The Celtics blew a 3-1 lead and lost in the first round of the playoffs, and all of the discourse has been about improving the roster, chiefly by trading Jaylen Brown. At first, those talks surrounded moving Brown in a deal to bring back Giannis Antetokounmpo, but as thoughts of Boston's interest in Giannis have soured, the narrative has shifted to moving JB for a haul of young players, role players, and draft assets.
In his end-of-season press conference, Brad Stevens came out and said the roster wasn’t good enough, the coaching wasn’t good enough, and what rang the loudest: they couldn’t generate good enough shots and needed more rim pressure.
So, why on earth would that lead to the idea that Jaylen Brown should get traded? This season, Brown led the NBA in made field goals and made field goals off of drives, finishing second in the league in isolation field goals and second in transition field goals.
You can quibble about his efficiency, but in terms of getting to the rim and generating shots, JB is elite. If Stevens and the Celtics are truly seeking to get to the rim more and generate better shots, trading Brown is not the answer.
Celtics should have no financial motivation to dump Brown's contract
There is some logic behind wanting to get off of one of their supermax contracts to create team-building flexibility going forward, but overall, this path makes no sense. The Cs are already well below the luxury tax for next season with money to spare.Â
There should be zero urgency to save money for next season. If the worries go beyond that, that's an ownership issue, because the team will likely reset the repeater tax and have no reason to fear spending for the end of Jayson Tatum’s prime.
Boston can absolutely tweak their style and scheme; they can put Brown in a better position to succeed more efficiently, which should happen naturally with a fully healthy Tatum back in the fold. But acting like trading Brown wouldn’t remove the team’s best threat to pressure the rim consistently is nuts.
Boston should look to optimize Brown, not trade him
Rather than looking to replace him with a player, or players, who won’t create as much rim-pressure and will likely come with other flaws, the Celtics should be looking to maximize Brown’s skills in this offense.
Allow Brown to play off the ball, to get better looks, open driving and cutting lanes, and the chance to attack closeouts. He should be able to thrive in that role, perhaps sacrificing some volume for efficiency. This would give him more free rein to focus on being a defensive stopper and to increase transition scoring opportunities and easy fastbreak baskets.
JB is far from a perfect player, but he’s a damn good one, and there’s plenty of talent around him. Coming off the best season of his career, the focus should be on optimizing his skills within the team and not dealing him away for pennies on the dollar.
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