All eyes have shifted to Jaylen Brown in the wake of the blockbuster Giannis Antetokounmpo trade to the Miami Heat. Shortly after the news broke Monday night, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the Boston Celtics had offered Brown in a now rejected trade package for the two-time MVP.
The Celtics aggressively pursued Giannis, offering Milwaukee a package featuring 2024 Finals MVP Jaylen Brown and two first-round picks, sources tell ESPN. The Bucks seriously negotiated with two finalists in recent weeks: Miami and Boston, which were both on Antetokounmpo’s list… https://t.co/BVY37MwP4K
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 23, 2026
With his availability in the potential deal now known, there’s a serious concern in the Celtics community that Brown may grow frustrated with the franchise and ask out this summer. That feeling stems into front offices, it seems.
Charania shared that several teams around the association are “paying very close attention” to Brown and the Celtics situation, during his Tuesday appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. He pointed out that this is now the second time in four years that Brown has been used as trade bait, with Boston dangling him at the Brooklyn Nets in hopes of possibly landing Kevin Durant in 2022.
“I know that there are going to be hard conversations ahead,” Charania explained. “There’s going to be fallout from this -- there already is. My understanding is that the Celtics are listening to interested teams and offers for Jaylen Brown. I wouldn’t say they’re actively shopping him right now, but the Celtics are listening to offers. There are multiple interested teams that have at least started to reach out and engage."
Charania added that the resolution of this situation won’t necessarily be a trade since Brown still has three seasons left on his current contract.
The Jaylen Brown situation feels bad for the Celtics
Look, there’s no way of knowing how this summer is going to play out at this point -- especially with Brown. But in the case where he does ask for a trade, then it’s going to feel like the Celtics truly missed an opportunity to get ahead of it. They could’ve landed Antetokounmpo, but now run the risk of having to take pennies on the dollar for one of their franchise pillars.
The sick part is that Boston didn’t even do anything wrong in this situation. They did their due diligence on Giannis, put together a competitive offer, and held their ground when they felt the price got too steep.
A segment of the fanbase will be mad that they weren’t willing to include Hugo Gonzalez or an extra first-round pick to get a deal done, but the Cs read the situation correctly… in a vacuum. In a vacuum, Giannis would’ve only been worth trading for if Boston managed to pull it off without gouging a significant amount of their future assets. They kept to that mindset.
The only issue is that we’re not living in a vacuum. We’re living in a world where there are consequences when things like this happen.
Now, because details from trade negotiations leaked to the public it feels like they’re at serious risk from having to move on from Brown.
Who knows? Maybe that was part of the plan all along. Maybe Brad Stevens and the front office feel like a sizable shake-up is necessary after another disappointing playoff exit.
They could also really like the idea of keeping Brown and Jayson Tatum together to push for another NBA Championship with a reinforced roster. Hopefully, that's the case, and the fans celebrating Milwaukee's decision to overlook Brown and let him remain in Boston are correct to be doing so.
One thing is for sure; the next few months are going to be awfully telling in terms of JB's future with the Cs.
Add us as a preferred source on Google