Jaylen Brown reflects on Ime Udoka’s unique impact on Celtics

Jaylen Brown played for just one year under Ime Udoka before the Celtics terminated him for undisclosed violations of team rules. However, Udoka’s impact on the Boston All-Star is still felt on many fronts.

Brown reflected on Udoka’s impact after the Celtics blowout win over the Rockets on Saturday night at TD Garden. In what was a mixed reception for the Rockets coach, it was evident there was no ill will towards Udoka from many Celtics. Instead, Brown raved about just how valuable of a presence the coach was for his development.

“I think Ime was great for us because we were kind of used to playing in Brad’s system and Ime, when he came about, he made the system kind of around us,” Brown said. “It was like, see a play, make a play and he kind of designed everything around what we did and do best and he kind of empowered us to make more decisions, stuff like that, so it was great for our development and things like that because we were used to Brad, who would kind of think the game for you.

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Brown went on to explain the differences between Brad Stevens and Udoka.

“Brad would prepare, make sure, he would call the plays, Ime was more like, figure it out, empowered us to go play, go hoop and be who we are, and it was different for us,” Brown said. “It definitely helped us grow as basketball players, and even now with Joe, he’s expanded on that as well. He’s like a combination of the two, where it’s like he’s empowering us but also we have to be the smarter, more prepared team. So, every coach has different styles but Ime was definitely a part of our development.”

Brown has used that knowledge to empower some of the best basketball of his career in the past month as he posted his fourth 30-plus point game in the past five contests on Saturday night.

“I said the same thing last month and now we’re saying it another month in,” Brown responded when asked about playing the best basketball of his career. “I still think I have a lot of potential that I haven’t tapped into and I’m learning the game. This is a beautiful game that we all get to watch and play and I’m having fun learning and trying to reach my full potential. On top of being a team guy, on top of making sure our guys are in the right spots and being a leader, it’s been fun trying to figure out how to be the best version of Jaylen Brown.

“As the time has gone on, as the years have gone on, I feel like I’ve gotten better each and every year and I don’t think that’s going to stop any time soon.”

With Udoka watching as Brown and Jayson Tatum combined for 59 points on 62 percent shooting in the win, he could only reflect on how far they’ve come.

“It’s what I saw for a year, anyway,” Udoka said. “The way they are talented and can score and play. I didn’t love our physicality and understanding how we made them a little bit too comfortable and a lot of those walk-in shots were just uncontested. And so, knowing that you want to try to break their rhythm, be a little more physical with them, I would have loved for people to guard them the way we guarded them tonight when I was here.”