Star #3 Boston Celtics have the assets to land in the offseason: Donovan Mitchell
The Houdini hates very few things more than the national NBA media’s obsession with trading Jaylen Brown. One of the primary reasons why was because some of the most commonly linked players in any deal were Ben Simmons and John Collins.
Acquiring Simmons for Brown made such little sense when he was on the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Cs would simply be handing the Brooklyn Nets the NBA Championship if they were to ever consider a deal now. Which is doubtful since Brad Stevens wasn’t even considering it then. Simmons and Marcus Smart make little sense as a backcourt pairing, and Jayson Tatum’s usage rate shouldn’t suffer because of a redistribution of touches to the former #1 pick.
As for Collins, that is closer to making sense, but not by much. Just like the Simmons talks, Boston was never seriously considering Collins.
Those deals never made sense, nor did any deal for De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, or anyone seriously linked to Brown this past trade season.
But Donovan Mitchell? Now we’re seriously cooking with gas.
Mitchell is a one-man offensive system onto himself, and he produces more of an orbit due to his superior facilitation skills. Jayson Tatum would arguably have more room to operate, with Mitchell owning an identical conversion rate from beyond the arc than Brown as well.
We don’t want to see Brown traded. But if we must? Send Mitchell to Boston ASAP, since Utah likely wouldn’t accept any trade package not including the C’s second-leading scorer.