{"id":790973,"date":"2026-07-10T08:16:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T08:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/790973\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T08:16:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T08:16:22","slug":"why-didnt-the-blazers-trade-for-jaylen-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/790973\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Didn\u2019t the Blazers Trade for Jaylen Brown?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of all the trades and signings in the NBA this summer, none has rocked the world as much as Jaylen Brown being moved<\/a> to the Philadelphia 76\u2019ers for a package centered around Paul George and two first-round picks. Media members and third-party executives alike were heard openly wondering why the price for one of the NBA\u2019s best players ended up being so low. Portland Trail Blazers fans\u2014whose team had been rumored in puruit of Brown, whose coffers were full of young players and future picks besides\u2014were as shocked as anyone. Preliminary Brown rumors generated thousands of comments at our site alone, let alone the actual trade.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, some of that chatter bled over to the Blazer\u2019s Edge Mailbag, where a few questions about Brown have popped up. This is a fine sample. Let\u2019s tackle it.<\/p>\n

Dave,<\/p>\n

Can you explain how we passed up the chance to get [Jaylen Brown]? We had more picks, better picks, better players and more salary flexibility. Why didn\u2019t we make a better trade? Brown is one of the biggest scorers in today\u2019s game and he\u2019s built to play the current way the league plays. We needed another star. I won\u2019t get into the debate about Ja [Morant] but I can\u2019t even tell you how confused I am that we took him instead of the proven and active star that\u2019s taken teams to the finals. Does the GM see something I don\u2019t?<\/p>\n

Eric<\/p>\n

One of the firestorms that swept the league after the trade centered around analytics.<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s basic numbers are good-to-great: 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, 5.1 assists in 34.4 minutes per game, shooting 47.7% from the floor and 34.7% from the three-point arc. He hits shots from all ranges. He draws a fair number of free throws.<\/p>\n

His advanced numbers are less shiny. That three-point percentage is just ordinary, not elite, especially for a guy receiving passes at the arc instead of generating distance shots himself. He took a large number of field goal attempts last season, but they were justified given his role and position on the team. Boston\u2019s on-off numbers somewhat paradoxically showed them as better without him on the floor. That\u2019s been a multi-year trend. He also shows up semi-tepid on defense for a guy who supposedly excels on that end.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m as interested in, and highly-regarding of, analytics as most. But I also believe that outliers exist in every system. Often with the eye test\u2014admittedly a less-solid means of judgment\u2014players who don\u2019t actually contribute to winning will look good. Similarly, some players you\u2019d ignore at a glance end up being valuable pieces. This happens less frequently with analytics and stats, but it can happen. Personally I look at a player like Brown and say, \u201cThose numbers aren\u2019t lying, but they\u2019re not telling the whole story either. This guy absolutely contributes to scoring and winning. He\u2019s not a bad defender either. Whatever his shortcomings are, they\u2019re probably the kind you happily make up for with the rest of the roster, just like you do with Giannis or any other star.\u201d If this were just about advanced numbers, I\u2019d acknowledge them but say, \u201cGet him anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I know of Brown: he likes to run, he scores big, he\u2019s invested in defense, he can share the ball and play off-ball when necessary, he\u2019s at the top of the opponent\u2019s scouting list, he\u2019s an iconoclast and intellectual, and he\u2019s won big. I don\u2019t see anything in that list that would scare me away from acquiring him for the Blazers. He has far fewer question marks\u2014and far more of a proven track record\u2014than Morant or most anyone Portland has traded for over the last decade.<\/p>\n

In particular, I see a potential Brown-Deni Avdija pairing as exciting. Both go fast. Both defend. Both play smart and unselfishly. I can imagine those two looking across the court at each other, nodding, and then deciding that they\u2019re getting that ball away from the opponent, running as hard as they can, and finishing before anybody can blink. Rinse, lather, repeat\u2026ballgame.<\/p>\n

