Brad Stevens acknowledges that he still has 70% of his cap tied up in two players
“Yeah, we’re going to trade PG the first opportunity we get”
“Paul has a choice with his player option”
I can tell you that choice was decided the moment he signed the contract
The only way he doesn’t pick it up is if we are really good this year and convince him to take a paycut to make the team even better. Like 3 year 30 aav.
Or someone else is willing to offer him that. Which would be Boston dream scenario lol
The final piece for Sacramento
I hate you for saying this, and I hate that you might be right.
At the right price he’d be a great addition anywhere
“Right price” is the thing doing the heavy lifting here
I think boston would love to swap him for two smaller contract guys that can be useful on the court to a team that wants to free up cap room and get a pick or two. Maybe the pels with zion and trey murphy in the future for the clippers pick we got and a few others.
Yeah I think a ton of teams would love to trade an ancient Paul George for Trey Murphy.
This is the level of delusion Celtics fans have now. I know, I’m one of them. I argue with these people all the time.
The general consensus there is that this was a garbage return that will be instantly flipped for the next superstar who wants out. Perhaps getting someone as good as Jaylen brown…but not Jaylen because theyve decided he’s terrible and had to go for the trash offer. Which will instantly become more valuable for…reasons.
As a Sixers fan we had people begging to trade him for the corpse of Jimmy Butler like a week and a half ago
I have had multiple other Celtics fans try to tell me we can easily trade him after this season 🤣
People remember that an expiring contract had a ton of value when everyone went to free agency and have yet to realize nobody is ever trying to free up 50mil in cap space because there is really nobody to sign in free agency.
You guys are worse than Lakers fans. Zion and Trey Murphy for PG and a few picks?
Stevens is banking on this delusion to buy him grace. Celtics fans will be flooding social media with wild trade ideas and distract themselves from the fact they tore down a title winning team to save money.
Never say never with some of the dumbass teams running around out there. I got a Bobcats flair ask me how I know
But back in this reality, that’s never happening
An opt out and restructure is absurdly realistic for a 37 year old player. \(80M guaranteed is a lot more money than \)55M guaranteed. Nobody is otherwise paying 38-40 year old Paul George big money. Dude could get injured or just fall off a cliff at any moment from here on out.
Hate to break it to you but he played 41 games 2 years ago and 39 last year.
Hes already considered broken and the worst contract in basketball
Injury shortened season is not the same as Ketamine shortened season. As much as this trade sickens me the facts are that he was available and started for every playoff game.
And put up 16/4/3.
Hes not a star anymore
It’s been a looooong time since he really was one
Wait, I thought he got popped for PEDs. Are they suggesting that special K ENHANCES performance?
Not every drug is banned strictly because its performance enhancing.
It’s a sedative used most commonly in human medicine.
It might not make your jumpshot better, but in small doses it might allow someone to sleep through an injury or get up for a game they would otherwise miss.
They’re not putting him in a k-hole on the bench.
It sucks, but if your roster is good enough to secure a playoff spot without him there for most of the regular, you just need him healthy enough for a playoff run where he put up those post-suspension numbers.
Issue then becomes whether or not he has enough minutes logged to form some chemistry with the team for when it actually counts.
Over 38 rule means no team is providing 37 year old pg a multi year restructured contract and take the resulting over 38 rule front loaded cap hit
Known pay cut taker Paul George. Up there with great like Tobias Harris, jerami grant, and Chris Paul when it comes to not taking the absolute most available money possible
Put some respect on Dennis Schroeder name, he saved the Lakers millions
He literally just declined a $3 mill trade kicker
You think PG gives a fuck about winning vs making maximum value in the end of his career? He’s not taking a pay cut.
Why would he do that?
I’m sorry you know you are talking about Paul George right?
Don’t assume, see what people thought of Chris Paul, when he was in Houston
Brads eyes fucking lit up as he said that lol. Just the thought of him not picking it up.
