Jaylen Brown’s Trainer Believes Sixers’ Fit With Tyrese Maxey, LeBron James, and Joel Embiid is Perfect
Technically, Jaylen Brown didn’t change his off-season routine to account for playing with a new team (Philadelphia 76ers) and new star teammates (Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, LeBron James).
That’s because Brown has always devoted his training to refining his skills as a proven scorer, passer, and defender. All of which Brown’s trainer, Dash Lovell, believes will be critical to maximizing team chemistry in hopes of helping the Sixers win an NBA championship.
Dash spoke to R.org about Brown’s off-season regimen, why he’s optimistic about his fit with the Sixers, and his reaction to the Celtics trading him.
Editor’s note: The following one-on-one interview has been edited and condensed.
Interview with Jaylen Brown’s Trainer, Dash Lovell
How did Jaylen prepare this offseason considering he was traded to the Sixers and now will be playing with LeBron, Joel and Tyrese?
Lovell: “He’s been traveling around a lot doing different things. But he’s still working every day. He’s been working on his body a lot. He takes very good care of his body. When he’s been traveling, he’s been working out in different places. So it’s been a little different. But nonetheless, he’s still getting the work in and still preparing for a great season. He’s been in touch with all of the guys and reaching out. Everyone has been really working. I did a New Balance camp. I don’t work with Tyrese Maxey. But I know that every time that I came in, he was done with his workouts at 6 am. These guys are working. JB has been working out in different areas. He’s been in LA, Atlanta, Egypt, and China. No matter where he goes, he’s got some work in.”
Which areas did you link up with him?
Lovell: “We linked up in Atlanta. We linked up in LA a couple of times. Obviously when the season starts, I’ll go to Philly with him and get a lot of work in.”
What did all the work entail?
Lovell: “A lot of ball-handling, shooting and playing in the midrange. He’s just improving his ability to play through contact and play through physicality. He’s being strong with the ball. He’s being more explosive in different windows and pockets. He’s trying to figure out when guys try to meet him at the rim. He’s so big and physical. So we’re trying to see if he can get to spots and pull up instead of trying to run them over at the rim. He’s also picking up on his ability to post up. We’ve been working on understanding who is guarding him when he decides to post up and understand how to defend it. We have different scenarios where we post up in different ways because of the defender. If we’re dealing with a big, tall defender that likes to flop and take a charge, how do we want to attack him? If we’re dealing with a person who is feistier and is overly aggressive, how do we go at him? We’re working on how we want him to get into his postups depending on who’s guarding him.
That’s something he really wanted to lock in on. How can Jaylen show this is not an offensive foul? A lot of times, the refs were calling offensive fouls throughout the season. I don’t know if they had an agenda toward him. But he’s sharpening up certain things to make sure that we make contact without extending too much. Even though we know some of them were offensive fouls, we still touched up on a few things with not extending. He’s also improving his conditioning as he’s flying around as he shoots the ball.”
What has he done to take care of his body?
Lovell: “It’s a lot of footwork stuff. He does a lot of movement stuff. He does a lot of football movements through the ladders. Basketball and football are very similar when it comes to lower-body movement with your feet. So he’s been doing things like that. He’s working on stopping, controlling all of the weight on one side of his body, and being balanced and stable. This is stuff that he always does. It doesn’t really change year to year, to be honest with you. It’s really about being consistent. Then there are small little details that you notice throughout the season. So if he’s swimming in the pool and it works, guess what? He’s swimming in the pool again this year.”
So do I take it correctly, this focus wasn’t necessarily to prepare to play with LeBron and Tyrese?
Lovell: “Yeah, they’re going to figure it out directly. But individually, it’s about trying to develop what you need. When we talk about flying around and shooting, it’s basketball. It doesn’t matter who you play with. You’re going to have to make a catch-and-shoot jump shot. Now that he has guys like Bron, those guys are going to draw a lot of attention. Jaylen is also going to draw a lot of attention for those guys to get easy shots, too. It’s just basketball. Sometimes, we overcomplicate this and make it seem more difficult than it is. The part about basketball that starts becoming difficult is when you start overthinking how it’s going to connect. Just play the game. The game connects us by itself. As humans, for some reason, we start recreating what is natural about basketball.
