A Jaylen Brown trade had been widely expected ever since the Celtics included him as part of their offer in the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes that they ultimately lost to Miami. Still, it was stunning when the news broke on Wednesday that he was headed to Philadelphia, both because of the destination and the seemingly modest return.
Jay King and Sam Amick of The Athletic take an inside look at the deal that will send Brown to an Atlantic Division rival in exchange for Paul George, two first-round picks, and two second-round picks. The return seems underwhelming considering the high asking price that Boston reportedly set for Brown, but a source tells King and Amick that team officials believe all four picks are valuable, whether they’re kept or used in a future trade.
Other teams began to believe the Celtics were serious about moving Brown after their pursuit of Antetokounmpo fell through. Team sources tell King and Amick that Brown was kept informed throughout trade talks, but he still took offense to the way the team handled the situation, believing it was disrespectful considering his accomplishments in Boston. He confirmed that stance in a live stream Thursday night.
The authors hear from league sources that the Celtics made Brown available at the trade deadline in February as part of a last-minute attempt to get Milwaukee to part with Antetokounmpo. When that pursuit failed again last month, and as they sought out alternative deals for Brown, it became clear that his value around the league wasn’t as high as he believes it should be.
The Nuggets and Trail Blazers were prominently mentioned in Brown trade rumors, but King and Amick note that neither team wanted to come close to meeting Boston’s reported demand of four first-round picks. Executives across the league began talking about the unreasonable price that the Celtics were setting for Brown, and even the Rockets didn’t get involved despite having Ime Udoka, who coached Brown in Boston during the 2022 NBA Finals run.
A team source in Portland tells the authors that the Blazers weren’t motivated to acquire Brown because of his high salary ($183MM over the next three years and eligible for an extension this summer), and their analytics assessment that shows him to be a negative player at that price. “We were never aggressively looking to trade for him,” the source said. “And particularly not at their price.”
An unidentified general manager from another team confirms that view, telling the authors that he doesn’t see Brown as a top-50 player despite the impressive statistics that earned him second-team All-NBA honors this season.
King and Amick state that some members of Boston’s front office believed Brown’s “impact did not match his reputation,” but president of basketball operations Brad Stevens remained a strong supporter, making him the NBA’s highest-paid player after a disappointing postseason performance in 2023.
Brown’s $57.7MM salary for the upcoming season ranks seventh in the league, and many teams don’t believe he’s productive enough to justify the cost. Some rival executives told King and Amick that Stevens was likely surprised by the lackluster market for Brown because the team had never tried shopping him around the league before.
The idea of keeping Brown for another season and attempting to work through any hurt feelings was deemed too risky because it might result in a trade request that would put the Celtics in an even worse bargaining position, according to the authors. Brown’s stated enjoyment of last season when he got to be the primary option on offense while Tatum was recovering from an Achilles injury was seen as a red flag, along with Brown’s trainer, Drew Hanlen, posting on social media about how effective the Celtics were when his client was handling the ball.
King and Amick cite potential problems if the Celtics had gone into training camp with both players and were expecting Tatum to become the focus of the offense again. It’s hard to imagine Brown being willing to return to a secondary role, they explain, which would have made it much harder to trade him in the fall.