Fuck it. Tell him to opt out and then pay him through some sketchy company for endorsements where he doesn’t have to do any kind of promotion for said company. That’s a legal way of doing things now.
to Sacramento you go
Give us them picks and fuck ya you do
“And you can bet your ass we’re not going to extend him” lmao
Watch he not even get two first round picks for PG.
And all it will cost is two firsts
Big Celtic hater but Brad Stevens is my press conference GOAT
Yeah, this is about as good of a response as you can expect after the trade that was made
He convinced me
Almost but then it’s like you didn’t add depth, you replaced a star + 2 picks. Just not sure this nets anything more for at least a year, and if that’s the case just wait. Idk, think there’s little harm in waiting and getting like idk… 3 picks and optionality
You don’t wait if you actively believe the trade would be less valuable and you feel you’re wasting a year not being competitive
They are wasting a year not being competitive anyways. Lmao
Edit: and the trade was not seen as valuable either
So if they thought they wouldn’t be competitive with Brown, then moving to George, getting the picks, and getting off the contract a year early to reset. I don’t understand why this is hard to understand lol
Because PG is going to opt-in, and instead of not being competitive maybe for 3 years, you’re definitely not going to be for 2. JB and Tatum won it all 2 years ago dude. I don’t really care if you think it’s savvy, whatever, but if your goal is to win chips then this move objectively didn’t help them do that this season or the next. Maybe in 3? But why would you take a competitive team WITHOUT Tatum or a healthy brown, and then gut it. JB has 3 years left on his contract, he wasn’t getting a super max next week.
Resetting a winning team doesn’t make sense. People hated Jerry Krause in the 90s. This should be y’all’s Bulls moment, but instead you’re gargling the owner’s balls while they penny pinch.
The problem you’re ignoring imho is that JB and Tatum didn’t win by themselves in a vacuum. They won it with that team. That team, they combined for I think Brad said 47% of the cap. This coming year, I think they would’ve combined for like 70% of the cap. That tells me, based on what the Celtics have done, they don’t think they had a real chance to win the next 3 years as that continues. If you take on PG for 2 years, they get to reallocate those funds a year sooner, and they have extra picks to make moves.
There’s too many unknowns, but I feel confident the Celtics with this squad before the PG move were gonna win with this roster in the next 3 years. Or beyond if they have the 2 stars accounting for up to 3⁄4 of the cap. They’re making a transition because of that fact. What you’re arguing imho is a straw man to the point, which is this team feels they’re already past the opportunity to win it all based on how the salaries are currently structured
I’m very sorry to tell you but this Celtics team is still going to be among the betting favorites to come out of the east. Annnnnnnnd there they are, +1400 to win it all according to Fanduel sportsbook. No. 4 in odds over all, 2nd behind Knicks in the east. This team will have a true hierarchy and a cast of supporting guys who know their role for the first time since Tatum was drafted.
think there’s little harm in waiting and getting like idk… 3 picks and optionality
You guys think he nico’d this and took the first offer presented?
Hell, everyone knew he was for sale. Even if he wanted to nico this shit, other teams wouldve flooded him with better offers than 2 picks and a bottom 3 contract in the NBA. Yet nobody did. 2 picks and salary dump was the highest a team valued Brown. So when was that gonna change to get 3 picks and better than PG/his contract?
The main flaw in his thinking IMO, is thinking this Celtics team isn’t good enough to win. The Knicks are better but injuries happen and Tatum wasn’t back to full strength, and Dwhite was awful. They are the 2nd best team in the East and still could’ve gotten hot at the right time. But now they completely blew up their window for cap space a year earlier and picks.
If he traded for like an okay young player and like expiring I think it would be better, also he sold JB at rock bottom price for some reason. Like would Philly not do this deal next year? Why now?
Why do we have to pretend Paul George is bad now
Well he should have a good response to something he proactively chose to do!!
nico says hi 😂
It’s refreshing to have an adult that talks to other people like adults.
People really like a dude who comes across as a stand up guy.
