Brian Scalabrine says Jaylen Brown is already an elite transition player in the NBA

On a recent The Vertical podcast with Chris Mannix, CSNNE's Brian Scalabrine had some very high praise for Celtics rookie Jaylen Brown, calling him one of the best transition players in the NBA:

Here's what he is: He's an elite transition player--not for a rookie, for an NBA player he's elite. Now obviously there's LeBron James and [Andre] Iguodala ... there's a group of people who are better than him, I understand that. He's already in that upper echelon on the break. Just watch him when he explodes to the rim, even when to take off and how to read maybe [when to] crossover into the open court or maybe just a straight attack to the basket, he's really good at that. Great first step, obviously that first step will improve as his jumper improves.

Scalabrine elaborated on how lucky Brown is to have the chance to develop with a deep and well established squad like Boston, a place where he won't be counted on to carry the load right away:

This is the perfect team for him. ... If you put him in a [different] situation where you're like 'here's the ball do something else' I don't know that his year would be as productive as we will see his year [be].

Scal may be getting a bit ahead of himself calling Brown's transition game "elite," but hey, the kid is only 19.  "Very good" will do just fine.



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