A titanic commerce within the NBA’s Atlantic Division formally ends the Boston Celtics‘ Jaylen Brown period and sends Paul George to Beantown.
Brown may apparently do no extra for inexperienced.
A brand new contender for probably the most monumental commerce of the NBA offseason emerged on Wednesday night. Per Shams Charania of ESPN, the Boston Celtics traded Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers in change for Paul George and a plethora of picks.
Thus ends the Brown period in Boston, which started when the Celtics made him the third choose of the 2016 draft. Brown and Jayson Tatum (chosen in the identical slot the very subsequent draft) united to pull the Celtics out of their post-Kevin Garnett/Paul Pierce malaise.
Since Brown took the ground out of Cal-Berkeley, the Celtics have posted a .663 successful proportion within the common season, by far the very best within the Affiliation. The Celtics returned to the NBA Finals for the primary time in a dozen years with Brown main the best way in 2022 and received their 18th championship two years later. Brown took dwelling MVP honors in a five-game victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
“My understanding is Jaylen Brown by all of this, by no means requested a commerce. He by no means requested out of Boston.“@ShamsCharania on the Celtics buying and selling Brown to the 76ers for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks 🚨 pic.twitter.com/YUTqRV02LD
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 1, 2026
Brown averaged 20 factors, 5.5 rebounds, and a couple of.9 assists in 10 inexperienced seasons, together with respective career-bests of 28.7, 6.9, and 5.1 final time round after he assumed full-time headlining duties when Tatum missed a lot of the 12 months with an damage. He repped the Celtics in 5 All-Star Video games and is at the moment within the franchise’s all-time high 10 in factors (13,474), steals (684), and triple-doubles (6).
However Boston’s post-championship makes an attempt to stay financially compliant with the second apron took a toll on its try to win a nineteenth title. Champions Jrue Vacation, Al Horford, and Kristaps Porzingis all moved elsewhere final summer time, and lots of pegged Brown to be subsequent with a possible hole 12 months led to by Tatum’s damage on the horizon.
Why Did the Celtics Commerce Jaylen Brown?
Brown as an alternative responded with a career-best season that moved the Celtics to the second seed on the Japanese Convention bracket. It wasn’t sufficient to keep away from a miserable divisional destiny, nonetheless, because the Celtics fell to George and the Sixers within the opening spherical of the Japanese playoffs. It was the primary time they fell within the opening spherical since 2021.
However Brown’s private bests apparently weren’t sufficient to maintain him off the commerce block. He was reportedly dangled in entrance of Milwaukee within the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes, however Boston misplaced out on the Greek Freak’s companies to the Miami Warmth. ESPN Analysis famous that Brown is the fifth participant in league historical past to be traded inside three years of successful the Finals MVP Award: Kevin Durant (Golden State to Brooklyn) was the final in 2019, whereas the Celtics beforehand engaged in such a observe with Jo Jo White (Boston to Golden State) in 1979.
Buying and selling Brown was a busy day for Boston, which additionally acquired Mike Conley and Mitchell Robinson from Minnesota and New York, respectively. The Celtics acquired the 36-year-old George, who appeared in solely 37 video games final season, his second in Philadelphia. He averaged 17.3 factors and 5.3 rebounds and misplaced 25 video games attributable to a violation of the league drug coverage for an „improper medicine.“
Charania’s report signifies that, along with George, the Celtics additionally purchase an unprotected 2031 first-round choose from Philadelphia and a 2028 first-rounder that would turn out to be a swap. Boston additionally will get second-round picks in 2028 and 2030. The primary in that final batch shall be both Golden State, Milwaukee, or Oklahoma Metropolis, and the latter at the moment belongs to both Phoenix, Portland, or Washington (most favorable in each circumstances).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
