Brad Stevens has earned the benefit of the doubt in Boston, even if the Jaylen Brown deal is the kind of move that makes people stop in their tracks.
The Celtics sent Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for an 80-year-old Paul George and some picks, and the reaction has been exactly what you’d expect: plenty of head-scratching, plenty of skepticism, and a whole lot of wondering how this is supposed to work out for Boston. There are reasons the Celtics made the move - Brown was not the perfect fit in "Mazzulla Ball," and keeping both Brown and Jayson Tatum on massive salaries would make building a long-term contender a brutal cap puzzle.
The trade also hands Tatum the clear No. 1 role. But the return, and the destination, are what have so many fans uneasy.
Still, this is not the first time Stevens has made a move that drew immediate pushback. Since taking over as Boston’s GM in 2021, he’s built a track record of making decisions that looked risky at the time and ended up paying off.
His first swing was sending Kemba Walker to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Al Horford, a deal just about everyone thought meant Boston was taking on a player who was washed up. Instead, Walker never got back to what he had been, and Horford became a key piece in the Celtics’ 2022 finals run and 2024 finals title.
The Derrick White trade brought another wave of doubt. Stevens sent two first-round picks to get White, and at the time it felt expensive.
Josh Richardson was playing well in Boston, some people still believed in Romeo Langford, and White’s shooting profile wasn’t exactly dazzling - he was at 34 3FG% through his first five seasons and was only a backup to Marcus Smart. That one, too, turned into a win for Boston.
The Smart move raised eyebrows as well. Trading him to the Memphis Grizzlies as part of the Kristaps Porzingis sign-and-trade made plenty of people nervous, especially with Porzingis’ health concerns hanging over the deal. But the Celtics got what they needed.
Then came Jrue Holiday, a move that also came with a steep price tag: Robert Williams III, Malcolm Brogdon, and two first-round picks. Even then, plenty of people thought Boston had given up too much. Holiday wound up being central to the championship run.
So is the Brown-George trade headed for that same kind of turnaround? Nobody knows yet.
But Stevens has already shown that he’s willing to make unpopular calls and live with the noise, and more often than not, he’s been right. Maybe this one deserves a little time before the final verdict comes down.
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Walsh said during Summer League that his focus is on becoming a better scorer and playmaker, with the goal of giving himself more ways to stay on the floor late. He knows the margin is thin for wings in Boston, especially with the roster shifting around him, and he has pointed to the need to improve his shot, handle and ability to create his own offense in small pockets. The opportunity is there for him to grow into a bigger role, but so is the pressure to prove he can be more than a specialist when the Celtics need a bucket. [Read more 🡒]