The Celtics have made the hierarchy unmistakable: Jayson Tatum is the centerpiece, and Jaylen Brown’s departure only sharpened that reality.
Boston’s decision to move Brown came with a clear message from president of basketball operations Brad Stevens. The team did not want so much of its cap and usage tied up in two players, and ESPN insider Shams Charania reported that Tatum was untouchable when other teams checked in on Brown.
Tatum is already taking up more than 35 percent of the salary cap this season, and the Celtics are not looking to change that. In fact, their approach to the cap is part of why another superstar isn’t coming in.
Stevens laid out the thinking directly when he addressed the trade.
“The path looked a little bit more challenging with 70 percent of our cap and such a high percent of our usage tied into two players.”
That was the crux of it. Boston had to decide between keeping a superstar duo or reshaping the roster around depth, and the front office chose the latter. Stevens also pointed to the importance of depth in today’s NBA, especially after Boston’s first-round playoff exit exposed how much the team had lost once the supporting cast thinned out.
Tatum remains the player everything is built around. Even coming off Achilles surgery, the 28-year-old posted 21.8 points, 10.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.4 steals in 32.6 minutes per game. He’s viewed as one of the 10 best players in the world, and the Celtics are betting that he can carry a deep roster back to championship level.
Brown, meanwhile, is gone after Stevens wrestled with the move and the larger CBA reality behind it. The Celtics did not want to badmouth the former Finals MVP on the way out, and the relationships mattered too. Brown is an all-time great Celtic, but the direction is now crystal clear: Boston is building strictly around Tatum.
The trade didn’t erase the team’s financial headaches, either. Paul George remains on a max contract through 2028, and Boston is expected to explore ways to move him or wait for a full pivot when that deal expires. The draft picks Boston picked up in the Brown deal matter because they give the front office more ways to improve the roster around Tatum.
The money only gets bigger from here. Tatum’s salary and cap percentage are set to keep climbing, and he is projected to have a $71.4 million player option in 2029-30, which would be 37.4 percent of the salary cap. That’s a massive number for one player, but the Celtics clearly believe he’s worth it.
Stevens wants only one max contract on the books, and Tatum is under contract through 2030. That leaves Boston with a simple mandate: build the depth necessary to contend with a single superstar at the center of everything.
By trading Brown, Stevens showed he believes that formula can work again. Now the Celtics have to prove it.
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