And not in the “He speaks his mind” kind of way, moreso “He tells it like it is” like we all exist in a shared reality 🤣
“He tells it like it is” like we all exist in a shared reality
This is a great point, because normally that phrase actually means “he tells me what I want to hear” or “he makes shit up instead of looking at facts”
He’s sharp as a tack and knows exactly why he did this. I don’t even think it’s all that sneaky or complicated, too many people are just far too hung up on the name Jaylen Brown.
Im actually hung up on the name Paul fucking George
Paul George as a role player will be excellent. Think of him as basically another Derrick White in the roster. Shoot, defend, ball handle a bit, and generally do what is needed. Exactly the kind of guy who is perfect around Tatum.
He’s overpaid and past his prime but people acting like he sucks are way off. His prime was MVP candidate. The guy left now is still a good player.
I remember when this was me when he signed for the 76ers.
Well I never thought signing PG would lead us to getting Jaylen Brown. So maybe there is another Jaylen Brown out there for the Celtics to trade for!
A Jaylen Brown is a Jaylen Brown but a Paul George could be anything, even another Jaylen Brown
Maybe even a Luka! Or Max Christie. You never know
I mean that’s exactly what he was for Sixers. The only problem was the salary they paid to get him.
which was right. PG was great in 76ers 3-1 comeback vs. Celtics
I swear that is all people watched of PG the entirety of last season and even that was with eyes closed.
Great is crazy. If Jaylen Brown (on the same contract btw) averaged 17/4/3 on 48/55/79 people would lose their fucking minds lmao.
He also played as the fourth scoring option shooting wide open threes with Celtics crowding Embiid and Maxey. Celtics had no center for Embiid which left OG with acres of space. He literally just had one decent series in which he had the easiest job on planet earth. He just set the bar so low all season people were excited he showed up at all lmao.
That’s your 50mln player lmao. The second he is asked to do anything more than being a basic role player he disappeared into an abyss.
Bro… if Jaylen Brown averaged 17/4/3 on 55% from 3 while playing above average defense as the FOURTH option, that would be insane. The fact is Brown is a way worse 3 point shooter and worse defender than even a 36 year old Paul George. If Brown was actually good at those things, the Celtics would’ve never traded him to begin with.
54 million dollars to be a role player
I love seeing people comment on this that didnt watch him in philly.. it’s wayyy too funny. Dude you are absolutely high on crack and that’s the worst description of Paul George I’ve seen.. Paul George is DONE! He can’t play 40 games… He’s missed 94 games the last 3 seasons
Pacers, Clippers, OKC fans…wanna try to convince me this guy is gonna be fun to root for as we light 2 years of Tatums prime on fire?
But you’re not lighting 2 years to Tatum’s prime on fire. The assumption here is that the Celtics are going to be worse because Paul George as an individual player is not as good as Jaylen Brown as an individual player but this isn’t a 1:1 replacement. Right now, you didn’t “replace” Jaylen Brown - Brown is gone but Tatum is back. Consider that by itself an improvement on last year. Imagine last year’s team with Tatum instead of Brown, + Paul George. That’s a very good team.
The gamble is that without Brown, other players - namely Pritchard - will take up the mantle and efficiency overall will increase. That would be a major win and potentially what gets the Celtics back into the mix as a real contender. There’s no guarantee but assuming Brad Stevens and co aren’t complete morons (which I think we can safely say thy aren’t) then there might be something to this.
The other assumption people are making is that Jaylen Brown will come back and play 2nd fiddle to Tatum like he did in 2024. He won’t. He clearly did not want to do that and the your turn/my turn dynamic is a really mediocre version of a team with 2 great players.
Another assumption you’re making is PG will be as healthy as Brown.
Agree but you just need PG healthy in the playoffs, which with some load management can be achieved, or healthy enough to trade if the right trade comes up. It’s definitely a gamble but it’s not as bad as people want it to be.
You’re also assuming PG won’t experience any continued age-related declines.
