The topic “kings vs celtics” is currently trending due to notable events surrounding an upcoming matchup between the Sacramento Kings and the Boston Celtics. The recent spike in interest is likely attributed to the excitement building around this game set for January 30, 2026, as confirmed by the NBA’s official game summary. The anticipation for competitive NBA matchups typically generates significant search interest.
Additionally, live updates on the game reveal that the Celtics are currently leading against the Kings in the first quarter, as reported by NBC Sports Boston. This real-time coverage keeps fans engaged and eager for more information, contributing to the high search volume.
The combination of the impending game, together with live reporting on the ongoing performance of both teams, fosters a heightened interest among basketball fans. This is reflected in the increased number of searches, showcasing the audience’s desire to stay informed about the matchup and its developments.
Watch the Moment
Internet Reacts
A
lol Boston and Phoenix have the same situation going on? They have amazing glue guys (most notably White and Gillespie) that can do a little bit of everything and it shows in analytics.
L
Tbf its also basically the star suffers because the rest of the team can’t upscale their production enough. Like derrick white always has insane advanced stats but he also can stay like because brown takes the offensive load over him
B
The suns are markedly better when booker is playing this season and that shows up in the analytics where the suns are over 10 ppg better with him off and all their record 2-4 without vs 27-15 with. Similar in terms of good glue guys but definitely not same as JB in this post.
C
Jaylen is always a candidate for what I called the “Isiah Thomas” award for players that advance stats say they arent as good as the eye test. Other candidates in recent years are Siakam, Booker and Anthony Edwards
G
Last year Brown was *WAY* below those players in the advanced metrics, it almost isn’t fair to group them in with him because the gap is so enormous. VORP (randomly picked as an example): Edwards (8th), Booker (72nd), Siakam (41st), Brown (121st)
P
like idc man clearly the problem is with the advanced stats or how much weight we’re putting on them because there’s no way you watch Jaylen Brown this season and say yeah, his overall value is about the same as Donte DiVincenzo (as EPM would have you believe this season) basketball fans need to stop treating these advanced analytics as gospel and take a holistic view of the game, you gotta understand how any given player’s individual skillset both unlocks and restricts overall team strategy on-off says my team is better when I take JB off the floor, cool. answer me this, if I’m making a gameplan to win a game, what options does whoever off the bench give me that‘s better than the options that Jaylen Brown can give me?
F
I don’t think anybody thinks straight on/off style numbers by themselves are great metrics or even really much of advanced stats. They tend to broadly just mean that your bench is better relative to the other team’s bench compared to your starters. Advanced stats tend to try to more directly score the things that actually result in your winning the basketball game: having higher shot efficiency than your opponent (e.g. shooting better, generating better looks for your teammates via assists, contesting shots) or getting more possessions than your opponent (rebounding, forcing turnovers). There’s a caveat to those things in that it’s generally understood it’s hard to do those things at higher usages, so your wildly efficient 3&d player who only takes 8 shots a game shouldn’t be assessed the same way your first option is – somebody has to take those shots, and your first option is going to be the guy forcing a bad shot when you couldn’t create a better one So there’s no real definitive way to try to do that, which means yeah they could be wrong. But generally, it makes sense that MVP-level players are the ones who can do those things at above league average rates even with high usages. If your first option is putting up large PPG stats but not that efficiently and isn’t a great distributor, but your team is still winning, it means you’re getting the edge someplace else, which is what the advanced stats are saying here.
J
This is like a fresh dose of oxygen in a thread that desperately needs one. Advanced stats good, plus/minus implicates bench performance, good performance is harder to sustain at higher usage, and Jaylen Brown still a good player. Order is restored. I almost feel like a post like this is strangely out of place on /r/NBA.
O
There was a great post on Grantland maybe 10+ years ago about TS% vs. USG% which should be required reading for anyone before they’re allowed to talk about advanced stats. I mean, the grantland archives are gone, so we can’t read it. But it was a great post.
