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<\/a><\/p>\nBOSTON, MA – DECEMBER 6: Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics and Giannis Antetokounmpo #34 of the Milwaukee Bucks look on during the game on December 6, 2024 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and\/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2024 NBAE (Photo by Brian Babineau\/NBAE via Getty Images) NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Yet a return to form for Giannis in Boston could leave everyone wondering why we ever debated it. It\u2019s no knock to Brown that Antetokounmpo, on many nights, plays the best two-way basketball in the league. He mans the front court position that faltered for the Celtics in the first round, a potential counter against Joel Embiid, Victor Wembanyama, Karl-Anthony Towns and other star centers Boston currently doesn\u2019t have an answer for. If committed, Tatum and Giannis could combine for one of the league\u2019s most compelling pick-and-roll duos.<\/p>\n
Antetokounmpo\u2019s noted admiration for Joe Mazzulla and reported willingness to extend with the team add to the intrigue of a trade. The Celtics, according to Sam Amick, would embrace a one-for-one swap. Milwaukee understandably would want draft pick compensation. Boston only has access to one of the No. 27 pick in this draft or their first-rounder next summer, and two additional ones in 2031 and 2033. By then, it\u2019s completely unclear what lottery rules will exist. Giannis will turn 36, Tatum, 33. A multi-team deal could allow another team, most intriguingly Portland with its future Bucks picks, to compensate Milwaukee in exchange for acquiring Brown. Nothing has clicked, whether due to increased protectiveness over picks or less value being available for Brown than anticipated.<\/p>\n
Yet despite all that, and the obvious sensitivity over another summer that Brown spends hearing his name in trade rumors, the Celtics haven\u2019t said or floated that they\u2019ve moved on from talks or that Jaylen is definitely staying. Perhaps that\u2019s due to the limited market that emerged for Antetokounmpo, namely a Herro-led Heat trade that hasn\u2019t successfully secured the star for Miami with two days left until the draft. The Heat continue to act with the desperation that leads most analysts and reporters to predict that he\u2019ll land there, but an increasing price for the Heat will limit their ability to contend for a championship following a trade. That\u2019s still the Celtics\u2019 advantage in a Brown-for-Giannis swap. Tatum, White and the rest of the team\u2019s depth would remain.<\/p>\n
Naturally, play style questions would persist beyond a trade. Antetokounmpo, despite his center-like role on offense, dominated the ball in Milwaukee, facing-up, driving and drawing defenders to initiate the Bucks\u2019 offense. Tatum and Antetokounmpo would both need to sacrifice on offense. The potential of a Damian Lillard-Antetokounmpo tandem in Milwaukee never panned out, and they rarely executed screen-and-rolls. It devolved, instead, into my-turn, your-turn. Jim Owczarski, a Bucks beat reporter, compared Tatum-Antetokounmpo to Khris Middleton-Antetokounmpo, rather than the Lillard letdown and Tatum is a far superior player to even prime Middleton.<\/p>\n
The potential advantages for both are obvious. More pressure on the rim for Tatum to score from the perimeter. And fewer bodies and wall-building in front of Giannis with so many threats on the perimeter. Defensively, Antetokounmpo doesn\u2019t reach the Defensive Player of the Year form from earlier in his career as often, and he sparingly played center on that end with the Bucks, so the Celtics still have some front court questions to solve there. Neemias Queta, for all his success in 2025-26, doesn\u2019t space the floor like Brook Lopez and Myles Turner did in Milwaukee next to Antetokounmpo. Luka Garza showed some success in that role, but not at high volume.<\/p>\n
Then, there\u2019s the money \u2014 four-years, $275 million for Antetokounmpo due on Oct. 1. If the Celtics have interest in acquiring him, they\u2019re inevitably prepared to pay that, albeit with gritted teeth after an injury-plagued season for the star and terrifying calf injuries to finish two of his past three seasons. While the bigger picture concerns over his availability probably became overblown, a freak fall doomed him to end 2023 and debate existed over his late-season availability this year, it\u2019s a consideration given the physical nature of his game. Trading Brown for Antetokounmpo, just for Giannis to decline physically, would become an all-time blunder for the franchise.<\/p>\n
To again compare to Garnett, the trade thrived in year one, continued into 2009, then a knee injury left Garnett diminished from his previous form, albeit still flashing effectiveness late into his Celtics tenure. Nobody lamented that deal despite it only leading to one championship. In this parity era, another banner would suffice here, too. And that\u2019s the question, for all the sanctimony surrounding Brown and Tatum, that the Celtics need to ask themselves as a decision looms over whether to make this deal.<\/p>\n
Neither the Heat nor Milwaukee should serve as considerations in it. Both will prove too diminished, even with Antetokounmpo, to threaten even the current version of the Celtics in the East. That\u2019s no reason to veer from what they\u2019re doing, and despite the agonizing finish to 2025-26, many successes happened along the way developmentally, for Brown on the way to his best season and for Tatum, who got back on his feet and resembled himself quicker than maybe anyone who\u2019s ever torn their Achilles in the NBA.<\/p>\n
All that matters and proves worthy of another look in full after an awkward re-integration for Tatum into a team and style that Boston played all year. The emergence of young and unsung Celtics still matters too, both for them and new ones who will join the picture this summer. Boston quietly became draft-and-develop stars in recent years, even if some of those players didn\u2019t immediately translate to playoff success against Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
But that loss matters, too. The playoffs are a different game, and for whatever reason the Celtics didn\u2019t trust or utilize their depth attack effectively enough in the Philadelphia series \u2014 their strength all year. Tatum and Brown devolved into their worst tendencies, and despite having relatively full health outside of Tatum all year and entering the playoffs as the second seed, then building a 3-1 series lead, the 2026 group ultimately faltered.<\/p>\n
Brown\u2019s continued commitment to Boston matters too, and fittingly, he and the team can both assess their intentions ahead of his extension-eligibility in July. Brown should rightfully expect to receive his two-year max like any franchise cornerstone would. It\u2019s unclear how the Celtics feel about extending him beyond the three years, $183 million he\u2019s already committed to, when Brown is eligible for two more years at roughly $140 million. Inevitably, it\u2019s not a massive cap difference between extending Brown and Antetokounmpo, with a two-year age difference. Despite obvious frustrations he expressed following the season, I\u2019m not going to read into what Brown wants long-term for his career. He said on his stream that he\u2019d like to spend the next ten years in Boston if he had his way. The Celtics and he need to determine if they can make that happen.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no wrong answer here, until hindsight tells us later. With Antetokounmpo and Tatum, the Celtics would have two top-10 players who on many nights and even weeks at a time can perform like the best player in the league. Antetokounmpo is an MVP, a status that Tatum and Brown have bordered on, but have been unable to reach. Then again, Brown and Tatum have kept the Celtics in the mix for a championship every year, aside from 2021, since early in their careers. Brad Stevens has long held onto that fact as GM, that if they have those two, they have a chance. Will that remain the case this summer? We\u2019re about to find out.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has not expressed those frustrations to me,\u201d Stevens said after the season. \u201cWe\u2019ve been here 10 years together and I do think, obviously, I love JB, and everybody around here loves JB.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So much about a potential Giannis Antetokounmpo addition for the Celtics feels like a slam dunk. Antetokounmpo embodies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,11822,3798,46,6],"class_list":["post-767027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-celtics","tag-basketball","tag-boston","tag-boston-celtics","tag-boston-celtics-rumors","tag-bostonceltics","tag-celtics","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116789902585489987","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}