A couple of days have gone by, and the smoke is starting to clear as people come to grips with and try to process the Celtics’ shocking trade of Jaylen Brown to the 76ers for Paul George and draft picks. Different details and rumors have trickled out, and there’s more than enough speculation to fuel a documentary series, but we got some interesting, tangible context on Friday.
Jay King and Sam Amick of The Athletic released a story documenting the trade, focused on the different perspectives that went into it. There was plenty of solid anecdotal info about how everything came together, but there were a few tidbits from the Boston side that were extremely noteworthy.
We’ve been hearing for almost a decade about the delicate balance of power between Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown that became nauseating to Celtics fans. But ultimately, that 1a/1b dynamic may have played a role in Boston’s desire to move Brown. Although he has always bought in and done what is best for the team, he finally got a chance to be ‘the guy’ with Tatum out this season, and there was concern over whether JB would take a step back again.
“The Celtics began to have questions about whether [Brown] would remain fully bought in moving forward, according to league sources. Internally, they wondered whether they could keep everyone on the same page basketball-wise, as they had always managed to do in the past.”
This is human nature, and something that could easily have been bubbling up under the surface for years, but now that Brown has gotten a taste of the spotlight to himself, there were clearly some worries about whether the toothpaste could be put back in the tube.
Celtics clearly want to be Jayson Tatum's team
The Celtics very clearly want to lean into Tatum being the unquestioned number one guy, and they didn’t think Jaylen was going to accept that. Feeling that it would create more unnecessary problems for the team was a non-starter that obviously contributed to the decision to shop Brown around the league.
The other notable excerpt from The Athletic article indicated that the Celtics weren’t happy with how Brown hijacked some of the playoff games, straying from the system and leading to poor results. Despite scoring 33 points in the Game 7 loss, he shot just 12-27 from the field, and the team was outscored by 16 during his 40 minutes.
“Contributing to concerns about the situation, the Celtics believed that Brown went off script too often during playoff games as Boston blew a 3-1 first-round lead to Philadelphia, according to a league source.”
Even the staunchest of Brown defenders would have to admit some of this, as the Celtics were outscored by 57 points with Jaylen on the court over the final three games of the round one loss and finished the series with more turnovers than assists.
Celtics need more impact, efficiency, & reliability from supermax player
That’s just not the way the Celtics want to play, and they have reliable ballhandlers in Tatum, Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, and now, Paul George. Boston clearly wants to play within their system built around Tatum, and Brown no longer fits into that.
Whether you agree with the move or not, Brad Stevens and the front office came to the conclusion that the situation was untenable and Brown had to go, hence shopping him around the league and settling on the best available package just one day into free agency.
I’m sure more details will keep coming out. Some of it may be true and some not. It may even get ugly. But whatever off-court nonsense we may hear, it’s pretty obvious that this move was about basketball, fit, and roles as much as anything.
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