Even though I continue to insist that the Celtics would be crazy to trade Jaylen Brown for anything less than an equal level of star, he continues to be thrown in the trade machine for pupu platter return packages. Most recently, Bleacher Report offered up a four-team deal that would send JB and the 27th overall pick this year out the door and see Boston getting Trey Murphy III, Saddiq Bey, Jabari Smith Jr., and the Suns’ 2027 first-round pick. The full trade involves the Celtics, Pelicans, Rockets, and Pistons.
The package makes sense for Boston on paper
The logic here from the Celtics’ side is pretty simple: they turn JB and his $57.1 million salary for next season into three useful rotation players all making much less money. Murphy III is one of my favorite trade targets for Boston. He is on a great contract, about to enter year two of a 4-year, $112 million deal, and has blossomed into an elite off-ball scorer and shooter with room to grow at just 25 years old.
Jabari is another attractive young player who hasn’t quite lived up to his lofty draft hype but has become a solid role player, a great floor spacer, and a solid defender and rebounder. There’s still some upside as he’s still 23 and could be optimized more in Joe Mazzulla’s offense, and he’s just about to start a pretty reasonable 5-year, $122 million rookie extension next season.
Bey had a breakout season in New Orleans after a disappointing run in Detroit, then Atlanta, and missed the entire 2024-25 season with an injury. He bounced back in a big way, averaging over 17 points and 5 rebounds a game last season on solid 36.7% three-point shooting while holding up for 72 games and over 31 minutes a clip. He’s entering the final year of his deal and is set to make just $6.4 million at age 27.
Finally, the Suns’ pick next year should be a lot more attractive than the Celtics’ this year. Phoenix overachieved this year, but the West should be even better; more teams will be competing on a nightly basis, and with the new lottery odds, that pick could easily land in the top-10 or so.
This return simply isn’t enough for Brown
Having said all that, this just isn’t enough for the Celtics to get back for Brown. Murphy and Smith have great theoretical upside and have already proven to be very good role players, but there’s no guarantee that either one will ever be a true number-two option. I’m as high on Murphy as anyone, but he’s just an okay defender, and he’s not an elite rim pressure guy or playmaker. Maybe he’ll become that someday, but for Jayson Tatum’s main sidekick, this is too much of an immediate downgrade.
Bey had one great season, but his deal is expiring, and we don’t know how much of that will be sustainable. Plus, the Celtics are loaded with good young two-way wing players who make the minimum and can give them a lot of what they’d be getting from Bey.
Finally, it’s crazy to think that Boston would have to throw in any draft capital at all in a deal like this one, where they are giving up the best player, by far, and the only player who has even sniffed an All-NBA team.
I like all of the players the Celtics are getting here, and would be happy to acquire each of them, but they would be additive to a core of Tatum and Brown, not in place of one. Murphy and Smith are guys they should target with their traded player exception from the Anfernee Simons deal to try and add to their core. But these aren’t guys who replace core players and become the new core, as this mock deal suggests. Ultimately, I have to pass if I’m Brad Stevens.
Add us as a preferred source on Google