8 years ago I could’ve. You’re on your own now, friend
He once dunked on birdman and it was really cool but birdman retired so idk if you can count on that :(
His lower legs are as flexible as Gordan Hayward
I’ll say this, Paul George is one of the most difficult guys in the league to watch on a podcast
Fans yeah, but clearly FOs around the league aren’t that hung up considering the return
Probably hung up on 28ppg on 47% FG, 6 FTM a game at 80%, 7rpg and 5apg.
People, usually casuals, gassing up guys, because theyre big names is one of my biggest pet peeves.
Reading fans wanting to throw away multiple picks for Ja this season is a good example.
You know, tacks aren’t really that sharp if you think about it.
They really just have one good point
You should step on a tack and come back and tell me they are not sharp.
You don’t make this move if you aren’t confident in your decision or better or worse
just like Nico was confident
luka still has 0 rings
“Still do” mid question is such a great way to cut the interviewer off at the knees lol
He’s basically NBA Pete Buttigieg
He’s so good at it, that this dumbass trade has people trying to be smarter than the general masses saying its good to be different. He just lit the Celtics window on fire to get more cap space a year earlier. If he traded him for like a good young player thats one thing but he got prehistoric PG.
I don’t just believe him, I believe IN him
This is what I’ve been saying from the start. If you’ve decided you can’t win with an underwater 35% max, then getting out of that situation a year sooner is an improvement.
more than just a year, because Jaylen’s gonna get extended at a supermax, whereas PG is not.
Why is everyone saying this. Brown had three years left on his contract. You don’t have to extend his contract anytime soon. Boston could’ve easily see how this season went with a fully healthy brown and Tatum and check to see where they land. They didn’t have to trade brown now
But then the question is how does he react when he becomes extension eligible at the end of July and the Celtics don’t want to discuss an extension or don’t want to offer the full max.
They didn’t have to trade brown now
But, again, if you’ve decided you probably can’t win with him on a 35% max, then what’s the point of running it back? You’re just delaying the inevitable.
If he reacts badly then you trade him then and probably still get a way better return than Paul George lmao.
I can’t stress enough how bad of a return Paul George is lmao.
Why would they get a better return after he reacts badly?
Because he then has fewer years left on his contract? This is all conjecture anyways….
we can’t say anything with definitive answers, but i’m certain in a year if brown maintained the same output as he did this year we probably still would’ve had to attached picks to move him like sixers needed to attach frp’s to george.
Brown’s money ramps up to 60’s even without extension for the next couple years
I dont think JB will have a higher value a year from now than he does. He just had near mvp buzz, and the competition is only going to be more tough next year.
People just assume his value would randomly increase for no reason when it’s clear his value was the titanic
lol, no one will want to give him the supermax so you won’t have many trade partners but keep being delusional
I think they were just super worried about off court drama with Jaylen pretty clearly expressing his desire to be a No. 1 option and not wanting to deal with a potential fallout through this summer or the season
Hes also extension eligible in 20 days. So all of that plus they had to tell him 20 days from now they weren’t offering the supermax extension he was eligible for.
You kind of do have to make a decision soon though because he’s eligible for that extension at the end of this month and he’s 100% going to ask for it.
If the Celtics don’t extend, and he asks out, his return would be even worse than it is now.
Celtics front office aren’t stupid. They took the best offer that was available so if brown asks out, those returns would be way worse.
Sixers might have more flexibility and brown might offer them some grace and not ask out, but with the Celtics, he would expect an extension or else.
I think you need to look like 2-3 potential steps down the road and think through the “why” here.
Why PG? Why not Kessler or Naz?
Why the clippers pick?
Why not send the house for Giannis?
You’re saying “you don’t have to trade him now” which is correct, but there is a reason they did trade him now that they’re not fully elaborating on.
They think the assets they got for Brown are better and more valuable to the team than Brown is.
IMO it’s a combination of not wanting to extend him (because that makes him even harder to trade down the road), not thinking he was contributing to winning, and also wanting to lock in a really juicy expiring contract in PG.
