According to Stephen A. Smith, Jaylen Brown wouldn’t be on the Boston Celtics if Kevin Durant had requested a trade to the Cs instead of the Suns. Smith revealed this opinion on the March 1 edition of First Take.
Smith resurrected the KD for Brown trade rumors before the trade deadline, but Phoenix stepped up to pay the massive price for Durant by giving the Nets Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, and four unprotected future first-round picks. The Celtics wouldn’t have come close to meeting that price from a draft pick perspective and likely wouldn’t have even dangled Brown considering their standing in the east.
With the Bucks taking first place back from Boston, though, Smith fired back up the NBA national media’s ol reliable narrative of getting Brown off the Celtics — and former championship Celtics center Kendrick Perkins didn’t object:
"“JB, in all likelihood, would be gone from Boston if Kevin Durant had wanted to go to the Boston Celtics.”"
A potential Jaylen Brown for Kevin Durant offseason blockbuster for Boston Celtics
With Durant having been traded to the Suns, you’d think that the KD-for-Brown trade talks would be dead in the water. But they may live on if the Boston Celtics aren’t hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy this June and the Suns situation turns toxic with so many big name players in the fold.
In fact, a swap may be more likely now than when Durant was on the Nets.
Trading Brown out of conference would be a much different beast than to a division rival should he ever request out of Boston, and the Suns could want to offload Chris Paul’s partially guaranteed $60 million over the next two years if he continues to show decline. If Phoenix wanted to include Paul’s salary in a Durant swap, the Celtics could send back Malcolm Brogdon and other salary filler (along with Brown) to fill the point guard vacancy on the Suns’ roster. Paul could then transition into a sixth man role on the Celtics with Durant being inserted into the starting lineup alongside Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart, Robert Williams, and Derrick White.
It’d be a massive swing for two teams that have been doing plenty of that in recent years, but it could potentially fulfill several needs for both teams.