As is always the case whenever a team trades one of its best players, more details are trickling out about where things had truly been headed between Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics. More reports are coming out indicating that, more than anything else, Boston simply wanted out of the Jaylen Brown business.
But it goes deeper than that. According to the latest from ESPN's Shams Charania, Boston tried to trade Brown to Golden State before the trade deadline.
.@ShamsCharania on the Warriors 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
— Chef (@CurryForGame) July 27, 2026
"The Warriors could've got in the Jaylen Brown sweepstakes if they wanted to give up 4 first round picks-ish, in that range. They decided not to from my understanding. Those 2 teams, the Warriors and Celtics did talk about a Jaylen Brown… pic.twitter.com/g3otTKXsyo
On an off tangent, it would have been cool to see Brown reunited with Kristaps Porzingis to form Cookies & Cream 2.0. Oh and Al Horford too.
But with that out of the way, perhaps this was not as spontaneous as we all thought. It sounds like Stevens wanted to cut ties with Brown for a while. It seems like a bad look at first after the season Brown just had, but intel like this suggests Stevens believes Joe Mazzulla was more responsible for Boston's success than Brown was last season.
The fact of the matter is, Stevens sent Brown to a division rival, concluding that the 76ers simply had the best offer available on top of wanting him out. Maybe we will see why he felt that way about Brown as this coming season unfolds, but it's clear Stevens did not think Brown fit in with the team's schemes anymore.
Celtics believe that process > talent
(That was not a Joel Embiid pun)
Brown is coming off a season where he came within inches of getting All-NBA first team honors, which on the surface makes it seem unfathomable that Boston would trade him, let alone to a division rival who more or less have the same goals that they do.
With the addition of LeBron James, it's become clear that the Sixers' approach will be that talent wins out (it's been James' MO his entire career), while the Celtics' approach has been that the process is what's best for the team.
Brown is an awesome player, hence why there's still been a fair amount of backlash to this trade and a lot of hype surrounding the Sixers. Yet, it really sounds like Stevens lost faith in him for some time before he traded him for aging Paul George and draft assets.
There's a possibility that Brown will prove Stevens both right and wrong this season. Boston will still be just as good as last season (if not better) while Brown and the Sixers dominate. Playoff contenders have all taken different approaches. In Boston's case, it was clear theirs did not plan to feature Brown for quite some time.
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