The Boston Celtics have moved Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers, sending the 2024 Finals MVP to Philly in a deal for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports. For Philadelphia, it’s a sharp swing to the top of the Eastern Conference at what looks like a bargain price. For everyone else, especially the teams that could have chased Brown, it raises the same blunt question: was the market really this cold?
Boston’s decision also says plenty about where it thinks this roster is headed. Before the trade, the Celtics were being discussed as co-favorites in the East alongside the New York Knicks.
That picture is gone now, with Boston apparently choosing to retool around Jayson Tatum. And while Brad Stevens has earned a lot of trust for how he’s built the team, it’s still hard to shake the feeling that Brown should have drawn a stronger return.
There were real questions attached to Brown, including concern about his analytical impact and whether a huge contract was fully justified. Even so, the idea that no better offer was out there feels difficult to buy.
Portland, in particular, looks like the team that let a major opportunity slip by. The Trail Blazers made sense as a possible home for Brown because they needed a co-star next to Deni Avdija. Instead, they went in a cheaper direction and landed Ja Morant, a far worse fit on paper and a reclamation project that cost no draft capital but did bring Jerami Grant’s bad contract into the mix.
That Morant move left Portland with four point guards: Morant, Damian Lillard, Scoot Henderson and Jrue Holiday. The plan, apparently, is to start Morant next to Lillard in an undersized, offense-first backcourt. Once that happened, plenty of people started wondering whether Holiday or Henderson would be the next piece to go.
In a way, though, the Morant deal made the Brown pursuit even more logical. If Portland was already willing to bring in another point guard, then using draft capital on Brown would have made more sense than chasing the cheaper route. A lineup of Morant, Lillard, Brown, Avdija and Donovan Clingan would have looked like a legitimate top-four group in the West, and it would have given Lillard a real shot while his window is still open.
But that’s not how Portland saw it. After the Morant trade, Charania reported the Blazers weren’t involved in Brown discussions because they considered Morant their “big move.”
That choice says a lot. If the Blazers had needed to include a heavy package to get Brown, there’d be more room to understand the hesitation.
With Holiday’s ability to play multiple spots and Henderson’s uncertain future and development, Portland could have justified patience. Instead, they took the lower-cost swing, then stepped out of the Brown chase altogether.
The result is a franchise that still looks like it’s waiting for a star to fall into its lap rather than going out and getting one. Portland fans may be happy to finally have some star power in Rip City, but passing on Brown while also sitting out the bigger sweepstakes makes the message pretty clear. The Blazers didn’t view themselves as one Brown move away.
That leaves Lillard in the same place too often this offseason: watching another big name come off the board while Portland settles for less than a true push.
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Within that backdrop, the idea of a trade between the two teams has started to get real discussion time, even if nothing is close to being finalized. The framework makes some sense on both sides, with Portland potentially looking for extra value to balance the deal, but the bigger issue is whether the teams needs line up well enough to make a swap worth pursuing or if this is just one of those conversations that sharpens the market without producing a move. [Read more 🡒]
Anfernee Simons Just Got The Winning Chance He Always Wanted
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Simons decision also says something about where he wants his career to go from here. He had other options on the table, but the fit with Philadelphias roster appears to have carried the day, and that sort of alignment can matter just as much as money for a player looking to reset his trajectory. What comes next for him in that setting will be worth watching, especially with the second year built in as a choice point. [Read more 🡒]