Still making my way through the Atlantic Division as I explore the world of basketball around us. I feel like LeVar Burton doing Reading Rainbow, except instead of riveting children\u2019s stories, I\u2019m learning about why nobody has won back-to-back titles since the Golden State Warriors last did it between 2017 and 2018. One of those teams that had an opportunity and squandered it is the Boston Celtics, who won in 2024 and then suddenly have a roster that looks markedly different than that squad.<\/p>\n
Golden State and Boston played twice last season with Boston winning both. Jaylen Brown had a triple-double in one and dropped 32 in the other. Brown was the one lighting the match both times, much to Golden State\u2019s chagrin. But it makes sense as Brown was Finals MVP two years ago and finished sixth in MVP voting last season. He\u2019s 29 and in his prime, and led the Celtics after his running mate Jayson Tatum got injured.<\/p>\n
So naturally, Boston\u2019s offseason move was to trade him. And Boston sent him to their division rivals in Philadelphia for Paul George and four draft picks: two firsts, two seconds. FASCINATING. I mean I love Playoff P\u2019s game as much as the next guy, but I did NOT see that trade coming.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s the roster now? Jayson Tatum, still working his way back from the Achilles tear that cost him the first 62 games of last season. PG13, on an expensive deal, with health a real question at this point in his career. They\u2019ve got Mitchell Robinson and Neemias Queta manning the paint, with the timeless wonder Mike Conley running point at 38 years old.<\/p>\n
But I wonder if that means the Celtics didn\u2019t just trade Jaylen Brown; did they trade title contention this year too? What does Boston know about Jaylen Brown that the rest of us don\u2019t?<\/p>\n
Brown and Tatum won a title together and Brown\u2019s the healthier player as of late. Unless Brown is constantly acting like the smartest guy in the room (lol) every clue in my mind keeps coming back to money. Reading between the lines, this feels less like Boston souring on Brown as a player and more like Boston deciding it couldn\u2019t afford him at the same time as Tatum and everything else on the books.<\/p>\n
If that\u2019s the real answer, it\u2019s a lot less interesting than \u201cwe don\u2019t believe in him anymore,\u201d and honestly worse for the rest of the league, because it means the sixth-place MVP finisher is walking around for the price of an expiring vet and picks purely because of the way the new cap rules bite. I defer to an SB Nation article by Ricky O\u2019Donnell to shed some light on this topic:<\/a><\/p>\n The simple version for why the Celtics traded Brown is because he\u2019s a good player, but a bad asset. He\u2019s owed $180 million over the next three years, and the Celtics decided their team wasn\u2019t good enough right now with him on that deal to win a championship. Why did the Celtics trade Brown? I don\u2019t think it\u2019s because he believes he\u2019s the smartest guy in the room, or because they couldn\u2019t repair the relationship. It\u2019s more because Brown finished with a -1.6 RAPM last season<\/a>. By time decay RAPM, Brown ranks No. 270 in the league<\/a>.<\/p>\n Well if his RAPM was so bad why did Boston just throw him a farewell block party?! We\u2019re talking ten thousand people on Boston Common and a key to the city. Did you see that street sign that says \u201cJaylen Brown Way\u201d? They traded him in July but they named a street after him in August. Boston, pick a lane!!<\/p>\n He\u2019ll walk back into that building wearing a Sixers jersey this season. Good luck figuring out whether that crowd is supposed to cheer, cry, or boo. So thanks, Boston. You finally found a way to stop Jaylen Brown from kicking the Warriors\u2019 (regular season) ass in a Celtics jersey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Still making my way through the Atlantic Division as I explore the world of basketball around us. I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,64551,6],"class_list":["post-825392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-celtics","tag-basketball","tag-boston","tag-boston-celtics","tag-bostonceltics","tag-celtics","tag-golden-state-warriors-discussion","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117194769276075810","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825392","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=825392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}