Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown believes the team is a work in progress after making some moves around the NBA trade deadline.
Swapping guard Anfernee Simons for center Nikola Vučević was the Celtics’ biggest deal. They also offloaded Chris Boucher, Josh Minott and Xavier Tillman.
Following Sunday’s 111-89 loss to the New York Knicks, Brown explained how Vučević is still adjusting to his new surroundings.
“We got to figure out the chemistry a little bit, the flow a little bit,” the five-time All-Star said, per The Athletic’s Jay King. “We want Vuc to be a little bit more aggressive, looking for him to get going and make him feel confident in taking those shots and where he can catch the ball. I think he’s still learning, but we need him to be aggressive. So we’ll make adjustments, we’ll communicate, we’ll watch film, and we’ll be better for it.”
Vučević played 23 minutes off the bench, finishing with 11 points and six rebounds. He struggled to find his shooting stroke, going 1-of-6 from beyond the arc.
The tactical changes go beyond inserting Vučević into the lineup.
Coach Joe Mazzulla had guard Payton Pritchard with the second unit for the fourth straight game, and Boston was minus-27 with Pritchard on the floor against New York.
Mazzulla said this is broadly nothing new.
“The same as we’ve done (with the starting lineup) the whole year,” he told reporters. “We’ve tinkered with it all year. I think we’re up to 15 or 17 different ones, so nothing’s changed. Everybody on our roster has a chance to impact winning. We have a chance to develop, do different things there, so whether before or after the trade deadline, nothing changes in our approach.”
Still, guard Derrick White said the Celtics are “playing a little different” and not “as crisp as we were maybe a few weeks ago when we’d had the offseason and beginning of the year to kind of figure those parts out.”
Most wrote Boston off the moment star Jayson Tatum ruptured his Achilles in the 2025 playoffs. From that standpoint, the team is overachieving with a 34-19 record and third-place standing in the Eastern Conference.
The Celtics front office isn’t resting on its laurels, though. All of the deadline business ultimately saved money, but acquiring Vučević was a win-now move intended to pay immediate dividends.
Midseason trades always risk throwing an established on-court dynamic out of whack a bit. Mazzulla has a few months to get everything clicking into place ahead of the postseason.