There appears to be a lot of attention being paid to Jaylen Brown in the wake of the Boston Celtics cleaning house in the front office and giving former head coach Brad Stevens control over player movement in his new President of Basketball Operations role.
Daily Knicks wants NY to acquire Brown in a deal. Hardwood Houdini has looked into the issue of whether it’s time to move on from the C’s second star.
My co-editor Mark Nilon even believes Brown could be the centerpiece in a deal that sends him to Portland in return for the league’s best point guard Damian Lillard.
But the words of former Boston Celtics center and current ESPN analyst Ryan Hollins particularly made my brow raise in curiosity:
"“Jaylen Brown scares me, because I think if he goes, Jaylen Brown is going to have a James Harden-like explosion,” Hollins told The Zach Gelb Show on Wednesday. “And I don’t think that he’s ever going to have that under [star teammate] Jayson Tatum. He can shoot, he can score. He can sink his hips into his crossovers, which means he moves as if he’s a guy who’s 5-foot-10, 5-foot-11. He’s got that type of mobility. And I think he could have a James Harden-like explosion, and it just may not happen with the Celtics."
The narrative of Brown being held back by the presence of Jayson Tatum has begun. What makes this extra interesting is the fact that new President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens has benched Brown before, making Marcus Smart the starter in 2018-19 at the 2.
Trading Brown is a distant, but plausible, possibility for the Boston Celtics.
Stevens isn’t going to move Brown for pennies on the dollar, though, and would likely only move him for an upgrade. Such a situation exists, though, where Brown could ascend to James Harden-level notoriety.
Here are the 2 realistic landing spots Jaylen Brown would be the #1 option on: