Now that the Celtics’ Jaylen Brown trade is a couple of months old and the NBA season is actually approaching, we’ve seen a shift in the way people judge the team. When the deal went down, they were widely mocked for getting fleeced, closing their own championship window, and opening one up for the rival 76ers.
But now, people are actually looking at the bigger picture and analyzing the landscape of the league and the rosters and realizing that maybe Brad Stevens was actually cooking. Recently, we’ve seen The Ringer put the Celtics at fourth in their preseason power rankings, we heard ESPN’s Brian Windhorst say he thinks the Celtics will have a top-5 record; and others across the media have started to warm to the team’s prospects.
Earlier in the month, Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report listed one hot take for every team in the NBA, and for the Celtics, his claim was that “Jaylen Brown won’t be missed… that much”. And guess what? Not only do I agree with Grant, but I’m not even sure it should be a hot take.
This isn’t to take a shot at Grant or anything, as the common consensus since the trade was announced was that Boston was taking a major step back, trading away an All-NBA player in his prime who just finished sixth in MVP voting.
Celtics should be much better team for present and future
But as Hughes aptly points out, Boston has earned the benefit of the doubt and should garner more respect for weighing the pros and cons before making the trade. We just saw what Joe Mazzulla and this system look like with one superstar surrounded by elite role players, and now they have a better star in Jayson Tatum taking over the Brown role, with a better, more experienced supporting cast around him.
They also have a massive collective chip on their shoulder, as this team has been buried all offseason, basically written off despite winning 56 games last season, largely without Tatum. They may miss some of JB’s tough shot-making and one-on-one defense, but they won’t miss his turnovers, ball-stopping, questionable shot diet, and careless off-ball defense.
And what they miss can certainly be made up with Paul George, Mitchell Robinson, and others, who fit the scheme perfectly and understand they’re here to support and complement JT. I’ve been getting excited about this team for a long time, and it’s great to see that others are starting to come around.
Everyone assumes that the trade was to set the Celtics up for the future and the long term, but I don’t think it’s crazy at all to think that they’ll be better than they were last season and a much more viable threat come playoff time.
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