Best case scenario is PG ends up contributing, everyone on the current team gets better, Mitch is healthy and contributes, then PG contract is flipped for a tanking team, idk we keep the clippers pick and it’s a good one?
I was on the “this is horrible” train, but I’m coming around on it long term.
the Celtics don’t feel they can win with brown next year or beyond, so keeping him locks them in to ECF exits at best. IMO they saw the league shift with big men over the past few years and realized they can’t win with two wings on SMax contracts. If they don’t give him the extension now, he’s going to potentially (likely?) become disgruntled
his value would only go down from here on out, or at least stays the same.
Celtics got picks that are tradeable next year - especially valuable if jokic comes available. But regardless gives them addl ammo. We’ve seen what all pro players get traded for these days - not much. When the right fit comes available, they have enough assets to be the trade partner
They get out of the apron penalty situation this year (was gonna happen either way but this is helpful)
They could eat a massive salary cap in 2027-8 with George + Tatum + TBD big man, knowing George is for just one year
there was no world where they got away with dangling him in trades only to finish it off with “by the way we arent giving you the extension you want”
I mean I tend to agree but to play devils advocate, he just had his best season ever and his trade value probably won’t go up as he gets older, closer to a giant extension, and the league knows the Celtics want to move off of him
It’s strange to me but the league just isn’t super high on brown
I think Celtics ownership wants to offload money
It does beg the question of why they didn’t trade Brown last summer if they were going to be in this situation regardless.
If everyone was healthy you could argue that they had another chance to make a run, but at the beginning of the year Tatum fully returning to form for a playoff run seemed like a long shot. Why not get out early?
I mean Jaylen brown just avg 28 ppg on 58 TS% for a whole season while Boston was the 2 seed. You could argue after that impressive season Boston was correct to hold off and trade him after a career year with higher usage than he’d ever been afforded before. It just didnt lead to great trade offers
and they would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for those pesky analytics
the Cs reasonably gave brown a year audition to see if he could be a high usage first option. it was the perfect low stakes environment to do so bc tatum was injured, championship expectations were de minimis, and they already had brown on the roster (vs having to bring someone in so no addl marginal cost)
no one knows for sure how a player who’s historically been at 25-28% usage will perform w 10% more. not everyone is a luka/harden workhorse
the Cs saw, analyzed and made a bold but sterling decision. they did absolutely the right thing at each pt. it had to be this summer as well bc brown was not going to get 36% usage next season w tatum back, and it would be more obvious to unsophisticated league watchers (as in, most Redditors + front offices who haven’t kept up) that brown’s stats were artificially inflated, thereby giving even less trade value at that point
jaylen brown tricked y’all man. dude is getting paid like a top 5 player in the nba when he isn’t even top 5 in his posn (he is a top 10 wing). he is, in my estimation, about 15-25M overpaid
I think the plan was to assess that option at last year’s trade deadline. The problem is that the team was on its way to yet another top playoff spot in the East and you can’t justify blowing up a 2 seed right before Tatum returns. Everyone is shitting on this move right now, but honestly, the Celtics are probably going to be in the playoffs again this season, and will be trading Paul George’s expiring deal in 2027 (alongside young players and/or assets) for a star they are more willing to extend than Jaylen.
Because Tatum wasn’t healthy. It was a chance to see what Brown could do on his own, whether that was for keeping him or trading him.
I think there was no one available last year that would have made a difference meanwhile this year had Giannis. I think while trading for Giannis they realized JB’s market wasn’t as good as they thought it was. Then they panicked when the Giannis trade fell apart and decided it was better to trade him now than when JB’s extension comes up.
If that’s the goal, why not go for an expiring this year? I guess George is a two timelines kind of thing?
They also needed picks to set up their next move(s). If get expiring contracts now, you’re getting less draft capital.
If there had been a better value combination of player and picks with a shorter contract, my guess is that they would have done that. We have no reason to believe that this was on the table and that they passed on it.
