In the aftermath of the crazy Jaylen Brown trade to Philadelphia, there has been plenty of speculation about whether or not Brown was frustrated with the team and demanded a trade, or if Jayson Tatum had any input on his longtime co-star being unceremoniously dumped to a chief Celtics rival.
On Monday, we got some answers from the Celtics' president of basketball operations, Brad Stevens. Stevens and owner Bill Chisholm faced the media for the first time since the deal was agreed to, and answered questions for over 40 minutes in the Auerbach Center.
Brad was asked directly how much input Tatum had on the trade and immediately responded, “none”. He went on to explain, “I have a real hard, fast rule: I don’t ask other guys about other guys. I don’t want to put them in that position, so he had none.”
Maybe Brad is just trying to protect his franchise superstar here, but there was no hesitation in insisting the deal came down to Brad and the front office doing what they thought was best given the CBA, the salary cap implications of having two supermax players, and wanting optionality going forward.
Jayson Tatum had no input into Jaylen Brown trade
He was adamant that the move had nothing to do with Tatum’s desires in any way, and for the most part, that tracks. JT has never shown anything but love towards Brown, and while fans can play mindreader as much as they want, there has never been any indication that Tatum, or any other player, has anything to do with personnel decisions.
And from what it sounds like, the same was even true about Brown in this deal. Brad explained that he was in close communication with JB and his agent all along, but didn’t mention anything about him demanding a trade, being frustrated with the Celtics or vice versa, again claiming it was about basketball and being able to build a winner in the modern NBA.
Jaylen Brown never expressed frustration or demanded a trade
When asked if Jaylen was disgruntled or the Celtics were disgruntled with Jaylen, Brad dismissed the notion:
"No. We all appreciate Jaylen. We've all enjoyed having Jaylen as a teammate."
Surely this will do nothing to dispel any rumors or speculation about how the Jays hate each other, that Brown wanted out of Boston, or that the Celtics were done with Brown, but that’s their story, and they’re sticking to it.
Trade was simply about basketball, the CBA, and winning
Brad can’t be expected to know exactly how JB feels, and it would almost be weird if Jaylen wasn’t hurt by this in some way, but it doesn’t seem like there was any real animosity that dictated this trade.
At the end of the day, there was no smoking gun to explain this deal. Like we’ve been saying since the start, the Celtics like their system a lot and believe it can be very good without Brown. Ultimately, they decided that JB isn’t worth his contract, and in this CBA, that can be seriously damaging.
So, there’s no behind-the-scenes reality TV drama going on here. It may not be sexy or play well on First Take, but this was a decision driven by basketball nerds and salary cap nerds who think the Celtics will be better off moving forward. Sorry if that’s boring, but it appears to be the truth.
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