The Celtics appear to be taking offers on Jaylen Brown, turning trade chatter around the Finals MVP into something more immediate. Boston used Brown as a trade chip in a failed attempt to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo, and his name is still circulating as the team weighs whether to keep him or move him.
The reason this matters now is simple: Brown is not an ordinary trade piece. He is on a supermax contract that pays an average of $61 million over the next three seasons, and any deal built around him would reshape how Boston handles the roster around Jayson Tatum. If the Celtics decide the offers are not good enough, they can still hold Brown and chase another deep playoff run with a fully healthy Tatum back in the mix.
That choice is complicated by the way Brown is viewed around the NBA. Some front-office personnel see him as a top-12 player when he is at his best. Others place him closer to the top 25-to-30 range and see him as an All-Star better suited to being a No. 2 option on a great team. Brown has the numbers to support the stronger case: he averaged 29 points, seven rebounds and five assists this past season, made second-team All-NBA and won the 2024 NBA Finals MVP.
But the doubts do not come out of nowhere. Those who rank him lower point to his passing and decision-making for teammates, and to stretches when his efficiency has slipped. In the final three games against the Philadelphia 76ers, Brown shot 42 percent from the field, 32 percent from 3 and turned it over nearly four times per game. For evaluators trying to decide what he is worth in a trade, that gap between the star version and the flawed one is the whole argument.
There is also a reason some executives think Boston is willing to listen. Brown’s game has often been described as expanding once Joe Mazzulla took over and installed a five-out spacing scheme, which made him look more dangerous than he did in earlier seasons. That helps explain why the Celtics may not be eager to sell low, even if they are taking calls now. The unresolved question is not whether Brown has value. It is whether Boston can get back enough value to justify moving a player whose ceiling and price tag both make him one of the NBA’s hardest names to price.
