Jaylen Brown reviews week one of training camp

As the longest-tenured Celtic begins his eighth season, Jaylen Brown gave glimpses to what the first couple days have looked like with the new-look team.

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Jaylen Brown is no stranger to his team making changes and overhauling the roster.

The 26-year-old former California Golden Bear was a huge talk of the NBA world this past summer. He inked the largest contract in NBA History with his five-year, $304 million supermax extension. The swingman has had an evolution to his skillset unlike any other considering where he was at his rookie year to now.

Last season, Brown recorded his second All-Star appearance, and he made his first All-NBA team as a second-teamer. He was amongst NBA league leaders in field goals made (top-six) and total points scored. He also had an unbelievable postseason run, just before he was at the helm and forefront of Boston's ship collapsing in the East Finals against the Miami Heat.

Miami made Brown play into his weaknesses. His porous ball-handing during Boston's attempt to pull off history in game 7 created beyond exaggerated memes throughout the summer.

Only adding more fuel to the fire, Brown said he had never worked harder this offseason. Fitting with a couple of things: the noise of his underwhelming Conference Finals performance and the changes in the Celtics roster as there is now a call for his voice to be more prominent. Lastly, of course, the bag he just got.

The Celtics' leader understands that the Celtics' everlasting investment and security does not coexist with comfort. Taking on more duties this year, it's time to keep growing.

"I wouldn't say comfort is the right thing, if anything, it's more work to do," said Brown. "It's like, I'm turning it up now. I don't think comfort is the right word, but definitely, more of an excitement. I don't know what the right word is, but, all I know is I'm ready. I'm ready to go, I'm ready to get back on the floor, I'm ready to start the journey."

Boston slipped from the No. 2 defense in the league throughout last year's regular season to No. 10 in the playoffs. Brown and the Celtics understand the task ahead, acknowledging Marcus Smart and Robert and Grant Williams' departures to re-create themselves. The noise of last season's offensive focus tied with their heart and soul being gone has motored Boston's typical defensive-mindset with the new additions.

"Smart's departure, before we got Jrue (Holiday), we made sure we didn't slide on that side of the ball," the two-time All-Star said. "Smart was our defensive emphasis, our defensive quarterback, and I think we needed that going into the season. So, I took that as a challenge for myself that I could be better on that end of the ball, so I was preparing my body to be ready for the offensive burden, but also the defensive one, for longer parts of the year."

Brown, one of the best two-way players in the NBA for quite some time now, provided perspective on what the mentality is like throughout the season.

"It's hard to maintain that; to be a two-way player for a duration of a year," he said. "It's a lot of energy and effort, but, you know, I prepared in the summertime, I'll be that."

Brown continued to give insight on defensive philosophies.

"Being great defensively is a great thing as a team," said Brown. "It puts you in games, it allows you to, you know, even if you do make a mistake, somebody there to cover your back. Everybody just making reads and playing off each other." 

Brown wants all the new faces to feel comfortable in their own strengths.

"That's the environment we want to build," added Brown. "We want to bring what guys are good at, we want to bring it out of them. The on-ball pressure, KP blocking shots, JT being long in those passing-lanes, you know, me blowing-up screens, Al being long to contest, and we're playing to each other's strengths on defense as well. Sending guys to where we want them to go, but try to dictate it on that end of the ball."

Brown knows there may be some question of how long it could take to gel with the new look of the Celtics at the helm of the core. He assured there will not be any delay or issue with the learning curve being quicker than most expect.

"It's gonna take some time, but we still have some chemistry to do, some team-building to do, so we can get comfortable with each other out on the floor," he said. "We've done a good job of setting the tone, making what we want to emphasize, emphasize. It could be faster than most people expect."

He went on to paint the picture of what that learning curve is.

"Trust and chemistry are like, the most important," he said. "Building an offense and defense. What guys tendencies are, what guys like to do. Sometimes you want to take the hesitation out of it, make the game easier. I wanna know where KP wants to get the ball, I want to know what Jrue, what spots he feels comfortable in, build some chemistry between each other and ultimately, just work to get better."

The championship expectation is in full effect. The feeling and hunger on display between everyone of the Celtics at the Auerbach facility is evident. Brown feels the intensity and the eagerness stemming from the hunger and desperation, but he knows it is a day-by-day focus requiring one step at a time.

"We (are) focusing on one day at a time," he said. "We just trying to be the best version of ourselves, we just trying to push each other, we not trying to skip no steps. You gotta focus on every day, you can't look at the end goal, and we'll see where we're at when we get there. I'm gonna make sure everyone is engaged, every single day more throughout the year. Even myself, challenging myself to do that. It's a long season, It's a long year, you don't want to go into autopilot and just run through the finish-line. It's gonna be great, I'm excited."

The Celtics open up their preseason exhibition play tomorrow night at TD Garden against the Philadelphia 76ers on ESPN, 6 p.m. EST.