It was a bizarre record scratch<\/a> of a U-turn after it seemed, just days earlier, that a package of \u201cBrown and not that much else\u201d could land the Celtics Antetokounmpo. Somehow, it seems, Boston pivoted from clutching pearls over Hugo Gonz\u00e1lez and its own future first-rounders to deciding that maybe $55 million a year for George wasn\u2019t so bad.<\/p>\n By all accounts, the Celtics seemed to launch earnestly into trading Brown very quickly after the Giannis chase ended, even when it seemed like biding their time might have been the better play.<\/p>\n One of the big questions: What was the rush? Did they think the George deal would go away and that they had nothing else even close? Did Brown kinda sorta demand a trade without demanding one? Did he have an undisclosed career-altering hip injury<\/a>? (Sorry.)<\/p>\n Regardless, it was shocking to see Brown\u2019s departure generate a return that matched what you\u2019d imagine it would have taken just to dump George\u2019s contract into another team\u2019s cap space. That\u2019s especially true when juxtaposed against Brown\u2019s perception around the league this past season, as a fringe MVP candidate who narrowly missed making first-team All-NBA.<\/p>\n To say Brown is wildly overrated, or that the analytics say he sucks, is just grossly incorrect. To say Brown is mildly overrated, on the other hand, is probably accurate.<\/p>\n Memorable moments from Jaylen Brown’s 10 seasons in Boston<\/p>\n The on-off data is unfavorable but not enough to convict on its own. It\u2019s noisy due to shooting variance and heavily dependent on lineup choices like, \u201cLet\u2019s send Jaylen out there with our four worst rotation players and see if we can break even for six minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n Big picture, however, kernels of truth in those numbers are clear. Brown is a very good two-way wing whose offensive value is somewhat capped because he isn\u2019t notably efficient (even while on a relative jump-shooting heater last season), nor particularly adept at setting up others. My BORD$ valuation tool<\/a> puts his value for the coming season at $40 million, which doesn\u2019t make him the seventh-best player on this or any other team but also doesn\u2019t make him the sixth-best player in the league like MVP voters had it. (If you\u2019re curious, he ranked 21st; coincidentally, the player ranked 20th, LaMelo Ball, was just traded for a not dissimilar package.)<\/p>\n Given the cognitive dissonance between Brown\u2019s public perception and his valuation in most analytical tools, the idea of selling high on a career year entering his age-30 season had to be compelling for Boston, especially with three expensive years left on Brown\u2019s deal. (Brown also was extension-eligible this summer, but the Celtics were under no obligation to pay him yet.)<\/p>\n On the other hand, George has two years left on his own deal that is just as expensive as Brown\u2019s \u2026 except George is 36 years old, has played more than 56 games only once in the last seven years and served a 25-game suspension last season for violating the league\u2019s anti-drug policy. His key differences from Brown \u2014 more ballhandling, more 3-point shooting \u2014 lean into the way the Celtics like to play, but this is an unquestioned talent downgrade for a team that, on paper, looked to be one of the two best in the Eastern Conference before the trade. Whatever the opposite of all-in looks like, this is it.<\/p>\n The most shocking part is that this was the best Boston could do in July 2026. I guarantee you, having done this myself<\/a>, that there wasn\u2019t some better offer just sitting out there that the Celtics decided to ignore. When you\u2019re trying to move a player and have only 29 potential trade partners, you canvas the entire league, take note of the slightest scintilla of interest and follow every lead. Two high-quality first-round picks, two quality second-rounders likely to land in the 30s and a quasi-similar replacement on an awful contract were the best they found.<\/p>\n About the best thing I can say is that \u201cGeorge plus picks\u201d operates as a store of value until the next big fish comes along, and the rest of the roster is good enough to still win a bunch of regular-season games while the Celtics bide their time. Boston can put five first-round picks into a deal, including the two from Philly, and has an obvious matching salary.<\/p>\n On the other hand, they had the Giannis fish right on their hook and threw it back in the water. Who are they waiting for that\u2019s better?<\/p>\n Why did the Celtics trade Jaylen Brown?<\/p>\n Jay King and Jeshua Kidd<\/p>\n As a result, the Celtics have to be the biggest losers from the first few days of free agency. Boston has already struggled to carry regular-season efficiency over to the postseason in the Joe Mazzulla era. The one time they pulled it off, Brown won NBA Finals MVP. Now they\u2019ve downgraded his spot, and likely their championship equity.