The Celtics sent Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> for Paul George and draft capital. Mazzulla said many factors on and off the court contributed to such a major decision.<\/p>\n\u201cI think obviously when something like that happens, it\u2019s not a black-and-white type of thing,\u201d Mazzulla said after the Celtics\u2019 summer league practice Thursday. \u201c\u2026 The part that I hope gets talked about more, and the part that we really want to focus on the most, is really just the respect, the appreciation and the gratitude for what he did for the Celtics for 10 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a Celtic longer than I have been. He was here before me. He set the tone and started that, and was a part of special things, and continued that, and obviously was one of the biggest reasons why we were able to be as successful as we have been. So that to me is what we have to focus on more: The respect as a competitor and the gratitude for what he\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Memorable moments from Jaylen Brown’s 10 seasons in Boston<\/p>\n
For the Celtics, the stunning trade marked the end of an era. Brown finished sixth in MVP voting this season after averaging career highs of 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game. During Brown\u2019s 10 seasons in Boston, the Celtics never missed the playoffs. They reached the Eastern Conference Finals six times, the NBA Finals twice and won the 2024 championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s one of the big questions is, every time something like this happens, it\u2019s like, how are you going to replace (him)?\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to. Obviously, not only what he\u2019s done in his career, but what he did this year, you don\u2019t replace that. And I think that\u2019s where it\u2019s not a black-and-white thing, right? There\u2019s two sides. There\u2019s obviously a relationship there, and there\u2019s things there, but there\u2019s two sides to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve also brought in people. And so we have to have an understanding that we\u2019re not asking anybody who comes back, whether it\u2019s free agency, whether it\u2019s (in a) trade, whatever, to be anything what he was because we are not going to do that. But they\u2019ve got to be the best version of themselves and they have to bring things to our team to try and help us become a better team.\u201d<\/p>\n
While detailing the reasons for the trade, Stevens stressed that the Celtics didn\u2019t want to tie up such a big percentage of their salary cap in their two stars, Brown and Jayson Tatum. Though George\u2019s salary is similar to Brown\u2019s, he also has one fewer season left on his contract.<\/p>\n
Mazzulla said he didn\u2019t necessarily give input on the trade but was involved in conversations with Stevens during the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot input, just Brad comes to you and talks to you and gives you a breakdown and an understanding,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cAnd in moments like this, obviously there\u2019s great alignment within the organization and there\u2019s conversations that are always going to be had. But I think in moments like this, this is where you just trust, you listen, you trust and you have an understanding for what they do. I think Brad has been the absolute best at what he does and there\u2019s just a level of trust that goes into that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Celtics also acquired Mitchell Robinson and Mike Conley in free agency. Mazzulla said the team will need to create a new collective persona after experiencing so much success over the years with Brown next to Tatum.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a different roster,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cWe have a different identity now. I think there\u2019s been a clear identity in the last 10 years with the roster that we have, especially the cornerstones of the organization, and now that identity is a little bit different. So the challenge lies in how do we create that identity? How do we establish that identity? And then how do we end our season on a win? Which is really hard to do, but that\u2019s the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why did the Celtics trade Jaylen Brown?<\/p>\n
Jay King and Jeshua Kidd<\/p>\n
The Celtics were coming off two consecutive early playoff exits, which contributed to their decision to pull off such a major overhaul. This postseason, they blew a 3-1 lead during the first round, losing to the 76ers.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have such a great regular season, but then when you blow a 3-1 lead, that\u2019s on everybody,\u201d Mazzulla said when asked if he believed the team needed a shakeup. \u201cThat\u2019s on me, that\u2019s on the coaching staff, that\u2019s on the players. \u2026 So I think you first have to have an appreciation for what we\u2019re able to do from a competitive standpoint. And at the same time, have an understanding that the way we ended wasn\u2019t good enough. And that starts with me, and then it goes to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mazzulla said the Brown trade was an emotional one to go through.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a feeling that goes into it,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cThere\u2019s an emotion that goes into it. There\u2019s a processing pattern that goes into it. The quicker you can get to just a level of gratitude \u2014 he made me a better coach. I know that for a fact. The way he pushed me, the way he pushed himself, the way he pushed the locker room, he made me a better coach, and that\u2019s what you focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mazzulla added: \u201cI think when things happen like this, when it doesn\u2019t feel hard, is when you\u2019re not in it for the right reasons. And I think that\u2019s where Brad is one of the best at, and this organization has been one of the best at. Of course, something like that is going to be difficult. But I think if you could just get through and act as if nothing happened, then that\u2019s when I think that you\u2019re not in it for the right reasons. So yeah, it was difficult. It will be difficult \u2026 but I think it will be difficult because of what Jaylen did for us as an organization, what he was able to do. You have to be grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 In his first remarks since the startling trade of star guard Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[2242,355,99],"class_list":["post-753532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-boston-celtics","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}