The One Problem That Made Jaylen Brown a Tough Sell on the Trade Market

The Boston Celtics found out the hard way that being willing to trade a star doesn’t mean you can actually get a deal done. After the Milwaukee Bucks passed on them in the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes and went with Miami’s offer instead, the Celtics turned their attention to moving Jaylen Brown. And that’s when things got complicated.

According to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, the problem wasn’t just Brown’s game. It was the combination of how he’s viewed by analytics departments and the sheer size of his contract. Teams with three years left on Brown’s max deal were nervous about taking on that kind of financial commitment.

“The stats guys in every room don’t see him close to that — probably the widest gap in the league,” one general manager told MacMahon. “They’re certainly telling you they don’t think he’s the sixth-best player in the league. Then the contract is really f****** big, and the expectation to [extend] that is really big.”

What the Numbers Say About Brown

The Celtics have actually had a better net rating with Brown off the floor than on it in each of the last four seasons and six of the last eight. That’s a weird stat for a guy making supermax money. Multiple teams use different analytical models, but the consensus is pretty clear: Brown’s impact doesn’t match his reputation or his paycheck.

“The credit goes to guys who score, but they’re not always driving team success,” a third GM said. “There’s guys like this all over the league — Brandon Ingram, DeMar DeRozan, etc. The difference is he’s not at $40 million [salary] — he’s at $60 million!”

That $60 million number is the real kicker. It’s hard to tie up that much cap space in one player unless they’re truly generational. And as one executive put it, Brown isn’t close to that level. The league is getting smarter about these contracts, and that left the Celtics with limited options.

“If you supermax Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] or Joker, it makes sense. That’s probably the list. The league is getting smarter now. And here’s the thing: The dumb teams are also the cheap teams, so the Celtics couldn’t take advantage of one of them,” the GM added.

The Celtics still added Mike Conley Jr. and Mitchell Robinson in free agency, and they’re hoping for a full healthy season from Jayson Tatum after he returned from a ruptured Achilles in March. But the Brown situation showed that even when you’re willing to make a big move, the market doesn’t always cooperate.