Joe Mazzulla said he uses this stat to evaluate Jaylen Brown’s playmaking more than ‘misleading’ assists
"It's one of the most misleading things to say a guy didn't get an assist,"
Earlier this week, ESPN posted a graphic highlighting how many assists Jaylen Brown had over the Celtics’ previous two games before Tuesday night’s win against the Cavaliers.
He had zero assists against 43 shot attempts during that stretch. When asked about it during the game, Brown fired back saying that there wasn’t enough context and that people don’t actually watch the games enough to notice the little things he does to help elevate the team’s play.
Joe Mazzulla made similar comments after the game, explaining his reasoning from a statistical perspective.
“One of the most misleading stats of all-time,” Mazzulla said about assists. “You know why? You know what has to happen for you to get an assist?”
Assists depend on a teammate making a shot. No matter how good a pass is, a player isn’t credited with an assist if there isn’t a make.
“It’s one of the most misleading things to say a guy didn’t get an assist,” Mazzulla said. “That doesn’t mean he didn’t pass. That doesn’t mean he didn’t make the right read. It just mean his potential assist opportunities, those shots didn’t go in and I think that’s what’s important for our guys, what success looks like.”
A potential assist is a pass to a teammate who shoots within one dribble of receiving the ball. Brown averaged 5.5 potential assists over the two game stretch, Mazzulla said. But, because the shots weren’t made, the potential assists did not become actual assists.
“In reality, we don’t need him to average more potential assists,” Mazzulla said. “We need him to score. We need to put him in position to where he can get out in transition and get those easy passes and get inside the paint. And so, I made sure I talked with him about that…40 threes or whatever it was and zero assists, but here are your potential assists and here are are the two or three possessions where you may have been able to make another play.”
Brown had four assists in Tuesday’s game. He scored 10 of the Celtics’ first 12 points and finished with 25 points on 10 of 17 shooting.
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