S
I think the more relevant question is do you think the Celtics would be better without Jaylen Brown, where the answer is clearly no. That being said, OP did not suggest they would be, merely showed the stat which is an interesting stat and topic of discussion in and of itself
F
your analysis makes sense to me, cool. answer me this, why does Boston outscore their opponents less when he is on the court than when he is off the court? why is the overall team strategy less effective against the opposing team when he is off the court? these are fair questions
F
Probably because he’s getting benched when the opponent’s key players also goes to the bench, and then Celtics bench is better than most other teams I don’t actually know, just that’s usually the discussion
C
Maybe look at defense. EPM has loved Derrick White for a while. Defense always underrated, offense overrated. White is their real mvp
C
So you think the team would be better if they lost Jaylen Brown vs if they lost Derrick White?
C
Yeah. Even Kerr also liked Jrue and White for the Olympics. Brown is better offensively, but White is better overall and consistent.
P
White has been great! he’s still clearly not been better overall than Brown for us this season and if any metric says he has been then I’m questioning the value of that metric!
B
Something not enough people talk about is that better players get to and have to take the hardest shots in the offense Someone like White gets the privilege of spotting up, cutting, and generally being an opportunist, whereas someone like Brown has to initiate way more possessions and be a bigger priority for the defense
C
I’m not talking about offense though. White’s defense is just that elite
L
You don’t watch the celtics. Like there’s no arguing that if you think white is the “real mvp” of the team. White’s my favorite player in the NBA (as a celtics fan), but he just isn’t more impactful and jaylen brown.
P
pretty sure epm rates white as well above average on offense this year even with his bad efficiency
P
Brown’s D-LEBRON this season: -0.54 (worst on the Celtics) White’s D-LEBRON this season: 2.02 (second on the Celtics behind Queta) Brown’s O-LEBRON this season: 2.04 (third on the Celtics) White’s O-LEBRON this season: 2.17 (second on the Celtics behind Pritchard) So yes, it looks like based on this metric, Brown has been a strong offensive player this season but weak on defense.
F
NFL coaches lost chances at the Super Bowl chasing advanced stats. There is a point where you can’t extrapolate them into a decision
P
The reality is that the eye test alone is just very limited in assessing how much a player contributes to value, at least without integrating stats and real film study, which no one really does unless you’re a scout or youtuber. >what options does whoever off the bench give me that‘s better than the options that Jaylen Brown can give me? This answers an irrelevant question. No one is saying that they should be starting someone else over Jaylen Brown. Just that Jaylen Brown is probably not a top 10 or top 15 player in the league.
P
except using on/off differential to make that conclusion is also wrong. on/off doesn’t provide any meaningful measure of how good players are relative to one another across teams, it simply measures how their team performs with them on the court versus off. and even that is heavily skewed by who they happen to be sharing the court with in those minutes, who they are playing against in those minutes, game situation, etc. the question in my original comment is basically the closest to the question that on/off differential attempts to answer, but ultimately it’s simply not something anyone should be using as a measure of individual impact or value
P
I agree that on/off is flawed as a single-number metric. But that’s why we can look at RAPM which solves the coefficients and accounts for different players playing in different lineups, and that’s why we try to reconcile things like On/Off with defense, rim protection, rebounding, spacing, shot creation, offensive efficiency, passing, etc. We have a ton of different single-number metrics like the others listed in this thread that all more or less agree with each other, which is that being a high-usage low-efficiency scorer is not going to win your minutes by much.
