The Boston Celtics are trading Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George and draft picks, according to a report from ’s Shams Charania. The move sends one of Boston’s defining wings out in exchange for a veteran who has spent recent seasons fighting injuries and availability issues.
Brown is 29 and is entering the third year of a five-year, $285.3 million deal that will pay him $57 million in 2025-26. That is the kind of contract that usually locks a player in place, especially one who was the Eastern Conference Finals MVP and NBA Finals MVP during Boston’s championship season in 2023-24, and it is why he never really looked like the kind of star teams would move unless the roster had already changed around him.
Now the roster has changed around him. The Celtics were already expected to make moves ahead of the 2025-26 season because of a bloated payroll and second-apron luxury-tax restrictions, and Jayson Tatum is expected to miss most of that season because of a torn Achilles. Boston had also already traded Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis, signaling that the team was willing to strip down the core rather than wait for the tax bill to force its hand.
Fischer reported details on the picks involved, but the full package has not been laid out publicly. That matters because the trade is not just Brown for George; it is Boston choosing a different timeline and Philadelphia betting that a nine-time All-Star can still raise its ceiling. George is 36, has appeared in more than 56 games just once in the past five seasons, and did not get past 41 games in either of his two seasons in Philadelphia. He averaged 17.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and shot 39.2 percent from three-point range in 37 contests last season, then missed 25 games for violating the NBA’s anti-drug policy.
The reported deal gives the 76ers a veteran wing to pair with Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid, while Boston gets draft capital back in a move that underlines how hard the second apron has started to bite. The missing piece is the simplest one: which picks are in the package, and whether this is the last major subtraction before the Celtics settle on what comes next.
