Welp. The Boston Celtics have officially traded Jaylen Brown, which, in my opinion, is bad enough on its own.
But combine that with where they traded him (Philadelphia 76ers, a divisional rival), the return (a 90-year-old Paul George on one of the worst contracts in the NBA, two first-round picks, and two second-round picks), the fact that, if you were going to trade him anyway, it's disastrous they didn't win the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes, and the fact that it all seemingly ended on bad terms.
Only time will tell how all of this will actually age. But you don't need Nostradamus to tell you that in one, five, 10 years, this trade is probably going to lean favorably in one direction (hint: it's not Boston).
There is no reason to be happy about the Jaylen Brown trade
Maybe the worst part about this trade (which is saying a lot) is the fact that there's no consolation if you're a Celtics fan. There's no redeeming factor or silver lining.
I want you to say with your chest that you're excited to have George on this roster in 2026 (who is probably going to play 20 games next season anyway), or that you think those picks are going to become something, or that you're happy that the team that just sent the Celtics home in the first round of the playoffs is unequivocally better than them now (they can join the list).
At least if the Celtics were going to trade Brown, it would have benefited them to get something legitimately valuable in return (i.e., Giannis, a new starting center like Evan Mobley, a lot of draft capital, or a ton of players to bolster their depth). Boston got none of that.
This doesn't solve any problems for the Celtics. There is nothing to be happy about with this trade. Even if you were vehemently for the Celtics splitting up the Jays and trading Brown, there's no way you can genuinely look at this trade and think Brad Stevens made the right call.
What this trade tells me is that things were really bad behind the scenes, and getting rid of the five-time All-Star was the only course of action for the Celtics. This was essentially a salary dump (kind of), which is disgusting on its own.
Boston might be a decent team next season, but their championship window is closed. Their roster already wasn't good enough to compete for a title, and this trade didn't help them in the slightest. This is going to go down as one of the biggest fumbles and mistakes in Celtics history, and it's unfortunate that we're living it in real time -- not learning about it in the history books or a documentary.
Add us as a preferred source on Google