P
that conclusion is probably true across a large sample, but I don’t think thinking about basketball as a large sample of minutes is the correct way to think about the sport, and that’s why I just don’t really like any of these metrics. what matters is winning games, not winning a large sample of minutes. I want to know, what can this player do to help me win one game? what it takes to win any given game can be wildly different depending on the night and the opponent and the situation. to me what’s most valuable is having guys who can consistently take on the hardest jobs on the court and do them at a high level, or having guys who are capable of fulfilling multiple roles on the court depending on the night you don’t get really any info about a guy’s actual strengths and weaknesses on the court from any catch-all metrics, but those strengths and weaknesses are what make team strategies and ultimately what produces the game itself
L
One catch all metric also isn’t accurate. I worked in data analytics with the celtics and a lot of the stuff that was sent to the coaching staff wasn’t these catch all metrics. It was specifics into plays and actions along with a lot of other defensive scheme data. You can actually do a lot of this analysis publicly since there’s a lot of player location data online (for free). Most people don’t have the teams or expertise to utilize these resources (still not as much as data as teams have though).
A
“No one is saying that they should be starting someone else over Jaylen Brown” There are people in this very comment chain citing his bad VORP, which is very literally that. This entire thread is about on/off to spark discussion about taking him off the court. I agree that eye test alone doesn’t work, but it’s often better than on/off VORP in the NBA where one player can have such outsized impact outside of their stats, as opposed to something like baseball where batting is much more isolated and directly measurable.
A
The gap for Isiah Thomas specifically is because he was a massive playoff riser
T
On/off isn’t an advanced stat
I
Advanced stats like all of those guys way more than Brown. A better example is someone like Klay Thompson.
P
Banchero
C
Banchero doesn’t even pass the eye test anymore a lot of nights
P
And other nights he looks absolutely dominant
S
The Kobe Bryant Award?
R
Recently, I made a comment about the whole team stepping up and playing well in Tatum’s absence and a bunch of Celtics fans told me everyone else was inconsistent and Jaylen was carrying them. He has been great and he has been the most consistent, but that is also why he makes 2x-10x the salary of the other guys. For being on such a good team over the years he has never really had the best on/off #’s Everyone on that team, and coach Maz, deserves credit for them being a #2 seed in the East.
L
His mid range game has never been this good, but it’s absolutely a case of them swapping old/injured (Horford, Jrue, Zingis) with young/energy (Queta, Simons, Garza, Walsh, Hugo), tweaking the system and having success. Pre-injury Jayson Tatum would flourish with this supporting cast as well.
T
The problem is that over the past month JB’s midrange has been regressing to the mean. Which has a bunch of trickle/down effects on the rest of the offense and has been a part of why we ain’t winning quite so much lately
L
Derrick white having a true shooting of 48 in January is a big reason. It’s funny watching some celtics fan turn on Jaylen while acting like derrick white isn’t a problem having a second option who can’t consistently score 20 points is always going to hurt when your first option goes into mini slump like jaylen currently is in.
T
Oh believe me, in this household we have absolutely noticed that DWhite can’t find the basket in January. Hauser and Anfernee helped cover it up for a while, but all feels exposed right now. Weirdly, White has January slumps rather consistently in his career
J
The ironic thing about White is he seemingly leads the team in plus/minus every game despite the bad shooting. He and Jaylen play similar amount of minutes and he is absolutely crushing him. Dude apparently can’t shoot anymore, but he sure is impactful
R
I love Derrick but a lot of Cs fans have a weird infatuation with him where he can do no wrong.
S
I think it’s also about the expectations you put on a player. No one really views Derrick White as an All-NBA or even strong All Star so he’s moreso being thrust into this role of being the second best player on the Celtics. Jaylen Brown was the highest paid player in NBA history at one point so the expectations are a lot higher when he is going to be featured as the guy. It’s reflected in the fact that Jaylen Brown is being paid twice as much as Derrick White, who is the next highest paid player on the team.
L
Mike Conley Jr was the highest paid player at one point using highest paid when contracts go up every year shows how stupid the nba fan base Is.
K
Not really if you look at it by percentage of the cap
B
speaking the truth
L
Yeah for a chunk of the season he legit looked like 1998 Michael Jordan. Just automatic on mid range and fadeaways. It was inevitably going to come back down to earth. If you swapped JB for pre-injury Tatum this team would be on a 60+ win pace. The huge surprise is how a bunch of guys we had zero expectations of have stepped up and made huge impacts.
