For years now Jaylen Brown has been thought of as a second fiddle. A really good one, but a second fiddle nonetheless. Jayson Tatum was in the same spot for a while, a secondary, evolving star next to Kyrie Irving. But Tatum graduated from that perception, taking his rightful conversational spot among the game's elite as an MVP candidate and worthy No. 1 on a championship-caliber team. 

As a consequence, Brown has been left behind in that conversation. Like Scottie Pippen existing next to Michael Jordan, it has become too easy, too natural, for us to still think of Brown as a sidekick, as someone whose All-Star credentials still have to be questioned and subsequently defended by the likes of Tacko Fall.

Fall is right. If Brown, barring injury, isn't an All-Star this season, riots would be warranted. To even pose that question is an insult, and yet, the fact that it actually has to be asked tells you where Brown, who was snubbed as an All-Star last season, continues to be stuck in the casual NBA consciousness. In reality, Brown's play this season, so far, warrants nothing less than an All-NBA debate and perhaps even more than that. 

"The things [Jaylen is] doing when he's at his best is the same things JT [Jayson Tatum] is doing at his [best]," Marcus Smart said recently. "JT's been in the talks for that MVP race, and when JB's [Brown] playing the way he's playing, at his highest peak, he's in that [MVP] race too."

Split hairs if you'd like. Brown isn't going to be a true MVP contender as long as Tatum is playing like this, but the spirit of Smart's comments stand up. You can remove the All from Brown's star qualifier. He's just a star. Through 19 games, effectively a quarter of the season, Brown is averaging over 26 points per game on better than 50-percent shooting. Only eight other players in the league can say that, and they are the biggest names in the game. 

Chop it down to the guys who are putting up those numbers on fewer than 20 shots per night, and Brown becomes one of five. He is nearly impossible to keep out of the paint, and every year he becomes more assertive in doing so without overly forcing things. There is such a great balance to a Brown shot chart these days: 31 percent of his shots are 3s, 31 percent come from the midrange, 38 percent at the rim, per Cleaning the Glass.