<\/p>\n Some of my other winners and losers:<\/p>\n Winner: Toronto Raptors<\/p>\n Look, you\u2019re either trying to win or you\u2019re not. The Raptors traded their not-very-durable, not-very-efficient second-best player (Brandon Ingram) for a chance to win the East, and it cost them two future first-round picks and a likely move down to the end of the first round in a terrible draft. That\u2019s just barely an acceptable price.<\/p>\n Kawhi Leonard is 35 and has a recent history of breaking down late in the season, including in the LA Clippers\u2019 two most important games of the year against the Portland Trail Blazers this April. But when he\u2019s on, he\u2019s amazing. Leonard was one of the five best players in the league last season and among the few capable of winning a second-round playoff game more or less by himself. With Scottie Barnes\u2019 continued emergence and other solid young players, Toronto has enough weapons to give Leonard help in-season and not make every possession a Kawhi pound-a-thon into a midrange jumper.<\/p>\n Work, however, remains. The Raptors are thin on the wing, need more shooting and have only one significant tradeable asset (a 2029 first-round pick) plus some swaps to make further upgrades. There\u2019s a good chance they don\u2019t win the East, and they may go one-and-done again in the playoffs. But they had a zero percent chance of winning the East before this trade. Now, they\u2019re in the mix.<\/p>\n How the Kawhi Leonard trade makes the Raptors a contender<\/p>\n Esfandiar Baraheni<\/p>\n Winner: Indiana Pacers<\/p>\n The price Indiana paid to acquire Ivica Zubac at February\u2019s trade deadline isn\u2019t looking so bad given what the Lakers needed to do to get Walker Kessler<\/a>. The Pacers surrendered two first-round picks, including the fifth pick in the 2026 draft, to land a top-10 center on a very favorable contract ($42 million over the next two years).<\/p>\n I also think Kelly Oubre Jr. is an amazing fit at a reasonable price<\/a>, and I am relatively shocked that the signing has momentarily put the Pacers several million dollars into the luxury tax. I assume Jarace Walker will be traded to get Indiana back under the $200.428 million tax line at some point \u2014 a fair critique of this Pacers era is that they\u2019ve been great at scouting pro talent and not so great at scouting college talent.<\/p>\n But if Tyrese Haliburton is right physically, the Pacers can get right back to where they were two seasons ago.<\/p>\n \n Can Ivica Zubac help get Indiana back into contention next season? (Wendell Cruz \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n Winner: Philadelphia 76ers<\/p>\n It goes without saying that the Sixers did well to move off one of the worst contracts in the league and replace it with an All-Star. The aforementioned Brown also fills two important functions.<\/p>\n First, he\u2019s been extremely durable, which is an important counterweight when your team employs Joel Embiid and has next to no bench. Brown being able to soak up a ton of minutes and possessions in the regular season is massive given his value over replacement on this roster, even if he doesn\u2019t operate at elite efficiency.<\/p>\n Second, Brown\u2019s contract runs the exact same length as those of Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, the other three key Sixers. In 2029, those deals will expire, and the employment of Brown and Embiid with the team might as well. But by that point, Philly can ride a Maxey-Edgecombe pairing with whatever comes next.<\/p>\n The Sixers, alas, remain committed to a \u201ctriple-max\u201d salary model that isn\u2019t particularly easy to optimize with ownership that doesn\u2019t want to pay the luxury tax. The Sixers haven\u2019t done so since 2022 and have had to pay to wriggle out of it the last few years.<\/p>\n However, if Philly will at least spend to the first apron (about $9 million above the tax line this season), it can make something of this era. Adding Dean Wade<\/a> checked a necessary box at power forward, and Anfernee Simons was a tremendous value signing<\/a> to add another ballhandler. Asset-wise, the Sixers still have enough in the cupboard to do some in-season work. This is a nice start for newly hired GM Mike Gansey.<\/p>\n Loser: cap space<\/p>\n Welcome to our new \u201ccap-room\u201d era. News flash: Cap room requires free agents worth paying, and we rarely get those anymore.<\/p>\n The Brooklyn Nets and Chicago Bulls came into the summer with oodles of cap room and walked away with two of the worst rosters in the league. Chicago at least got an All-Star, technically, in Norman Powell<\/a>, while the Nets got \u2026 Keon Ellis and Moe Wagner? (The Julius Randle acquisition<\/a> did not require cap space.)<\/p>\n The most interesting part, to me, is how unwilling these teams (and the Lakers, for that matter) were to play chicken with other teams in restricted free agency.<\/p>\n Any of these three teams could have signed Kessler to a big offer sheet and challenged Utah to match it, then come back and do the same with Jalen Duren, and then, if that failed, hit up Peyton Watson. Given the extremely mild returns they foreclosed upon, I don\u2019t see what the harm was in waiting until July 9 for an answer.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/USATSI_28523914-1024x683.jpg\")
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