The Boston Celtics Have No Interest In Trading Jaylen Brown… YET
Due diligence is a crucial aspect of any well-performed job — roughly a year and a half ago I wrote an article titled “The Boston Celtics Should ABSOLUTELY NOT Trade Jaylen Brown… YET.” The point of the article was that it made no sense to trade a twenty-three-year-old wing who was yet to reach his potential, particularly for an upgrade that wouldn’t propel the team to bona fide title favorites (the following season Jaylen Brown made his first All-Star team). The point of this article is similar, but a bit more nuanced as times have changed…
Morning rumors that Brad Stevens offered the Brooklyn Nets a substantial package of assets centered around Jaylen Brown and a haul of draft picks for Kevin Durant sent the Twitter-verse into an outright frenzy. The Athletic, Bleacher Report, and of course Adrian Wojnarowski were all quick to provide their versions of the story. Shams Charania of The Athletic claimed “league sources say” the Celtics offered Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and a draft pick — while ESPN claims Boston offered up Jaylen Brown, Grant Williams, Payton Pritchard, three first-round picks, and two first-round pick swaps. Supposedly the Nets turned down whichever one of these offers you believe to be true.
The truth is that Shams is almost certainly correct for two reasons — 1. He has a vast history of being on the money with his reporting, and 2. The Celtics would be equally as crazy to offer the second proposed trade as the Nets would be to decline it… But I digress.
Celtics/Jaylen Brown fret not; this was a feeler trade offer from Boston with clear motives behind it. The Celtics have the benefit of knowing a few vital facts entering these alleged trade talks —
- For one, as of current reports, Jaylen Brown is far and away the best player being linked to a trade for Kevin Durant, so it’s possible that the Celtics are using this as a means of upping the price for other potential suitors. This logic wouldn’t normally make sense, as upping the price for a “rival” would stand to benefit them which would, in turn, make for a tougher future division opponent for the Celtics. However, the Celtics are focused on competing right now and know that by trading Durant the Nets would be forfeiting their short-term competitive aspirations, and by upping the price for Durant, the Celtics would be further diminishing the assets of whichever team acquired him; a team the Celtics would now be in direct competition with for an NBA Title.
- Secondly, the Celtics know they’re in a stronger position than the Nets and have no real urgency to get a deal done. This also applies to Brooklyn, who currently holds the rights to Kevin Durant through the 2025/2026 season. With no real rush to get a deal done by either side, sending out feeler-offers is a good way of gauging where the opposing side is at with the direction of their pricing. As of right now, the price is astronomically high and only stands to drop as the Nets lose leverage over time. Both sides know that if a deal is getting done between them, it will be in the nature of a future rebuild for the Nets and a drive to compete right now for the Celtics. The Nets are sending the message that they have no interest in a rebuild, so, until one of the side's motives changes (Brooklyn), there’s effectively no shot at a deal being completed between them.
Moving forward, it still doesn’t make sense to trade Jaylen Brown at this point. While he was one of the top performers in last season's NBA Finals, he also showcased a plethora of areas in which he needs to improve upon to become a reliable, championship-caliber leader. To add to this, aside from not being selected to last year's All-Star team due to a poor first-half performance by the entire team, Brown has showcased a clear linear trajectory of improvement season over season. If the Celtics are serious about trading Jaylen Brown then they must know something about him that both the team and his side have been able to keep under wraps, because the outward perception is that he checks every box a team could want in a young, developing star entering his prime years.
Brown’s regarded as a tireless worker off the court with a quiet, stoic, persona. He’s never publicly requested a trade and, aside from his public beef with former teammate Kyrie Irving (which has only aged well for Brown), has never been linked with any internal issues. There’s a clear bond amongst the Celtics' core of drafted players (Brown, Smart, Tatum) who’ve grown up beside each other, and trading away one of them following their best collaborative performance while they’re still all ascending could both damage team morale as well as both internal and external perception of Stevens.
Lastly, the value difference between Brown and Durant hasn’t reached the ideal equilibrium for the Celtics to justify breaking down their core for him. When the skill/talent/age gap between the two is compared, it’s evident that the balance only stands to shift further in the way of the Celtics in the future.
If the Celtics are truly interested in thirty-three-year-old Kevin Durant and have the benefit of knowing there’s likely no other legitimate trade offer looming in the background, why not bet on Jaylen Brown to get better next year? At his age and trajectory, there’s little to no chance that his stock falls, so the worst-case scenario would be getting another year of Brown and being able to offer a similar package, with the Nets more tempted to accept given the increased time-sensitivity of a potential trade. Whereas the upside would be Jaylen Brown reaching his All-NBA potential, creating a scenario where Boston would be able to offer him plus far less than what it would take today to acquire a then thirty-four-year-old Durant, who would have two years left on his contract, thus negating the downside that comes with taking on the lengthy contract of a star who apparently doesn’t like living in the same city for consecutive seasons.
This scenario would see the Celtics lose fewer assets, and remain robust and viable in the trade market if they weren’t able to either win a championship or convince Durant to sign a future extension.
Bottom line — The Celtics have no interest in trading Jaylen Brown. Not while his stock is still rising. While the chance to sign Kevin Durant is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the Nets won’t move him this season for anything short of the biggest package the NBA has ever seen. Expect him to remain on the Brooklyn Nets this upcoming season, for Brown to remain a Celtic, for quiet free-agency weeks to spark loud rumors, and for us to likely have a very similar discussion this time next year.