N
Agree. He’s getting all the credit because people love PPG over everything else. It’s impressive that he’s maintained his scoring efficiency while taking 5 extra shots per game. But him taking 5 extra shots at slightly below league average efficiency is not the main driver of the Celtics. On the most basic level, the team has been worse than last year with Brown on the floor and better than last year with Brown on the bench: Brown On * [2025](https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612738&Season=2024-25&SeasonType=Regular%2BSeason&PlayerIds=1627759): +9 * [2026](https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612738&Season=2025-26&SeasonType=Regular%2BSeason&PlayerIds=1627759): +4 Brown Off * 2025: +9 * 2026: +11 Raw on/off isn’t great over a single season, but this is the 4th consecutive season Brown has had a negative on/off. The more advanced impact metrics show the same thing: Brown has been good, but not much better than previous seasons. Brown’s [EPM](https://dunksandthrees.com/epm/actual) by season has been comically consistent: * 2021: +2.3 * 2022: +2.5 * 2023: +2.5 * 2024: +2.5 * 2025: +1.1 * 2026: +2.4 Other advanced metrics (which combine adjusted on/off with box score stats and some tracking data) all agree that Brown is good, but not great: * [DARKO](https://apanalytics.shinyapps.io/DARKO/) has him as the 26th best player in the league * [LEBRON](https://www.bball-index.com/lebron-application/) has him 27th this season (min. 800 MP) * [xRAPM](https://xrapm.com/table_pages/xRAPM.html) has him around 50th. * He’s not in the top 100 in 2-year, 3-year, 4-year, or 5-year [RAPM](https://www.nbarapm.com/player/Jaylen_Brown), which adjusts on/off for quality of teammates and opponents * Even pure box score stats, like [BPM](https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2026_advanced.html), has him outside the top 30 this year. In short, Brown is going to get a lot of credit (from MVP and All NBA voters, and from himself apparently) because he’s scoring a lot. But, despite the increased volume, his impact is still the same as it’s always been. Being one of the least efficient volume scorers in the league — without being a great playmaker — isn’t actually that great. Of the 22 players scoring at least 22 PPG, Brown is 20th in TS%: |Rk|Player|TS%|PTS/G| |-:|:-|-:|-:| |1|Shai Gilgeous-Alexander|.673|32.0| |2|Stephen Curry|.636|27.3| |3|Kevin Durant|.635|26.5| |4|Kawhi Leonard|.631|27.9| |5|Anthony Edwards|.623|29.3| |6|Jamal Murray|.619|25.9| |7|Michael Porter Jr.|.618|25.6| |8|Donovan Mitchell|.618|29.4| |9|Deni Avdija|.614|25.8| |10|Luka Doncic|.614|33.6| |11|Lauri Markkanen|.613|27.4| |12|Norman Powell|.612|23.0| |13|Keyonte George|.610|24.1| |14|Tyrese Maxey|.599|29.4| |15|Julius Randle|.598|22.2| |16|James Harden|.596|25.4| |17|Jalen Brunson|.594|27.6| |18|Jalen Johnson|.593|22.9| |19|Devin Booker|.580|25.4| |20|Jaylen Brown|.574|29.4| |21|Cade Cunningham|.561|25.3| |22|Pascal Siakam|.560|23.7| Provided by [Stathead](https://www.sports-reference.com/sharing.html?utm_source=direct&utm_medium=Share&utm_campaign=ShareTool): [Found with Stathead. See Full Results.](https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/basketball/player-season-finder.cgi?utm_source=direct&utm_medium=Share&utm_campaign=ShareTool) Generated 1/30/2026.
C
Shai… jeez
K
For real. That TS is absolutely bonkers.
Additional Sources:
NBA – Sacramento Kings vs Boston Celtics Jan 30, 2026 Game Summary
NBC Sports Boston – Live updates: Celtics lead Kings in first quarter
