The "Seventh-Best Player" Call on Jaylen Brown and Why the League Has No Answers
Okay, Seattle, we need to talk. We all know how bonkers the NBA trade machine can get, but what's happening with Jaylen Brown right now? It's not just confusing, it’s downright baffling. One minute, a team is building around him, adding pieces to the margins. The next? They’re fielding every single trade call. But forget the back-and-forth for a sec, because there’s a take floating around the league that’s so off-the-wall, it makes you question everything.
"Holy Crap," Is Right!
The league is definitely split on Brown's value, especially with him coming off his best season as a pro and being a Finals MVP just two years ago. Boston's Brad Stevens is out here asking for a king’s ransom, treating Brown like he’s prime LeBron James. Meanwhile, other teams, probably Portland excluded because they seem super keen, are doing their best to tank his value through the media to get a discount. Typical negotiation tactics, right? But then, ESPN’s Bobby Marks, a former Nets assistant GM, dropped a bomb on SiriusXM that makes all that look sane.
Trade on Every Game with Kalshi
Click Here to sign up to Kalshi — Free $10 when you sign up using our link or use code: ONTAPSEA. The only federally regulated prediction market in the US. Trade on real sports outcomes. Available in all 50 states.
Marks relayed an evaluation from an "analytics guy," not even an executive, who said this about Brown: "yea we view him as like a seventh-best player on a team." Wait, what?! A *seventh-best player*? Bobby Marks’ reaction said it all: "I was like holy crap." Yeah, Bobby, "holy crap" is precisely what we’re all thinking here in the Emerald City. The analytics are "not good," apparently, but sometimes the eye test, the one we all use watching the games, tells a very different story.
Are We Watching The Same Sport?
Look, we can debate all day if Jaylen Brown is a number one, a number two, or even a solid number three option on a team. I’ll listen to that discussion. But anyone, and I mean *anyone*, who thinks a player of Brown's caliber should be the *second guy off the bench* needs to have their talent evaluation license revoked. That’s one of the worst assessments I’ve ever heard, and it tells me that analytics guy is working for a team that’s probably never going to sniff a championship.
The only way Brown is the seventh-best player on a team is if we’re talking an All-NBA roster, and even then, he was voted sixth-best! Even if you want to say media evaluations are different than internal team ones, there’s no universe where he slides that far. Honestly, this kind of wild take just gives Brown more ammo for his whole anti-analytics crusade, and who can blame him?
This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.