Boston Celtics: SCS warms up to idea of Harden trade without Jaylen Brown

Hardwood Houdini’s sister site Space City Scoop has warmed up to the idea of a James Harden-Boston Celtics trade that doesn’t include Jaylen Brown.

For the longest time, it seemed as though there was a stalemate too great for the Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets to overcome when it came to a James Harden trade: the willingness to include Jaylen Brown in a deal.

I’ve been maintaining for a while that Brown is a better fit in Beantown for a few reasons. At age 24, Brown has many years of his prime still left as opposed to the 31-year-old Harden, who has likely already seen his best years.

Granted, those best years happened in the last three seasons, where Harden’s Rockets came close to knocking off the Golden State Warriors twice in the playoffs before falling to last year’s eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers in the bubble.

But Brown has a ceiling that is yet to be defined and his athleticism, silky post moves, and (here’s a key one) leadership could dictate sky-high potential. Harden relies more on brute strength and foul-drawing trickery than Brown, and he certainly provides minimal leadership off the court based on rumors of his preferential treatment from the Rockets franchise.

This is all to say that Space City Scoop made my morning when they released a trade piece sending Harden to the Boston Celtics in different deals, and one of them didn’t include Brown:

"ROCKETS GET: KEMBA WALKER, DANIEL THEIS, 2021 1ST ROUND PICK, 2023 1ST-ROUND PICK, 2025 1ST-ROUND PICK, PICK SWAPSCELTICS GET: JAMES HARDENThis trade proposal would figure to be the least appealing of all the trade packages from the Houston Rockets’ standpoint, as the Celtics have much more to offer. This package would be centered around Kemba Walker, who formerly made the All-NBA team and has made four consecutive All-Star teams.In this deal the Rockets’ lack of draft picks would be addressed, as they would receive three first-round picks, although they couldn’t be included in subsequent years, due to the NBA’s Stepien rule, which would force the C’s to deal picks in every other year.To make up for that, the Celtics would also be including pick swaps in 2022 and 2024. The Rockets would also receive Daniel Theis and Carsen Edwards, which would address their needs of an additional big man and ballhandler, which has stuck out like a sore thumb through the Rockets’ first seven games."

We have long maintained that Harden is a target only in the scenario that a trade wouldn’t send Brown in exchange for the 3x reigning scoring champion. Harden is a franchise-altering acquisition, but in the case of the Cs, he could end up changing the trajectory for the worse.

As someone who figures to lose some luster over the next two seasons, it isn’t clear whether or not Harden has the ability to adjust and hand over the reins to the likes of Jayson Tatum. Kemba Walker has already shown the ability to enable his rise, but injuries have lessened him as an asset. Space City Scoop’s aforementioned proposal is future-focused for Houston, who gain three first-round picks as well as pick swaps.

If both teams can agree to similar terms as those above, there’s business to be had.

Houston, you have a (bearded) problem, and HH wants to help…and it finally seems that Rockets fans are open to the idea of getting help–in the form of a handful of draft picks and Kemba Walker in place of Jaylen Brown in a Harden-Boston Celtics trade.