Since you have a younger Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey and a young VJ Edgecombe, you don’t need ‘Bron to do so much right now. He can have those guys push him through half of the season until you get down to certain stretches where they can use ‘Bron and Joel a little bit more. I think they all want to win. They all understand that. I don’t think you have to recreate how you go about your summer. They all just have to be on the same page, and I think they will be. It’s not that complicated. They’re all excited about playing with each other and playing for each other. That says a lot. But we’re doing the typical same things to prepare. We’re understanding how people guard him and understanding what he wants to do in the post, based on the defender.
He’s going to see a lot more one-on-one coverages this year. Why would you double on that team? Who are you going to double off of on that team? Maxey? No. Are you going to double off ‘Bron? LeBron is one of the best cutters in NBA history. If you watch LeBron off the ball, he doesn’t have to stand to catch-and-shoot. If you turn your back, he’s going to cut. He’s going to get six or eight points just off of cuts. So LeBron will have an opportunity to play in a lot of space. Now it’s just about playing with great flow and allowing whoever is hot to keep going. You have to put numbers aside this season and just hoop. I think the team is really going to be pushed by Tyrese and JB. Then I think everyone else will blend right in. I don’t mean with Tyrese and JB that the team belongs to them. The team belongs to everyone. It’s a team sport. But that’s how you start the narrative of separation. It’s a team sport. I hate when the media starts off saying it’s his team or that team. That’s when it gets into guys’ heads, and they wonder whose team it is. It’s their team.”
Understood on the points you all made. But JB’s a versatile scorer, playmaker, and defender. Is there a role you see him proportionally leaning more into, or an equal blend?
Lovell: “Honestly, I see an equal blend. I see everybody just hooping. Some nights, it can be in his hands early. Some nights, it can be in someone else’s hands. But the thing is about finding a flow. I think if they play fast and let guys get out early, that’s where they are going to be most dangerous. If you play small, they’ll have to figure out whose turn it is to get a touch. I think they will play fast. That way they’re not sitting and overthinking.
They can get out, create advantages, and run. Then they can play from there. Teams get better in the playoffs, and you have to get into half-court sets. But by the time you do that, you look at it from a matchup standpoint. So then it depends on who the other team’s got. If someone has the weaker matchup, milk that matchup. But at the same time, some teams allow you to milk a matchup to take away the flow of other players on your team.
So if you are milking one guy because he can’t guard someone, no one else is touching it. Then you’re kind of icing out your own teammates at the same time. But the thing about the Sixers that is so unique is that they don’t have to iso you from the perimeter. They can iso you in the paint. That’s a dump-down to Joel Embiid. No one in the world can guard him. Let’s just be real. It’s different giving a guy an iso 3 versus an iso paint touch. That’s a totally different shot. Think about throwing the ball into Shaq as opposed to giving the ball to a guy at the top of the key and finishing with a step-back 3. Those are two different shots.
That’s why the Sixers are so unique. Most teams iso off the dribble. They’re not. LeBron can post up. JB can post up. Joel can post up. The only two doing isos from the top are Tyrese and VJ. So they have a mixture of both. JB, LeBron, and Joel would all rather get the ball on the block inside the paint.
Once they start dumping that down, if you turn your back to double, then guys are going to cut around you. Jaylen Brown knows how to play so many different ways. So it doesn’t matter. He’s still going to find a way to be impactful.”
Jaylen has a track record with being able to do that with the Celtics. So what was your perspective that there were suggestions the Celtics made the trade partly out of concerns about his fit with a healthier Jayson Tatum after being the No. 1 option last season?
Lovell: “With this business, I don’t really get into that side of basketball. But things happen. Life throws things at you. You have to be able to adapt. It’s part of life. It’s part of business. It’s part of growth. One thing that I’ve learned about life is that it’s always changing. So I guess it was time for change. That’s all I can say.”