Each week during the 2025-26 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into some of the league’s biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.

Last time: Nikola Jokić's Denver Nuggets will be just fine

Fact or Fiction: Jaylen Brown is the NBA's best two-way player

As the Los Angeles Clippers increased their winning streak to six games, Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown texted his head coach, Joe Mazzulla, asking for a heady defensive assignment: Kawhi Leonard.

Brown proceeded to drop 50 points on the Clippers, helping hold Leonard to less than half as many on 35% shooting in a 146-115 Celtics victory. The win vaulted both Brown and Boston into conversations about the MVP and championship races, respectively, that nobody had really considered to that point.

But you can count on one hand the NBA players who have had a greater impact than Brown this season.

There is Nikola Jokić, who could miss the entirety of January with a left knee hyperextension. There is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league's reigning regular-season and Finals MVP, who is helming the sport's best team once again. And we can have a decent argument about pretty much everyone else after that.

Giannis Antetokounmpo has been tremendous when healthy for the Milwaukee Bucks, though he has missed 14 games. Same for Victor Wembanyama, who has started 15 of the San Antonio Spurs' 36 games. There are Luka Dončić, Anthony Edwards, Cade Cunningham and Jalen Brunson, among others, too.

Which brings us to the conversation at hand. No, we are not here to discuss the MVP race, even if any five of the aforementioned players would make a convincing ballot. We are here because Jaylen Brown declared himself the best two-way player in the game, first on X, before restating it for us all to hear.

"I feel like I'm the best two-way player in the game," he said after ending the Clippers' streak.

That is … a statement, for sure. Brown is here to talk his s***, as he should. Many mocked Brown for being, at one recent point, the NBA's highest-paid player. Since he signed a five-year, $ 285.4 million extension, Brown has won a championship, capturing both Eastern Conference finals and NBA Finals MVP honors, and played his way into a very serious conversation for his first All-NBA First Team appearance.

Many also wrote off the Celtics when Jayson Tatum went down with his Achilles injury, figuring them for a play-in tournament bid, if not a spot in the lottery. Well, as it turns out, they are 23-13, third in the Eastern Conference, owners of the NBA's best record since Nov. 12. And Jaylen Brown is the biggest reason. He has been as incredible on the court, averaging a 30-6-5, as he has been off of it, shepherding an entirely reshaped team that, sans Tatum, is giving heavy minutes to a young, untested wing rotation.

Where were we? Ah, yes: Is Jaylen Brown the best two-way player in the game?

Depends on your definition of "two-way player," I guess. Everyone plays two ways, of course, and some are better than others on either end of the court. It is the totality of a player that matters, and Jokić is the game's best player. He may be better on the offensive end, where he is one of the greatest of all time, but he is no slouch defensively, either. He knows where to be, protects the rim and rebounds more often than anyone in the league. That Denver owns the 21st-rated defense is a strike against him.  

This may just be a tactic to remove Jokić from the conversation, since he is so brilliant offensively, which, if that is the case, all due respect to Brown. He manufactured a meaningless debate out of thin air, solely for argument's sake, and that is sports. This is why we are here, after all — to make a case for the inane.

I think what Brown is getting at: I'm the most balanced player in the game. He is playing offense at an All-NBA First Team level, ranking fifth in the league in scoring, and he is capable of playing on an All-Defensive First Team plane as well, as we saw in the 2024 NBA Finals opposite Dončić or more recently vs. Leonard.

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But let us not pretend like Brown is texting his coach before every game, singling out the toughest opponent. Jordan Walsh and Huge González also draw those defensive assignments. Still, Brown is the best defensive player, when he needs to be, on the NBA's 15th-rated outfit. That counts for something.

Does it count as much as SGA being a key cog for the league's best defense — by far? He is not the Oklahoma City Thunder's best defender. That moniker goes to Lu Dort or Alex Caruso or Cason Wallace or Jalen Williams or one of their bigs. They are stacked in that regard, which is why their defensive rating is five points per 100 possessions better than any other team in the league. And SGA is a big part of that.

SGA rarely draws the top defensive assignment, but he often ranks among the league's leaders in steals. He can and does defend across multiple positions for the NBA's top outfit, and he can't be picked upon.

Why, then, wouldn't he be the leader in this conversation about the league's best two-way player? Maybe Brown thinks he is a better 1-on-1 perimeter defender than Gilgeous-Alexander, and he may be right. But there are better defenders than Brown, too. May I present to you Wembanyama and Antetokounmpo?

Each of them adds a layer of rim protection that Brown cannot match, even if you could make the argument that he is a better on-ball defender than either of them. Like, would you rather have Dončić matched up against Wemby, Giannis or Brown at the arc? I don't know, but I know who Brown would say, and we have seen it work to a championship degree. Who are we to argue with Brown on that angle?

Still, Wembanyama is the game's best defensive player who is also averaging 24.2 points on 52/36/83 shooting splits.

Likewise, Antetokounmpo is a relentless menace on both ends.

Could we make the case that Brown is more skilled offensively than Wembanyama or Antetokounmpo? Sure. But that is getting back to Brown's very narrow definition of the game's best two-way player — as its most balanced player. Brown's offense and defense might be most equally rated at the highest level.

But if we're talking the game's best two-way player, if it is not Jokić, it is SGA, and if it is not SGA, it is Antetokounmpo or Wembanyama, and if it is not them, then maybe it is Brown. Or Anthony Edwards.

But this is getting ridiculous. It is a fun topic to debate, though. Thanks, Jaylen, for this week's topic.

Although, now we're getting a little out of hand …

Talk your s***, though. You've earned your entry into the conversation.

Determination: Fiction. Jaylen Brown is not the game's best two-way player. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is, until someone knocks him off the throne. We will get two battles of the game's last two Finals MVPs twice in a two-week span in March. Buckle up, too, for Jayson Tatum may be coming for both of them by then.