![\"Jaylen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2288526905-e1788929915631.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics<\/p>\n
The Boston Celtics<\/a>\u2018 2026 offseason will forever be defined by Brad Stevens\u2019 decision to trade Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers. The trade has split the fanbase, as the Celtics sent one of their best players to a direct rival.<\/p>\n Sure, it can be argued that Paul George is a better fit within Joe Mazzulla\u2019s system. And yes, the draft capital Boston got in the deal could become highly valuable. However, Boston will now face Brown multiple times per year and will likely need to get past him in the postseason, too.<\/p>\n It\u2019s those reasons that have left Charles Barkley dumbfounded by the move.<\/p>\n \u201cI have been asked 9,755 times why the Celtics traded Jaylen Brown to Philly. And 9,752 times, I say I have zero idea why,\u201d\u00a0Barkley said<\/a> during a recent episode of \u2018The Bill Simmons Podcast.\u2019 \u201cThat was, to me, one of the craziest trades I\u2019ve seen in my 40 years in the NBA. I can\u2019t explain it.\u201d<\/p>\n Barkley continued by explaining that trading Brown to Philadelphia means Boston now has another roadblock in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n \u201cOK, the Celtics don\u2019t want Jaylen Brown. I understand it. Clearly they did not want Jaylen Brown. There\u2019s no way in hell you trade him that close to a team you gotta play five times in the regular season. (They\u2019re) probably going to have to beat to get through in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n Celtics Helped Turn Sixers Into a Superteam<\/p>\n To make matters worse, Brown\u2019s addition in Philadelphia likely played a role in LeBron James\u2019 decision to sign with the franchise in free agency. Now, all of a sudden, the Sixers boast a legitimate superteam.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Sixers were dead,\u201d Barkley continued. \u201cThey were irrelevant \u2014 they had an aging Paul George and an aging Joel Embiid for the next two years with Paul, three or four years with Embiid. They were dead in the water, irrelevant. Now all of a sudden, they get Jaylen, they\u2019re back in contention. And then you throw the cherry on the top with LeBron.\u201d<\/p>\n Barkley then said what many Celtics fans have been saying throughout the summer: trading Brown to the Sixers made no sense.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing anybody can say to me that I can go on TV or on your podcast or anywhere in the world and say that trade made sense for the Celtics. That\u2019s just crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown Was Due a Huge Contract Extension<\/p>\n There\u2019s no denying Boston made the move with their future salary cap in mind. Brown, 29, has three years remaining on his current $285 million contract.<\/p>\n Furthermore, Brown was also eligible for a two-year supermax contract extension worth over worth $141 million. That deal would have paid Brown $70+ million at ages 33 and 34.<\/p>\n By trading Brown now and getting back George, who has two years remaining on his current deal, with the final year as a player option, the Celtics have regained control of their financial flexibility.<\/p>\n George\u2019s contract may seem like an albatross right now, but he could be a solid trade chip next season when his deal is expiring.<\/p>\n For now, though, Celtics fans will likely approach the season with caution. After all, they\u2019ll know one of their biggest rivals is arguably the best team in the NBA. What\u2019s worse is they helped make it happen.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAdam Taylor<\/a> is a basketball reporter covering the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks and Miami Heat for Heavy. He holds bylines for CelticsBlog, USA Today and Yardbarker. Adam also covers the WWE and AEW. He has a bachelor\u2019s degree in creative writing from Open University. More about Adam Taylor<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics\u2018 2026 offseason will forever be defined by Brad Stevens\u2019 decision to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-885292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885292","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=885292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}