There’s only 5 players who make $40M+ and are on expiring (without player option) contracts. Steph, Jimmy Butler (who will miss a lot of the upcoming season), Anthony Davis, Kawhi, and Zach Levine. Kawhi was already traded, Steph is never getting traded, and Levine feels like the absolute worst culture fit with Boston. Butler and AD feel like at least somewhat more plausible options, but it takes two to make a trade and they didn’t get traded.
Maybe getting a package back of multiple players was an option, but with salary matching rules I don’t know what kind of deals those would be.
I just can’t believe a team with expiring contracts weren’t willing to give up similar picks for brown. And then you would really be free
I just don’t see this. Even if you’ve decided Brown isn’t your guy, you could still run it back. There’s no team in the east that the Celtics wouldn’t have a chance against. Then, if you’re in the finals, anything could happen. IMO, the Celtics got worse for the next two years point blank period and now Philly might win a chip
It is an improvement in the long term planning but a negative in your championship window. Few teams choose to shorten their championship windows for the possibility of a new window in the future.
This whole press conference was just throwing Brad under the bus. He’s handled it pretty well, all things considered.
From the owners, you mean?
It’s not an owners issue it’s a repeater tax issue, this was definitely Brad’s call.
If this was true, then they should have been shopping last off season. Unless with the Tatum injury they thought they needed him around for wins.
But then they acted surprised the team was good this year with just Brown.
I mean they have been shopping brown for years…
It’s his decision to trade him, who else should be under the bus?
That’s what good leaders do. They get paid good money to be out in front taking the heat.
You’re right Brad, picks and optionality aren’t exciting!
They really aren’t. The new CBA incentivizes us as fans to treat and view a homegrown star who won us a championship as a likely “declining asset”, which fucking sucks. I see his reasoning, I don’t like the trade or it’s return on a pragmatic level, but on a deeper sentimental level I hate what it symbolizes: someone who should be afforded the luxury of hometown sentimentality, which is what sports should be about as much as possible, is instead treated like an object to satisfy accounting considerations that directly and punishingly affect team competitiveness in other aspects beyond just his own contract and performance.
It’s subtly but deeply alienating.
If drafted capital like JT and JB could have counted for less against the cap, like a max instead of super max, do they retain the duo?
I think so , super max hamstrings teams
Especially if the optionality is a formality. We all know veteran, oft-injured podcaster PG13 ain’t declining $56.6 million. It’s not a formality. You’re hoping he has a good year and you can trade him next off-season as an expiring deal.
It’s either you do trade him after this year as an expiring contract (which JB would never have been) or you can resign him for much less than JB would have resigned for while also getting those extra picks and having some more flexibility in the future.
For this year and next year. If Jaylen brown were kept he’s likely in their future plans and then you commit again to having 70% of cap tied up in two players. Also a 2028 clippers first round pick post kawhi/harden/Zubac and a 2031 sixers first round pick are not bad picks at all to bet on getting lucky.
why would keeping him a year or 2 force you to give him the supermax? unless he were to be a big reason they won another championship they still had plenty of time to flip him
His trade value would’ve never been higher after this season. He’s on a 3 year deal now and just avg 28 ppg on 58 ts%. It was a career year for Jaylen. Nobody is saying they were in a position to being forced to supermax Jaylen now. That’s made up. Jaylen never strong armed them with that and I don’t think he will do it to Philly either although Philly might just give him the extension anyways now.
They didn’t get much value back anyways
Bro they got Paul George in return how much lower can his trade value get of this is the return lmfao.
They got 2 1st round picks in value, PG was just for salary matching purposes.
No one’s been able to answer that simple question in a convincing manner.
he’s extension eligible in a month. if they don’t want to pay him the full amount he can get, Brown/his agent start throwing a fit and tank his value even lower
so you’d wither have to overpay with the supermax or suddenly you have a disgruntled Brown tanking his own value
Especially in the new lottery, those picks could easily turn out to be very very favourable for Boston
People in this thread and in general are being willfully obtuse. You don’t have to agree with the trade, but PG’s contract is one year shorter than JB’s and they won’t have to give him an extension they feel will hamstring them in the future. PG on an expiring is not as hard to move as people are making it out to be.
