Should the Celtics Have Traded Jaylen Brown Sooner? originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here. For a few years, Jaylen Brown's name has come up in NBA trade rumors, and the Celtics finally pulled the trigger on a trade this offseason, sending Brown to the 76ers. The way it all went down was shocking for several fans of the team and the game, but to others, this trade seemed to be a matter of when, not "is it going to happen?" Brown did have success with the Celtics during his decade-long stint with the team, but was this the right time to let go of their beloved superstar? Should the Celtics Have Traded Jaylen Brown Sooner? Brown spent 10 years with the Celtics, being named to five All-Star teams, two All-NBA teams, and, most importantly, was the NBA Finals MVP in 2024. It's hard to be upset with that type of production, as only a select group of talented players can be attached to that list of feats. MORE: This Stat Shows Just How Consistent the Celtics Have Been for 10+ Years However, even through all of the Celtics' years of success, the 1A/1B conversation always came up about who was the true #1 option. Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown? The answer to whether that was one or the other is irrelevant here, but it may have played a role in the eventual separation of the two stars. In today's NBA, and after the recent CBA changes, it's very difficult to have two star players under contract making as much as Brown and Tatum. Despite that, the Celtics did what they could to keep the two together in the past couple of years, as it started to become harder and harder to keep a core together long-term. MORE: Rival Team Star Believes Celtics Are Among 2026-27 Contenders That's why we saw players like Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis traded after the title, as the financial rules and consequences made it nearly impossible to maintain a functional roster that could win. There were groups of analysts, reporters and fans who thought the Jays should have been split in the early 2020s, but they kept them together, and they ultimately rose to the top, winning a title in 2024. People could also argue that one title in all of those years wasn't enough to call it the success it should have been, but the duo was doing things few duos have done in recent memory, making conference finals runs almost every year from 2017-18 to 2023-24. MORE: Jayson Tatum and Joe Mazzulla's Offseason Boxing Workout Embodies Celtics Philosophy Had they chosen to trade Brown away in 2022, they might still be sitting at 17 titles as a franchise. Even after they won and questions continued about whether they could win together, the duo thrived to an extent and shut the noise down. Could they have tried to continue with this duo after how the last two years went? Of course, but it might have delayed the inevitable, which is that it may have been time to move on from Brown, despite how well he played this past season and in years prior. The Celtics evidently have a vision where they wanted to give younger players more opportunities, as they try to move forward with Tatum and others, rather than Brown and Tatum. This may have delayed the Celtics' transition into a new post-Brown era, and could have wasted valuable years of Tatum's prime. There's a world where they could have kept him, and it would have worked out, but fans should be thankful for the title that was won while he was here, and know that there are still bright years ahead for both Boston as a team and Brown in Philly in the next decade.
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