People across the NBA were left in shock when news came in that the Celtics were trading Jaylen Brown to the 76ers for Paul George and draft picks. By then, it had become clear that JB was on the block, and the idea of him actually being dealt can’t have been a huge surprise. But the fact that he was dealt to one of the team’s biggest rivals that just eliminated them from the playoffs, and for such an unremarkable return, has caused a stir, to say the least.
The Celtics are getting skewered by fans and the media, bordering on anger from many around Boston. The trade is hard to fathom and feels like such a punch to the gut that it has people assuming this has to be part of some bigger plan. But that’s not the case.
There’s no big secret. There’s no other shoe to drop. There isn’t going to be any big reveal that explains why the Celtics decided to do this deal.
Jaylen was traded for basketball reasons and his huge contract
Sure, there may be subsequent moves, and there may have been more going on behind the scenes than we can tell, but there’s not going to be any ‘smoking gun’ style revelation. The bottom line is that Brad Stevens and his team determined that the best path to winning another championship was trading Brown.
It was a basketball decision and a CBA decision above all else. Brown is certainly a very good player, but the Boston front office, which leans heavily on the data, clearly doesn’t think he’s returning adequate value on his supermax contract, which eats up 35% of the salary cap.
That deal will pay him over $180 million for the next three seasons, and in October, he’ll be eligible to tack on two more years for over $140 million. In an era where team-building is massively impacted by spending over the cap, Boston didn’t think it was tenable to keep building around two players (Jayson Tatum and Brown) who take up 70% of the salary cap.
Celtics believe they can build better team around Tatum without Brown
So, as great as Brown is, he’s not on the level of Tatum, and Stevens made the difficult, somewhat cutthroat decision to move on before the contract is underwater. The Celtics’ main priority wasn’t getting back equal talent; it was shedding the contract and gaining as many assets as possible.
Is Paul George as good as Brown right now? Of course not. But his lofty deal has a player option for next season, so it will be a two-year deal at the most, and he certainly won’t be seeking a supermax extension. He’s a useful player still, and at worst, he’ll be a $50+ million expiring contract a year from now. Boston added four valuable draft picks in the process and gained the flexibility to go hunting for pieces to re-tool around Tatum.
You don’t have to like or agree with the approach, but this is the truth. It was a strategic decision, designed to bring the Celtics back to glory. Maybe it will work out, and maybe it won’t. That largely depends on the next wave of moves. But Stevens made up his mind that in this landscape, the Tatum/Brown supermax pairing had run its course, and the time to break it up was now. Only time will tell if it was the right move.
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