Brad Stevens Explains Why Boston Celtics Traded Jaylen Brown

Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations, Brad Stevens, stated that the team parted ways with Jaylen Brown to remain competitive, secure more future NBA draft opportunities, and because the path forward had become "more challenging."

Stevens and Celtics owner Bill Chisholm met with media in Boston to explain the difficult decision to send Brown to rival Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for 36-year-old veteran Paul George, two first-round draft picks in 2028 and 2031, and two second-round picks in 2028 and 2030.

"When I looked at our team and where the league was headed, I looked at how we finished the last few years and the incredible way we played during the regular season, the path forward seemed a bit more challenging to me. I might be wrong. I'm not going to stand up here and explain myself about it, but the path forward seemed more complex because we're at 70% of the salary cap, and such a high percentage of that is taken up by two players (Brown and Jayson Tatum)," Brad Stevens said, as quoted by ESPN.

The departure of Jaylen Brown marks a tough moment for Boston fans, as the 29-year-old wing was one of the team's most crucial players over the past decade.

The Celtics drafted the Georgia-born American third overall in the 2016 draft. Since then, he helped the team win the NBA championship in 2024, earning the Finals MVP award.

Last season was his most successful personally, as he averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists, finishing sixth in MVP voting.

"The reality today in the NBA can be seen with the last few champions... you have to do a great job of building depth in the roster to replace the irreplaceable individual player. That's not easy to do. And I'm not saying anything against Jaylen. If you have Jaylen Brown on your team, he has to play, you have to use all your assets and approach it that way, but in my opinion, depth is most important, and obviously, we need to continue working to diversify our offense as a whole," Stevens explained.

Jaylen Brown's replacement, Paul George, who will begin his 16th NBA season, arrives with two years remaining on his contract, one less than Brown.

"We like Paul. He's a really good player. We're not far removed from our series against Philadelphia (where the Sixers won 4-3 after initially trailing 1-3), and we saw that Paul is a player who can be a leader for much of the game, but also play a secondary role on both ends of the court at other times," Stevens added.