Boston Celtics: Pass or pursue on 2 rumored Jaylen Brown trade candidates
Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown trade target #1: Damian Lillard
The Damian Lillard agenda has been on full blast all summer around these parts, and the thought of landing the league’s best floor general and adding it to one of the league’s best scorers in Jayson Tatum may give one Steph Curry-Kevin Durant vibes in Golden State.
Of course, in order to land Lillard, it could take a monster haul that could potentially make the Cs significantly shallower of a roster than those Warriors. My co-editor Mark Nilon has thrown around trade ideas to bring the Oakland product to Beantown, and every name from Brown, to Marcus Smart, to Robert Williams, to 2020-21 rookies Payton Pritchard and Aaron Nesmith came up. Multiple first round picks also factored into the equation as well.
Given that Boston just gave up a first-round pick to get off of Kemba Walker’s contract in the Al Horford deal, it may not be the most prudent long-term move to trade even more to find Walker’s replacement.
Unless that player is Damian Lillard. Then you do it.
With Lillard unhappy with the Blazers’ handling of their head coaching search, it could be time for him to move on from the City of Roses after nine years of being unable to crack the NBA Finals.
The Olympics will be a good time for Tatum to start recruiting Lillard as they will likely be starting together for Team USA in Japan.