It's been over a month since the Boston Celtics traded Jaylen Brown. Most optimistically, the trade has been divisive among both Celtics fans and really NBA fans in general. What's given this trade a bad mark from the Celtics side of it is the lack of return from it, which could make one question if Boston waited too long to trade Brown in the first place.
It's hard to make that judgment, but what reinforces the idea that they should have made it sooner is that the Brown trade persuaded LeBron James to choose Philly, making them one of the most talented teams in the league. However, that was out of Boston's control.
In Boston's case, Bleacher Report's Dan Favale labeled the Brown trade as one that was made too late, explaining that the perfect time to do it was last summer, when Stevens was trying to get the Celtics under the NBA's tax aprons.
"More went into moving Brown this offseason than the Celtics' open pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Whether analytical, financial, logistical or emotional, the dynamics that nudged him out of Beantown didn't materialize out of nowhere. Boston had enough information to make the call earlier.
"'Earlier' doesn't refer to an undefined timeline, either. The Celtics entered cost-cutting mode last summer on the heels of Jayson Tatum's Achilles injury and should have acted on Brown's future then."
Why a Brown trade would have been harder in 2025
The Celtics would likely have succeeded in their efforts to trade Brown if they had wanted to. It's possible that they looked into it back then; the fact that they had trade discussions involving him with Golden State a few months into the 2025-26 season showed it was definitely on their mind. However, it would have been harder to pull it off.
Let's start with this. The fact that Brown only fetched two first-round picks on top of George, who may be a better fit but is currently the lesser player, showed that the entire NBA believed he was overpaid. For as talented as Brown is, the league clearly did not see him as a franchise player, hence why no one wanted top what the Sixers offered.
So if nobody really wanted to take on Brown's contract, that would have made it harder to trade and harder to get the return that they did, because teams don't want to take on long-term money for a player they see as being paid well above his pay grade.
Brown also did not have nearly as good of an individual campaign then like he did last season. Part of that can be attributed to his meniscus tear (which shows how much of a warrior he is), but still. Teams don't want to pay much for someone who averaged 22.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 4.5 assists while shooting 46.3% from the floor and 32.4% from three.
An overpaid player on a longer contract coming off not one of his best seasons while also playing hurt? That doesn't have that much appeal despite Brown's reputation. Contrast that with Brown, on a shorter contract, playing the best basketball of his career on a clean bill of health.
The Celtics didn't get a king's ransom, but when you compare that to last year, it's clear to see why it was easier to make that trade back in July than it would have been the previous July.
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