Jaylen Brown trade chatter has become one of the NBA’s favorite offseason games, and Monday brought another proposal with real star power attached to it.
This one came from The Ringer’s Michael Pina, who outlined a deal that would send Brown from Boston to Sacramento and bring back a pair of accomplished veterans plus draft capital. Under Pina’s idea, the Kings would land Brown, while the Celtics would get DeMar DeRozan, Domantas Sabonis and three first-round picks.
Pina also noted that the framework could shift depending on how Boston wants to handle the money. He wrote that the “particulars here are fluid,” adding that the Celtics could try to pull more draft assets from Sacramento or include “another small contract (like Luka Garza’s)” to help lower payroll and make avoiding the tax easier. He also pointed out that DeRozan’s deal is expiring, with only $10 million guaranteed.
Still, Pina’s core argument centered on why Boston might even consider it. As he put it, “fundamentally, the appeal for Boston is twofold.
First, I don’t really care how dramatically reformed the lottery gets; owning Kings picks is smart business. Second, Sabonis is kinda what Boston needs: an interior low-post bruiser who’s comfortable handling the ball on the perimeter and could seamlessly fit into its preexisting offensive system.”
If Boston were to move Brown and add DeRozan and Sabonis, the roster would get older in a hurry. Brown turns 30 in October, DeRozan will be 37 in August and Sabonis is already 30.
DeRozan’s resume still carries plenty of weight. He made four of his six All-Star teams with the Toronto Raptors, then spent three seasons with the San Antonio Spurs before earning back-to-back All-Star nods with the Chicago Bulls in 2022 and 2023. He was traded to Sacramento in July 2024 and closed last season with 18.4 points, 4.1 assists and 31.2 minutes per game over 77 games.
Sabonis, meanwhile, is coming off a rough 2025-26 season in which a partially torn meniscus limited him to a career-low 19 games. Before that, the Gonzaga product had been one of the league’s steadiest big men, posting between 18.5 and 20.3 points, 12.0 and 13.9 rebounds, and 5.0 and 8.2 assists per game across six straight seasons.
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