The Boston Celtics choked away a 3-1 lead and lost Game 7 to the 76ers in the first round. That loss was the kind that forces a franchise to stare in the mirror and admit the truth: they weren’t good enough. And now, according to reports confirmed by multiple sources, the Celtics have put Jaylen Brown on the table in a trade offer for Giannis Antetokounmpo. The two-time MVP might be a Buck for only a few more hours.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported Tuesday morning that Boston has made a firm offer including Brown, the No. 27 pick and additional assets. The Bucks are weighing that against a proposal from Miami. If Milwaukee picks the Heat package, Windhorst believes Brown gets traded somewhere else anyway. The Celtics are moving on, one way or another.
“They are aggressively looking to make a change,” Windhorst said on Get Up. “They believe, internally, they didn’t lose in the first round to Philly because Jayson Tatum got hurt. They believe they lost because they weren’t good enough. And I think they believe that if they had gotten to the next round against the Knicks, they were not good enough to beat the Knicks. And would not have been good enough to get out of the East to win the Finals.”
That last part is key. The Knicks just won the title. Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby — that team looks like a monster for the foreseeable future. Brad Stevens clearly doesn’t think tinkering around the edges of a Tatum-Brown core gets Boston past New York. So he’s swinging for the fences.
Brown just finished his 10th season with the Celtics and put up career highs across the board: 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, 5.1 assists. He’s an All-Star in his prime. But he’s also a guy who has quietly thought about leading his own team for a while. According to Windhorst, Brown is accepting of the situation and sees it as a chance to turn the page.
“From what I understand, Jaylen Brown is accepting this and realizing it’s a chance to turn the page and may be getting his own team, which is something he’s thought about for a long time,” Windhorst said.
The Giannis gamble
Stevens has shown he’s not afraid to make the hard call. He traded Marcus Smart three years ago, which nobody saw coming at the time. Moving Brown would be bigger. But pairing Antetokounmpo with Tatum? That’s the kind of duo that makes the rest of the East nervous. Boston is betting that a frontcourt of Tatum and Giannis can outmuscle the Knicks in a seven-game series. It’s not a bad bet.
“I was really skeptical that the Boston Celtics were gonna go all in on this,” Windhorst reported. “From what I understand, they have. They were very cautious about putting Jaylen Brown in an official firm offer. I believe they have. Jaylen Brown is on the table, and Jaylen Brown could get traded for Giannis Antetokounmpo in the short term.”
The NBA Draft is Tuesday. That’s the deadline. Either the Bucks pull the trigger on a deal with Boston or Miami, or they don’t. And if they don’t, Brown still might be packing his bags for another city. The Celtics have reached their conclusion. They are not good enough the way they are. Something has to change.
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