Should the Celtics Trade Jaylen Brown?
No longer a rhetorical question
The best thing about not trading a superstar player is keeping a superstar player on your roster. Case in point: Danny Ainge nearly traded Paul Pierce until he reversed course and built the Big 3 on the premise that at last he had one star player to kickstart his rebuilding process.
Brad Stevens has two star players: Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. As far as we know, he hasn’t (really) tried to trade either one, and for good reason. While not exactly complimentary performers on the court or best buds off the floor, both Jaylen and Jayson have gone out of their way to make their relationship work as professionally as possible.
And while another championship (or two) would solidify their legacy as one of the great duos in Celtics history, Brown and Tatum have delivered a decade’s worth of team success and individual accolades. Having both Brown and Tatum on your roster means the Celtics always have a chance to contend.
Yet, if Stevens was ever going to trade one of them, he would almost certainly deal Brown and he would probably do so this summer. (Pardon the qualifiers, but trading superstars is a tricky business.)
Before going any further, let’s be clear that trading Jaylen Brown isn’t a decision that should be governed by emotion. It’s just business. Brown’s value as a player is at its peak, and his contract is due for an extension that could add two more years to the remaining three years he has left on his contract for around $325 million total. Adding two years to Brown’s already maxed out deal would be a massive investment for a player who is about to enter his 30s with 20,000 regular season minutes and nearly 5,000 playoff minutes on his odometer. That’s a lot of mileage.
In contrast with some of his generation’s fellow superstars, Brown has played a ton of NBA basketball over the last 10 years, and to his credit, he’s held up remarkably well. If the last few seasons of that extension look a little dodgy, well, the remaining three years left on his current deal look pretty darn appealing. Coming off a campaign in which he led the underdog Celtics to a 56-win season and second place in the East, Brown proved that he’s capable of leading a playoff-caliber team with an All-NBA caliber performance.
Would that interest his hometown Hawks who have a bunch of really good players but could use a legitimate superstar to take the proverbial next step? It might. Of course, if I’m Stevens, I’m asking for emerging star Jalen Johnson in return. When the Hawks say no, I’m asking for everyone else including the 8th pick in the draft.
How about the Pelicans? A random choice, but why not? It’s May and it’s not like there’s anything else happening. A quick glance at New Orleans roster reveals a bevy of intriguing options ranging from Trey Murphy and Herb Jones (yes, please), to shakier possibilities like Dejounte Murray (Achilles), Zion Williamson (every medical condition known to man) and Jordan Poole (is Jordan Poole). If I’m Stevens, I’m asking for the moon and accepting nothing less in return.
That’s true for every other potential suitor or trade partner (except for one) who comes along because Stevens doesn’t actually have to trade Brown. Stevens can take what is a very good team on paper, draft well, and make a big enough splash in free agency to call it a day. The Celtics don’t really have holes in their roster. They have gaps that can be filled with arguably better players, but it’s not like they have a long list of glaring weaknesses to be addressed.*
*(Their areas of roster weakness are (in order): defensive-minded big men, ball handling guards, and overall athleticism. That’s a grocery list, not a complete kitchen renovation. Ask me how I know!)
Trading Brown for some combination of Hawks or Pels would be a bet that Stevens thinks he can construct a championship team around Tatum alone. In the past, that strategy might have been debatable. Post Achilles surgery, however, leaving Tatum without a 1A star would put an awful lot of pressure on him to be as good as he ever was.
A far more intriguing possibility lies in Milwaukee where the Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo are headed for a divorce. In case everyone forgot, Bucks co-owner Jimmy Haslam was musing out loud about trading Giannis before the draft. A reminder that Haslam is the same guy who wrecked the Cleveland Browns via years of shortsighted trades and misaligned priorities. (GMs, make your call now!)
The Bucks can trade Giannis to a half-dozen teams (or more), but it would be very easy to trade him to Boston straight up for Brown. At least theoretically. Superstar trades are always complicated and often come down to the dumbest things. That’s why so many of them come apart at the last minute. We’ll always have Matt Geiger’s trade kicker or the legend of Roddy Beaubois’ untouchable status to thank for some of the great near-miss transactions in NBA history.
So, should the Celtics trade Jaylen Brown? It depends on what they can get. For a Hawk or Pelican platter, the return better be mighty spicy. For Giannis, you’d have to do it so long as everyone involved was on board with making it happen. Giannis would have to want to come to Boston. The Bucks would have to be willing to extend JB. Like we said, superstar trades are tricky. That’s why many of them never happen.
Thankfully, none of the internal Celtics drama has risen to the level with Jaylen that it has with Giannis. A couple of stray comments on a Twitch stream aren’t going to make anyone on Causeway Street that uncomfortable. Not yet anyway. People have been talking about trading Jaylen for years, and there’s no doubt he remembers every single instance. If you’re going to trade him, do it now. And if you’re going to trade him, do it for Giannis. Otherwise, don’t bother.