and six assists in Game 6.
Now we know why he was off a little this postseason — he was playing through a partially torn meniscus, a story broken by Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.
He will be evaluated this week to determine if surgery is needed, sources said. ESPN previously reported that Brown had received pain injections in his knee. Those injections began in March, sources said.
In March Brown was out for six games over a 13-game span due to a “right knee posterior impingement,” He also sat out the final three games of the regular season. In early April he told NBC Sports Boston the pain was ongoing but he was going to play through it.
“I’ve had to come to grips that every night I’m not gonna feel my normal self,” Brown said at the time, “but that doesn’t mean I still can’t make plays and things like that. So, it’s just something that we are working through.”
Even if Butler needs surgery, he should be recovered and ready to go by the start of training camp.
Brad Stevens and the Celtics front office face some difficult decisions this offseason. If they just ran it back, the payroll and luxury taxes — Boston is well into the second apron — would exceed $500 million. There had been an expectation that Boston would trim a more expensive rotation player or two next season to bring down those costs even before Jayson Tatum ruptured his Achilles. Now with the Celtics’ best player out for much, if not all, of next season, that retooling may be larger with Al Horford and Jrue Holiday players considered very possibly on the move. There had been speculation the Celtics might even test the trade market for Brown, seeing if a good team with young players and picks — Houston and San Antonio — might trade for a veteran wing who has been a Finals MVP.
A meniscus injury isn’t going to slow that talk down any.
