Jaylen Brown is a California Golden Bear. This actually happened. It's not a hoax. He's going to be coming to Cal with fellow super recruit Ivan Rabb, and they will be playing actual basketball games with each other come November.
THAT VIDEO ABOVE (AND BELOW. AND BELOW THAT.) IS OF A PLAYER WHO IS ACTUALLY GOING TO BE PLAYING HOOPS IN HAAS NEXT YEAR. This actually happened.
Here are the recruiting rankings for Brown. Read them. Re-read them. They still make little sense to me.
- Scout: Five stars, Top national prospect in Scout
- Rivals: Five stars, 3rd best national prospect in Rivals 150
- ESPN: Five stars, 4th best national recruit in ESPN 100
- 247Sports: Five stars, 5th best national prospect, 3rd best small forward
Let's take a quick precursory look at the effect Brown will have on Cal.
Brown will certainly be one of the starting forwards for the Bears. It's a matter of whether he'll be starting at the four in a super small lineup or at the three (which would mean either Jabari Bird or Jordan Mathews would be coming off the bench). Cal has some flexibility with regards to what they can eventually end up doing. They could play a super small lineup to start the game with Ivan Rabb at the five, or play a more traditional set with one of the centers, Rabb at the 4, Brown at the 3, Mathews/Bird or Stephen Domingo at the two, and Tyrone Wallace at point. That is a fierce offensive unit, and we haven't even gotten to the lineups Cal can deploy with multiple wings.
As you can tell by his tape, Brown is already one of the best recruits Cal has ever landed, and will complement Rabb quite well. The first thing that sticks out is his athleticism, and it will make a huge difference defensively on the perimeter. That 6-7 frame will be quite active and give Cal an explosive presence on the outside. Surround him with shooters and Cal has a pretty solid lineup.
With Rabb alone, Cal has a solid recruiting class to build the Bears up for the future, but not a transcendent one. With Rabb AND Brown, Cal has two incredible players they can deploy who will be solid rotation players. With Tyson Jolly and Davon Dillard adding depth, the Bears are poised to be one of the deepest teams in the conference.
This is fun.