The Jaylen Brown trade makes it seem like the Celtics are no longer completely focused on winning
If the goal of the Celtics’ brass on Monday was to appease a mostly upset and confused fan base and renew their confidence that the Bill Chisholm group is all about winning, Chisholm’s and Brad Stevens’s jumpers clanged badly off the rim.
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There may be more confusion as to why the Celtics traded the popular Jaylen Brown for Paul George and draft picks — let us never forget those draft picks — as there was six days ago when the deal was consummated.
Around the league, many executives and coaches are ripping the Celtics for getting such a minuscule return for a five-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA player. And while Brown’s name spent 10 days getting dragged as fans and critics searched for reasons why he was so aggressively on the trading block, Stevens called Brown “amazing” multiple times and said the deal was essentially salary driven.
Meanwhile, Chisholm made the shocking statement that the Brown trade, the decisions to move Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, and allowing Al Horford and Luke Kornet to leave via free agency were all “basketball-related” moves, maintaining the ownership did not mandate Stevens to move Brown to save money.
“I just don’t necessarily agree with the premise there that just they were salary based, every decision that was made, you know, the prior decisions. I should say that those are basketball-related decisions,” Chisholm said. “We would have gutted the team for the future had we not done those things. The second apron is a real thing. That was not about money, those are basketball decisions, and I put this one, you know, in the same category as well.”
Moreover, there’s no question the Celtics’ reputation, especially that of Stevens, has taken a major beating in the past two weeks while dangling their most senior player on the trade market. There’s a perception the Celtics forced this deal and when they didn’t receive their deserved return, they turned into desperation mode and dumped him off on a division rival.
Unquestionably, other NBA players have viewed how the Celtics treated Brown in his final days and pondered how the franchise operates and values its players. While Stevens said none of the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors or the speculations that Brown was being shopped around the league like a used TV set came from the Celtics, the franchise’s once-pristine image has been dampened.
“I don’t know how much of that is avoidable in this day and age,” Stevens said. “I’ve done a pretty good job of staying off of all the social media, probably rightfully so, for the last few days, but you know, when, when it was first being bandied about the different teams that were interested in [Jaylen], there were several that weren’t that never even really called. So it’s hard to tell what’s a rumor and what’s real, unless you’re on the phones. I will say that that’s just a hard thing to navigate in the edge, so you do your best you can at being upfront before that could possibly happen, which was, you know, again, we talked a couple of times in early June.
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“And again, if I didn’t do a great job with it, you know, I think we’ll probably both have different versions of that of what those conversations look like, but I do think, that’s what I would regret, because not necessarily for any other reason why I just like Jaylen.”
But the Celtics today are not the same as they were last week. Stevens couldn’t promise this trade improved the team. Chisholm promised the ownership group would back up their promises with dollars in the future, with Brown’s contract now off the books and any potential extension.
But the trust level for this franchise has been sacrificed. Stevens could be fully reliable in his ability to improve the team, even if the moves were unpopular or difficult, such as the Marcus Smart trade or moving Robert Williams for Holiday, but now there is doubt. In addition to shipping quality players out of Boston to escape the second apron, Stevens and Chisholm allowed the devoted Brown to have his basketball acumen, impact, and even his personality dissected and skewered over the past 10 days.
Doesn’t say much for the Celtics’ loyalty. The fact the Celtics are not perceived as the same franchise as when his predecessors owned the club seemingly bothered Chisholm, who has said all the right things and been courtside for nearly every game since purchasing the team. But the talent level of the club has shrunk, as well as the payroll.
“I would say everything Brad said I agree with, but if [our franchise image depreciating] were the case, that is, that’s not acceptable, because this is the Boston Celtics,” Chisholm said. “That’s not what we’re about, and we want this to be, we have to be the best, and we want the best place for players to play, and if that’s the case, then we got to fix that. When the perception becomes reality, we’ve got to make sure we deal with that, but that’s not my take on how things went down.”
But in reality, we really still don’t know how things went down.
Stevens lauded Brown, blamed finances, and couldn’t promise brighter days. Chisholm mostly watched, interjected that nothing Stevens has done was mandated by ownership, and said little to give fans peace of mind that moves like these won’t be the norm around here.
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