The Celtics Offseason Is Off To A Hot Start As Jaylen Brown Finally Underwent Surgery On His Right Knee

Maddie Meyer. Getty Images.

Given the reality of the Celts' offseason this summer, I think it's safe to say that any sort of Shams tweet that begins "Boston Celtics.." is going to be stressful as fuck to read. Then, as you continue to read the tweet and see "star Jaylen Brown" your anxiety skyrockets. Never in my life had I ever read a tweet so fast and experienced such an emotional rollercoaster. By the time I got to the word "surgery", this was how I was feeling

Easily a tweet you had to read 3 or 4 times quickly to fully process it. At this point, that Shams tweet could have been anything. A trade, an announcement that he would get surgery and miss part of the season, the possibilities are endless. I don't know about anyone else, but any time I see the words "arthroscopic surgery" it makes me feel like things are a disaster, but then I remember that I am a moron and not a doctor and that medical terms usually sound a whole lot scarier than they are.

The ending of that tweet, and the ensuing announcement from the team are really what matter most. Not only was the surgery successful, but he is on pace to be back with no limitations by the time training camp rolls around. So, in a weird way, given the circumstances around his injury, is it fair to say this is the best possible outcome? Again, not a doctor, and maybe the best possible outcome would have been not needing surgery at all, but since they went the surgery route, this is the best outcome based on what I've read

I know, my brain hurts too. I think the larger takeaway is that things could have been much worse in terms of the surgery/recovery time/what it means for Jaylen moving forward. We saw what a rushed return from a partially torn meniscus looks like (Robert Williams), so the sense I get is this is a bit of a different situation, which is encouraging.

It also reinforces how insane it was that Jaylen was able to have some of the types of performances he did during this shortened playoff run with that fucked up knee. The 36/10/5 Game 2 vs ORL

or the 26/8/12 Game 5 vs the Knicks

It's hard to not have a ton of respect for a guy that was clearly hurt who put everything on the line to win by doing shit like this

only to end up getting surgery less than a month later. I know there will always be people who are weird about Jaylen Brown for whatever reason, but this is a player you go to war with every single day of the week and twice on Sundays. Forget the people who claim he was faking his injury or that he was leaking stuff as a way to stay in Boston etc. You can't help those who believe that shit.

Now that the knee has been treated and he has around 3+ months to recover, I think the hope is that the explosiveness he very clearly lost to end last season is back, becaue with Jayson Tatum out for the year (I'm not putting stock into this potential early return nonsense. Let him rest) the Celts are going to need the explosive version of Jaylen back. The lift on his 3s, his ability to rise up in the midrange, finishing at the rim, that was all hampered by his bum wheel, and when he's at his best those are the areas he thrives in. Add in another playmaking leap like we saw in 2025, and now you're cooking. 

With so much unknown and the majority of the roster still being TBD at this point of the offseason, I guess I'm just desperate for any type of "good" news. Seeing Tatum in the practice facility, learning that Jaylen did get surgery but it was the "good" kind, these are the small wins that every Celtics fan needs right now. It's going to be a long summer, so you take any win you can get.

I look forward to seeing this guy back come October