As much as Kyrie Irving appeared to be the primary problem throughout the Celtics’ disappointing 2018-19, there were instances where it seemed other players weren’t helping the situation. For example, there was the time where Jaylen Brown and Marcus Morris had an issue on the sideline in January:

During a recent appearance on NBC Sports Boston’s “The Michael Holley Podcast,” Danny Ainge also mentioned how Brown got a little ahead of himself prior to last season.

“Jaylen Brown grabbed me in the lunchroom and he came and sat behind me and said, ‘Do you think that we’re as good as (the) 1986 Celtics team?’ And I went, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s so young,’” Ainge said. “And I just don’t think that they could even grasp that 1985 loss to the Lakers and the torture of that series and what that led (to). And Larry Bird was in his prime, one of the greatest Celtics of all time. But it was just fascinating, he was just looking at it like match-up to match-up to match-up, like you do in a video game.

“But that was a real awakening to me and how — just the perspective of guys. And then how certain guys thought they were going to be all-stars (in 2018-20) and they work hard all summer to reach these individual goals, but we just had too many individual goals. But we just had too many individual goals. We didn’t have enough guys that winning was the most important thing. And when you have 21 and 22-year-olds kids, that’s going to happen. So, I like them and I understand where every player is. I was that player.”

Despite the preseason remarks, the incident with Morris and the back-and-forth Irving and Brown appeared to have through the media, Ainge likes what he saw from the guard last year. He even thinks Brown took more out of the bad situation than anyone on the 2018-19 roster.

“Jaylen is, you know, he might’ve handled a difficult situation better than anybody our team last year,” Ainge said. Very mature kid. Wants to be great. Knows that his time is coming. It’s hard for him to be patient, but he has been patient. And he continues to work. He finds guys — right now he’s working out with Donovan Mitchell, last year I think it was Jimmy Butler. He’s trying to find ways to get better and I think Jaylen’s going to be a very good player and has a very bright future.”

Brown may have powered through the year, but it was far from a perfect season for him. He started the year forcing shots and struggled from three in his first 37 games (30.3 percent). And he wasn’t passing up on any looks he had at the basket.

But by the end of the regular season, he turned it around. He still only shot 34.4 percent from three throughout 2018-19, but in his last 37 games, Brown shot 38.2 percent from long range.

That may be one of the things Ainge noticed — at least on the court. Because, frankly, it was hard for anyone to miss when Brown turned the corner last year. He became a completely different player, much similar to the one from 2017-18.

Now Brown has to replicate that level of play.