BOSTON — In his first public comments since the shocking trade of Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said the decision to send the five-time All-Star to the Philadelphia 76ers was “a really hard call.”
“We’ve lost a lot of sleep about it,” Stevens said. “And we understand that a lot of people have.”
So why did the Celtics trade Brown, theoretically entering his prime at age 29, after the best season of his career?
Stevens said that he believed his team needed to take a different path forward to maximize its chances of winning a championship again soon. Stevens said he thought the future looked “a little bit more challenging with 70 percent of our cap and such a high percent of our usage tied into two players (Brown and Jayson Tatum).”
Why did the Celtics trade Jaylen Brown?
Jay King and Jeshua Kidd
Stevens said that Brown and Tatum combined to make 47 percent of the salary cap when the Celtics won the 2024 championship. That allowed the team to build out a deep, star-studded supporting cast. But many of those players are now gone after Stevens led an overhaul last season to push his team under the collective bargaining agreement’s second-apron threshold.
After two consecutive early playoff exits, the Celtics needed to grapple with the reality that they haven’t been good enough since that championship. With Brown and Tatum taking up more of the cap now, Stevens said the team believed it needed to find a new way forward.
“We wanted to stay good,” Stevens said. “And we wanted to add more optionality.”
Ironically, that formula involved acquiring Paul George, whose salary is similar to Brown’s, though it does have one fewer year. The Celtics also acquired four draft picks, including two first-round selections, in the deal.
“I think the biggest thing is, it’s (George), plus the picks, plus the optionality moving forward,” Stevens said. “Paul’s contract is shorter.”
Before taking questions, Stevens expressed gratitude for everything Brown accomplished during his Celtics tenure, on and off the court. In a statement released Monday, Stevens said Brown “will rightfully go down as one of the defining players of this era.”
“Like the best Celtics before him,” Stevens said, “he is a terrific player and has also had a huge impact off the court. On a personal level, I am thankful to have had a front row seat to the first 10 years of his illustrious career. I could go on and on, but a few sentences, paragraphs or even chapters wouldn’t do it justice. His legacy as a Celtic is forever etched in stone.”
Memorable moments from Jaylen Brown’s 10 seasons in Boston
That legacy helped make the trade such a puzzling one.
The Celtics never missed the playoffs during Brown’s 10 seasons with the team, advancing to the Eastern Conference finals six times and the NBA Finals twice. He was named finals MVP after they won the 2024 championship. Last season, Brown averaged career highs in points (28.7), rebounds (6.9) and assists (5.1) while leading the Celtics to a 56-win regular season. He was named to the All-NBA Second Team after helping Boston exceed expectations in the regular season without Tatum, who missed most of the year while rehabbing from a torn Achilles.
This story will be updated.
