Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown has been one of the best players in the NBA this season. On the “Road Trippin” podcast, former NBA big man Kendrick Perkins made the case that Brown deserves to be at the center of the MVP conversation.
Kendrick Perkins Makes Case for Jaylen Brown’s MVP Candidacy
Brown is steadily gaining traction in the MVP conversations. More recently, LeBron James backed his name for the MVP title. Now Perkins, a former NBA champion, is making Brown’s case for the 2025-26 MVP award. He did not hold back when asked about Brown’s season.
“First of all, to start this season, we talk about Jaylen Brown, we thought the Celtics were going to be tanking. It was questions if they should move on from Jaylen Brown because Jayson Tatum was going to be out. Jaylen Brown is the best two-way player in the game of basketball. No other player is doing what he is doing. He is top 5 in scoring, he is top 5 in defense for opponents field goal percentage,” Perkins said.
He then drew a comparison to Russell Westbrook’s 2016-17 MVP season in Oklahoma City — the year Kevin Durant left for Golden State. Most people expected the Thunder to fall apart without Durant. They did not. Westbrook averaged a triple-double for the entire season and took home the MVP award. Perkins argued Brown is doing something similar, only the stakes are higher and the circumstances are more difficult.
“It reminds me of when Russell Westbrook won MVP. When he won it in OKC. It’s a different situation because KD bounced and went to Golden State. But everybody thought that they were going to be dead. This Jaylen Brown doing that times ten,” Perkins added.
The numbers support Perkins’ argument. Brown is averaging 29.2 points, seven rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game across 51 games this season. He is shooting an efficient 48.1% from the field. Every single one of those numbers is a career best. For comparison, his career scoring average entering this season was 19.8 points per game. He has added nearly ten points to that.
More importantly, Brown has been doing this without Jayson Tatum. The Celtics lost their franchise cornerstone on May 12, 2025, when Tatum suffered a torn right Achilles tendon during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks. It was the kind of injury that ends seasons and derails franchises.
Boston was widely expected to slide, but they managed to tread through the season with poise. The Celtics are 37-19 and sitting second in the Eastern Conference. They have won three straight and lost just twice in their last ten games. Brown is the reason. He is leading the team in scoring and has been their most consistent player on both ends of the floor all season.
At the start of the year, there were real questions about whether the Celtics should explore trading Brown while Tatum was sidelined long-term. Those conversations look ridiculous now. Brown has answered every doubt with his play, keeping the Celtics firmly in the NBA title picture.
