2024 finals MVP Jaylen Brown’s name has been in trade talks for a few years now; the Celtics offered him in a trade package in 2022. That package would have sent him to Brooklyn in exchange for Kevin Durant at the time, but the Nets declined the offer.
Fast forward four years, and those trade rumors are getting louder. During a recent appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, ESPN Insider Shams Charania revealed that the Celtics are indeed listening to offers for Jaylen Brown.
“My understanding is that the Celtics are listening to interested teams and offers for Jaylen Brown,” Charania said. “I wouldn’t say they are actively shopping him right now, but the Celtics are listening.”
NBC’s Kurt Hurlin followed Shams’ report by sharing that the Houston Rockets and his hometown Atlanta Hawks are the front-runners for Brown’s services, with the Portland Trailblazers are in the mix as well.”
“If Brown becomes available, look for Houston and Atlanta to be at the front of the line for him, with a number of other teams — Portland has said it’s interested — in the mix,” Helin wrote.
A package from Atlanta could include Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, and future draft picks in exchange for Brown.
Meanwhile, the Rockets’ package could include center Alperen Sengun and power forward Jabari Smith Jr., with Amen Thompson being reportedly close to untouchable at this time. The move, if it were to go through, would pair Brown along side Kevin Durant and Thompson in the front court.
However, this offseason, Brown has faced a lot of scrutiny after his comments that last season was his favorite. Despite being bounced out of the playoffs after blowing a 3-1 lead against the Philadelphia 76ers.
“This group is a special group. I’m so proud of this group and the way we played,” Brown said on his podcast. “I’m so proud, and it was my favorite year of my basketball career.”
According to Ari Alexander of 7 News in Boston, Brown’s teammate Payton Pritchard defended Jaylen Brown’s comments because of all the adversity the team faced this season.
“I think people took it wrong, with what we were supposed to do this year and overcoming that and becoming the #2 seed and having a successful regular season, I think that’s what he meant by that.”
The Celtics weren’t expected to finish the regular season as the second seed in the Eastern Conference with their All-Star Jayson Tatum out with an Achilles injury, but Tatum was able to return during the latter part of the regular season and the Playoffs.
However, since Brown’s comments, the hits keep coming, with the latest from ESPN’s Bobby Marks, who was a guest on SiriusXM and asked about Brown’s trade market.
Dunk Central posted the part of the conversation that read, “I had an analytics guy tell me, ‘We view [Jaylen Brown] as the seventh-best player on a TEAM.’
However, if you go back and listen to the full clip, Bobby Marks shares more context than what inthe viral clip.
“I had someone — not an executive, but an analytics guy — tell me they view him as the seventh-best player on a team. I was like, holy crap. I get it, there is a role for analytics, but the seventh-best player? We call that strategy now.I had to pump the brakes on that one. That is a little bit of a stretch.”
Of course, Brown only saw the viral clip and responded with, “Analytics nowadays used to discredit and control narratives – Roll the ball out none of these guys better than me on both ends who does he work for,” Brown wrote on X.
“Nobody has won more combined regular season and playoff games since I entered the league 10 years ago.”
He added, “Analytics have / are ruining the game we playing AI hoops.”
One of Brown’s mentors, the late great Kobe Bryant, hated analytics as well. He made his feelings known during an interview with ESPN while promoting his tennis book, “Legacy and the Queen.”
“I hate it,” Kobe said. “It’s ridiculous. What numbers don’t tell you is they don’t tell you the emotion. I don’t like analytics.”
“You see the numbers, but the numbers don’t tell you how or why they are the way they are. You have to be able to feel that, to sense that. Tendencies.”
