Brad Stevens and Bill Chisholm met with the media on Monday following the C's trade of the franchise icon.
On Monday, early in the afternoon, the Boston Celtics trade of franchise icon Jaylen Brown became official, ending his 10-year run in Boston.
Drafted at No. 3 overall in the 2016 NBA Draft, Brown became one of the most important figures in the last quarter century of Celtics history. He made five All-Star Games and two All-NBA teams, while also winning a title and being named NBA Finals MVP (2023-24).
The trade of him has been compared to the trade of Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox by some, and there are real questions about where the organization is headed now.
Celtics' front office leader Brad Stevens and owner Bill Chisholm met with the media on Monday to discuss the deal - and it's fallout. Here are three things that stand out to us right away.
This is about money, even if they say it's not
Chisholm says there was no mandate to shed salary and ownership didn't give orders to stop spending. He says this move was made with designs on winning.
It can be true that Chisholm didn't order the trade of Brown for financial purposes, but it's also clear that this move was driven, in part, by money.
Stevens said multiple times that it's hard to win when 70 percent of your salary cap is tied up in two players, and he also made it clear that Paul George's deal ending in two years lines up nicely to be able to bring in new pieces, or extend pieces the team currently has.
That means money was a big part of this.
Jayson Tatum had no say in this
There are certainly questions about the relationship between Tatum and Brown and if they could continue to co-exist as teammates, especially after Brown got his shot at being the 1A option with Tatum sidelined, but Stevens says he has a hard-and-fast rule not to ask players about other players.
He says he won't put them in that position.
The Celtics are looking for "optionality"
Optionality is the buzz word of the day, and it seems to mean the same thing as "flexibility." The Celtics like having options and don't want to be so tied to one plan or one way of doing things. With Tatum and Brown making so much money, there were limited other pathways for the team to get better, and Stevens seems to like the ability to have four new draft picks that present new pathways. They can either take useful players themselves or trade those picks as part of a big deal in the future.
Furthermore, when George's deal runs out, they can be players again for big free agents. That flexibility didn't exist with Brown still on the roster, at least as easily.
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