The Boston Celtics were in the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes until the very end, along with the Miami Heat. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, they put Jaylen Brown and two first round picks on the table, but Milwaukee decided to take Miami’s offer instead.
Even though they were not bale to land the Greek superstar, Boston’s aggressiveness signals that they are not content with the current state of their roster.
Brad Stevens signaled as much at the end of the season and the expectation is that the Celtics will look very different come opening night. There is one outcome that has to happen though.
The Celtics need to trade Jaylen Brown this summer…for the right price.
Once a player is in trade rumors and it is widely known that he was offered in another deal, there is no coming back.
The relationship between Brown and Boston has seemed to run its course, and with Brown’s comments at the end of the season about this being his favorite year of his career, his first as the number one option, it is not hard to see why both sides want a fresh start.
For Brown, he feels that he showed he can lead a team. He had the best season of his career, he helped the Celtics exceed expectations, and earned an All-NBA selection. He was on the ball a lot, he was making the decisions, and he was taking all the shots.
He is not going to be able to do that again with a full strength Jayson Tatum. Tatum is the franchise face and one of the five best players in the world when healthy. Brown would immediately go back to his Robin role and it is hard to see him being okay with that.
For the Celtics, they have statistically been a worse team with Brown on the court for quite some time now, especially in the playoffs. That reared its ugly head against the Sixers in the first round. Yes, they were able to win a championship with him, but that came with the absolute perfect roster around both him and Tatum. The odds of that happening again are extremely slim.
Boston also wants meaningful frontcourt upgrades and one of the only avenues in achieving that is trading Brown away. There isn’t a star big man on the roster, but maybe trading for a Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, or a Trey Murphy-Herb Jones package could be something that the Celtics look at. Either way, they have to trade Brown and they should, provided that they get meaningful upgrades in return. They should not trade him for the sake of trading him.