Charles Barkley is not buying the Boston Celtics’ logic on the Jaylen Brown trade, and he made that plain on a recent episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast.”
Barkley, who spends his summers in Philadelphia, unloaded on the move with a level of disbelief that left little room for interpretation. He said, “I have been asked 9,755 times why the Celtics traded Jaylen Brown to Philly.
And 9,752 times, I say I have zero idea why,” Barkley said. “That was, to me, one of the craziest trades I've seen in my 40 years in the NBA.
I can't explain it.
“OK, the Celtics don't want Jaylen Brown. I understand it.
Clearly they did not want Jaylen Brown. There's no way in hell you trade him that close to a team you gotta play five times in the regular season and probably going to have to beat to get through in the playoffs.
“The Sixers were dead. They were irrelevant - they had an aging Paul George and an aging Joel Embiid for the next two years with Paul, three or four years with Embiid.
They were dead in the water, irrelevant. Now all of a sudden, they get Jaylen, they're back in contention.
And then you throw the cherry on the top with LeBron.
“There's nothing anybody can say to me that I can go on TV or on your podcast or anywhere in the world and say that trade made sense for the Celtics. That's just crazy.”
Barkley wasn’t the only one who came away cold on Boston’s return. NESN’s Jake Mozarsky gave the Celtics a D+ grade, while The Sporting News’ Stephen Noh landed on a C-.
The biggest issue for plenty of observers wasn’t the decision to move Brown itself, but what Boston got back: an aging George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks. For a five-time All-Star who had just finished sixth in MVP voting and made All-NBA Second Team, many expected a stronger haul.
Brad Stevens’ thinking, though, was clear enough. The Celtics president of basketball operations didn’t believe the roster, as built, could get where the team wanted to go. He also pointed to the NBA’s apron rules and a two-year window.
That explanation may help make sense of the move from Boston’s side. It does not appear to have done much to soften Barkley’s stance.
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Celtics Just Became The Clearest Warning About The NBAs New Rules
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For the Celtics, the conversation has moved from theory to reality, with the Jaylen Brown trade serving as the clearest sign of how sharply these rules can force a team to act. Boston is hardly alone in trying to navigate the new landscape, as the Knicks, Thunder and Pistons are all dealing with their own version of the same problem, but the Celtics have become the cautionary case every other front office will be studying closely. [Read more 🡒]