But therein lie possible cracks as well.<\/p>\n

The first question is one we brought up yesterday: are the Blazers really trying to go fast and young like they did last season? It feels like, between the return of Damian Lillard and the advent of Morant, Portland\u2019s going to return to a more measured, halfcourt-style offense. Would Brown have fit with Lillard? Would Brown have even fit with Avdija, or would this just be another Jayson Tatum-like pairing where everyone\u2014including the players\u2014was asking who\u2019s in charge? If Brown and Avdija didn\u2019t mesh, that would seriously hobble Deni\u2019s ascent. Maybe the Blazers didn\u2019t want to risk that. Or maybe he just doesn\u2019t fit their new direction.<\/p>\n

Speaking of risk, salary and asset depletion would be far greater in a Brown deal than the Blazers have shown a willingness to commit to.<\/p>\n

Brown is making $60+ million a year for the next three years. That\u2019s a ton of cash (and cap room) tied up in one player. His deal runs through 2029, a full year after almost all of Portland\u2019s other contracts expire.<\/p>\n

Why does that matter? If they want to keep this team together in any reasonable form, they\u2019re going to start paying a comparative fortune in 2028 to do it. It starts with Avdija\u2019s contract negotiations. He\u2019s the most underpaid player in the league right now. He\u2019s going to want a mint for his next contract. Portand will need to give it to him. Then you have Scoot Henderson and Donovan Clingan on potential extensions. Right now Clingan is the favorite to extend richly and stay, but the Blazers will lose all their veteran point guards in \u201828, so we can\u2019t dismiss Scoot entirely. Speaking of, do they trade Jrue Holiday before his contract expires? If so, the players coming back in are going to make $35 million or so too. With Brown on board, the Blazers would be looking at the luxury tax without one single shred of proof that this lineup would actually contend.<\/p>\n

Trading the picks necessary to beat Philly\u2019s price for Brown, Portland would also cut away flexibility to pivot in the future. One nice thing about today\u2019s roster from an organizational point of view is that they\u2019ll be free in two years to cherry-pick a couple of players, bid adieu to the rest, and essentially start anew with a number of potential lottery selections. It\u2019s an opportune reset if things go wrong. It\u2019s also a super-cheap contingency plan.<\/p>\n

Brown would impede that with his star status, gravity on the court, and huge salary. He\u2019s a better player than anyone the Blazers have. He also introduces a level of financial, team chemistry, and future-planning risk that\u2019s greater than anyone on the current roster.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible that management and\/or ownership looked at Brown, appreciated him as a player, but decided he wasn\u2019t worth that level of commitment\u2026not just individually, but committing the team to the course necessary to take advantage of the superstar during his tenure. For all his potential flaws, Morant will end up as an \u201ceasy come, easy go\u201d acquistion if things don\u2019t work out. Brown changes the team\u2019s trajectory without absolutely guaranteeing it\u2019ll improve dramatically (at least if you believe the analytics). That, plus the extra money, may have sealed his fate in Portland.<\/p>\n

Less mentioned, but still worth noting: it\u2019s possible that Brown didn\u2019t want to play on the West Coast for a relatively obscure team with no recent track record of success. If that\u2019s true, his lack of contentment would certainly show up more in the Portland fishbowl than most places. Personally, I suspect everyone involved could have overcome it. A warm welcome and tens of millions of dollars in real paychecks tend to do that. But it\u2019s a possible factor. In Philadelphia he\u2019s not far from where he\u2019s lived his whole NBA career, he\u2019s on a team that seems ready-made to contend for the NBA Finals, if not a title, and he doesn\u2019t have to deal with travel, lack of publicity, and the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs hovering over the top of the conference. There are simply fewer questions.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure we\u2019ll ever know fully what made things go the way they did. Justification will have to come via results. If Brown and the Sixers go on to fight for NBA titles while the Blazers remain mediocre, this is going to hurt. If Portland prospers on their chose course, that\u2019ll be good enough. If Brown flames out in Philly, at least the Blazers won\u2019t have taken on his huge contract for lesser results.<\/p>\n

We won\u2019t find out any of these things right now, though. The best we can say so far is that they didn\u2019t appear to want Brown badly enough to go get him,. Let\u2019s see what management wanted instead and hope it\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

Thanks for the question! You can always send yours to blazersub@gmail.com and we\u2019ll try to answer as many as possible!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of all the trades and signings in the NBA this summer, none has rocked the world as much…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,46315,51192,590,85],"class_list":["post-790973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blazers-analysis","tag-blazers-mailbags","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}