SALT LAKE CITY -- Boston Celtics rookie forward Jaylen Brown, the No. 3 pick in last month's draft, will sit out Tuesday's summer league action due to a hyperextended knee suffered during his NBA debut against the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night in Utah.
Brown scored 16 points on just 2-of-7 shooting, but he was ultra-aggressive in his first game with the Celtics as he got to the free throw line 17 times and made 11 of those attempts. He added six rebounds and two blocks over 28 minutes.
"Jaylen hyperextended his knee [Monday], so he's not going to play," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. "So it'll be a great opportunity for everybody else to play more."
With an off-day Wednesday, Celtics summer league coach Micah Shrewsberry said the team is confident Brown will be ready for the Utah finale on Thursday.
"I don't think it's bad," Shrewsberry said. "It's summer league. He doesn't need to [rush] anything like that right now. We got a lot of games still this summer. It's kinda precautionary; just let him rest. Rest, then another day off, then he'll be back for the next one."
The Celtics are already playing without second-year center Jordan Mickey, one of their only true bigs on the summer roster. Mickey injured his shoulder blocking a shot during practices in Boston before the team headed west.
"Mick, from everything I've been told, the MRI looks good," Stevens said. "It doesn't sound like it was a subluxation like we talked about with Kelly [Olynyk]. It sounds like he's going to go through a light workout [Tuesday], probably another workout [Wednesday] and then, if all goes well, he'll be on a plane to Vegas."
The Celtics start summer league play in Las Vegas on Saturday. Not having Mickey has made things tough on undersized Boston, especially for rookie first-round pick Guerschon Yabusele.
"The idea behind summer league, when we first got together after the draft, was for Jordan to get a lot of time and for Jordan to get a lot of opportunity," Stevens said. "And it's kinda pushed Guerschon into an unfavorable position, from the standpoint that he's really our one true guy with size. ... When Jordan gets back, that'll help both those guys."