Or they just repeat what other people say because kids are stupid
If 70% of the cap, usage and picks were the primary issues, a hypothetical Warriors offer of Jimmy Butlers expiring and 2 future 1st round picks would’ve easily been the best offer.
Warriors missed out/fucked up if this was really the case.
I don’t think that offer beats the Philly offer. No one knows how good Jimmy will be while PG despite being overpaid is still an above average wing. Clippers pick and a 2031 76er pick is about equal to the Warrior’s picks.
Above average? The dude doesn’t play. What are we expecting from him? 30 or 40 games? Labouring in some of those too?
As opposed to Jimmy who’s actively out with an ACL injury and slated to miss most of next year ?
[deleted]
What? Butler played 1 more game than PG the last 3 years. Are you looking at BBReference and adding his 2025 Miami and 2025 Warriors games as different years?
Uhh… Jimmy isn’t going to play very much next season either lol.
Butler’s appeal is his expiring contract and won’t likely return to the court March 2027. But PG has negative value due to the 2 years left on his contract and very limited availability the past 5 years.
I’d thrown in this year’s 11th pick too if necessary.
Yes, but the Celtics still need bodies. Jimmy being an expiring contract doesn’t matter unless they can package him for someone they want. Id’ bet PG will be better than Jimmy coming off injury next year and then PG becomes an expiring after a year so they can kick the can down the road to see who’s available later.
If the primary issue is needing bodies and “possibly” replacing Brown, I agree that PG is better than Butler next season.
Which is why I phrased my initial post “IF 70% cap etc etc” since those were the three main issues they mentioned in the trade.
PG is negative in a vacuum if you take his contract into account, but he is still a pretty good player who can plug into Boston’s system and make a valuable contribution to a contending team. Yeah, he’s worse than Jaylen Brown, but he played well last year. As far as this upcoming year goes, they didn’t trust trade away Jaylen for 2 firsts and a bad contract. They got back 2 firsts, a bad contract, and an above average two way wing.
Pete Buttigieg looking good these days
A Brad-Pete ticket would get my vote
That’s why Podcast P is the first guy you trade for
People are gonna kill him but he’s right in his thinking. He knows he’s losing immediate premium talent trading JB but will have cap space in 1-2 years and you have picks (one of the picks being a 2028 Clippers pick that could be very valuable). With today’s CBA, there’s just not many ways to compete with the cap restrictions of having 2 All-NBA talents who are both on super max contracts.
Brad just correctly thinks you would have an extremely difficult path to win a championship with brown/tatum using up over 2⁄3 of the cap. They are both wings. When the celtics won im pretty sure they were making like 40% combined which let them fill the roster with players like jrue/porzingis/dwhite etc.
Well Steven’s convinced me it was good trade within a minute of him talking. Not many GM’s can do that lol
That’s a great reply from Brad. Fewer years and all the picks even with 70% still tied up in 2 players.
I’d like to see a Paul flip for something tho…..
If JB had no value what do you think PED PGs value is?
Expiring contract (next year) and a reason to pry a ton of picks from BOS.
I don’t know why but I still love this guy. Not even a major Celtics fan.
Jaylen will expect an extension, PG does not. If you don’t want to extend Jaylen then you gotta trade him. Even if his value is low this season he is coming off one of his best seasons and his value might not get any higher
i swear there’s been a 200% rise in usage of the word “optionality” lately
Optionality and ideate are both technically words, but man do they sound clumsy to me. But honestly, if I’m ideating about it, the optionality of having both words is pretty cromulent.
it’s always good to embiggen your vocabulary
Obviate is another one like that for me. Yes, I know it doesn’t mean “make obvious”, but it bloody well should. It would be actually be a useful nuance to have a single word for that idea.
If you listen to the full press conference, he specifically says you can’t have 70% of the cap and a high usage rate between just two players… Brown’s usage rate last year was 36.2%. Paul George’s was 23.3%. Clearly, he’s counting on a higher usage rate from guys like Pritchard, Hugo, Scheierman, Hauser, and Walsh, who, by the way, along with PG, all had better 3pt%s last year than Brown.
