Boston Celtics fans have been scratching their heads and looking for answers since the team traded Jaylen Brown to the rival Philadelphia 76ers earlier this month. In exchange, Boston received Paul George, two first-round draft picks and two second-round picks.
Brown, 29, was selected to five All-Star teams during his 10 years in Boston and earned two All-NBA selections. He was also selected as the 2024 NBA Finals MVP after he helped Boston defeat Dallas in five games.
George, 36, is a nine-time All-Star who remains an excellent shooter from beyond the 3-point arc, but has had difficulty staying on the court in recent years. He has missed at least half of the last two regular-seasons due to injuries and a suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs.
When Celtics majority owner Bill Chisholm and president of basketball operations Brad Stevens addressed the media regarding the trade, the press conference provided more questions than answers. Questions like these:
Why did the Celtics feel the need to trade Brown?
Stevens said having Brown and Jayson Tatum on the roster would eat up 70 percent of the team’s salary cap, and that wasn’t a formula that could produce an NBA championship under the new collective bargaining agreement. Brown and Tatum accounted for 47 percent of the salary cap when the Celtics won the championship in 2024.
It’s worth noting that George’s $54.1 million salary is comparable to what Brown makes. George has one guaranteed year remaining on his contract followed by a $56.6 million player option.
Brown is entering the third year of a five-year deal. Since the Celtics will likely be in a bad financial spot for the next two years anyway, Boston may have been better off biting the financial bullet for an extra year and keeping Brown until his contract expired.
Did ownership or possibly Tatum make it clear that they wanted Brown off the roster?
Chisholm said there was no mandate from ownership to trade Brown, and Stevens insists Tatum had no input in the decision to move Brown either.
“I have a real hard and fast rule,” Stevens said. “I don’t ask other guys about other guys because it’s not — I won’t put them in that position. So, he had none.”
Still, with the underwhelming package the Celtics received for Brown, it’s hard to believe there weren’t some behind-the-scenes forces at work that made Stevens a little more eager to pull the trigger on a deal.
Why make the trade with Philadelphia, a team the Celtics share space with in the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division?
The Celtics playing nice with the 76ers is like the Red Sox sending a top player to the Yankees which is difficult to envision under any circumstance. This part of the trade was also puzzling, especially since Philadelphia overcame a 3-1 series deficit and eliminated the Celtics in the first round last season. The trade handed the 76ers one of the best players in the NBA.
There are reports that Brown was picky about which teams he would play for, so that could have narrowed the market. If only the Celtics had shown some patience a better deal may have materialized – one that didn’t involve a team in Boston’s division. It’s unlikely the 76ers were going to pull their offer off the table.
Even if you don’t believe the Celtics were fleeced in the deal, Boston had a better chance to win a championship in the next few years with Brown than without him.
There’s no question about that.