Yeah his rate is even lower when you factor in all the time he will miss and give to other players.
I feel like if this was Morey saying this it’d be bulletin board material. “His contract is shorter” isn’t something a player wants to hear from the POBO
Brad saw how good they were without Tatum, and realized that they would be even better without JB with Tatum back
Brad it taking bullet for owners. They must be paying him a fortune for him to go along with this. He cant even say with a straight face that his argument makes sense. Bc we have to max players still and one is on a terrible deal and 36.
Was gonna make the same comment lol. They have such a similar speaking style too
I’m gonna laugh my ass off when Joe gets 20ppg and solid D out of George for 60 games.
Rob pelinka started a trend with the word “optionality”
Pretty sure the word existed before Pelinka…
PG13 is somewhere smiling 😌
“I firmly believe that defense wins championships”
This is a good answer
But to play the devil’s advocate here, what Stephens is saying is he’s following and not leading. Other finals teams over the last two years had a lot of players on reasonable or rookie contracts. He’s simply following along the formula other teams used
True but he might just agree with those teams that it’s the right path, and seeing them prove it solidified his opinion. You want to zag when you think theres unrealized value in it, but theres no reason to zag if you think everyone is correct. Then you’re just choosing a worse option to be different.
I still don’t get the “why now” part of this.
You were trading Brown at a point that nobody wanted him, and everyone knew you were trying to shop him. He still had 3 years left, and you traded him for a much older, injury prone guy, in the same salary slot, with still 2 years left, and a mediocre number of picks.
Brown’s contract isn’t getting any “worse” over time.
You don’t think you could’ve gotten better, or at a minimum the same number of picks, if you waited another 6-18 months? (I could understand wanting to avoid him being expiring, but there’s a lot of time between now and then). You’d probably still get the same 76ers offer, but with PG closer to expiring.
And in terms of PG’s PO - the only way he declines that is if you give him more money in the long term, and I feel like that’s a worse outcome for the Celtics “optionality”.
brown is extension eligible on july 26th. players of his caliber expect and get extensions as soon as they can. the celtics didn’t want to extend him so this was the time to trade him. it would’ve only gotten worse from here
I think that is a weak excuse because half the league is extension eligible every offseason. And it’s not like he will have other teams wanting to offer him the 35% right now.
It would be a pretty clear conversation: “We can’t commit 35% of our cap to you when you’re 34-36yo. If you want an extension right now, we can only go as high as X (25-30%, whatever). If you want more then you’re gonna have to wait a year or 2. If you don’t like it - your agent is feel to canvas the league to see who wants to pay you that 35% and if they have the trade assets to make it worthwhile for us”.
Teams would be having a version of that conversation with their players/agents every single offseason.
I guarantee he signs an extension with Philly as soon as he can
JB’s deal expires in the same summer Maxey will be due to start a (likely) 30% Max, VJ could easily play himself up to a 25% Max extension. Committing 35% tor 2 years after that point to a 33yo Jaylen Brown would be an interesting decision at this point - particularly when you don’t really have anybody else on your books (Embiid pending health/contract status) you would expect to be a useful member of your rotation by then.
I don’t see why Philly wouldn’t have basically the same conversation I have outlined above.
jaylen was due for an extension and reportedly already growing disgruntled they probably didnt want to risk him effecting the team
Non-zero chance the Pelicans finally decide to stack assets instead of whatever it is that they’ve been doing and PG + those picks gets moved for Murphy and w/e else in the deal.
It’s only for 1 more year though right?
Can people stop saying optionality…
So you went from 70% tied cap to 70% tied cap but got a 7 year older player who is injury prone.
Tell the truth, advanced analytics nerds told you to do that.
Also, you know you can pay players using fake tree company if your owner isn’t cheap. No action will be taken by league but you will get an All star game as well.
1 & a 1⁄2 players