Boston Celtics
Amid a flurry of trade rumors involving Brown, the ESPN reporter said he doesn’t believe Boston will trade him.
Will Jaylen Brown start the upcoming season with the Celtics? AP Photo/David Richard
June 19, 2026 | 7:02 PM
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Will Celtics star Jaylen Brown play for the Boston Celtics this upcoming NBA season?
It depends on which reporter you listen to.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst doesn’t think Brown is going anywhere this offseason.
“I understand that there’s this sort of heat around Jaylen Brown and the Celtics,” he said on a recent episode of his “Brian Windhorst and the Hoop Collective” podcast. “(President of basketball operations) Brad Stevens is a cool customer. He doesn’t act rashly. He’s not responsive.
“I am not a believer that Brown is not going to be a Celtic at the start of the season. … I believe there’s a very good chance Jaylen Brown is staying put with Jayson Tatum. Now, other moves the Celtics might make, that’s a different story.”
“I understand that there’s this sort of heat around Jaylen Brown & the Boston Celtics. I am not a believer that Jaylen Brown is not going to be a Celtic at the start of the season…I believe there’s a very good chance Jaylen Brown is staying put with Jayson Tatum.” @WindhorstESPN pic.twitter.com/uwwXwoHNuW
— Dru (@dru_star) June 19, 2026
Brown has been heavily linked in trade rumors involving a swap with the Milwaukee Bucks for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Windhorst has not reported anything of the sort, in fact quite the opposite, including his recent comments. He said he hadn’t heard “one iota” of Brown being available in trade discussions earlier this month.
“Maybe someone has called on Jaylen Brown, but I haven’t heard one iota about Jaylen Brown being truly available,” Windhorst said.
Though he doesn’t envision Brown playing elsewhere, Windhorst made a separate eyebrow-raising comment regarding Brown’s contract situation.
“I know that there’s a possibility Jaylen Brown is not going to finish his career as a Celtic. I know there’s a possibility that the Celtics don’t want to give him an extension this summer,” he said. “That could be a thing.”
Boston would be able to ink the 29-year-old to a two-year, $142 million extension later this summer, on top of the supermax money he will earn over the next three seasons ($57 million in 2026-27, $61 million in 2027-28, and $65 million in 2028-29).
But according to Windhorst, it doesn’t seem like the Celtics are 100 percent intent on extending the offer.
It’s also unclear if Brown would put pen to paper, despite his public comments about wanting to stay in Boston for the rest of his career.
Brown’s mentor, Basketball Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady, said he believed Brown was frustrated with the Celtics organization in comments that went viral after Boston was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs last month.
“I think his frustration lies deeply within the organization and other things that we don’t have the details to,” McGrady said. “There’s just been a lot of stuff that I’ve been hearing going on with the Boston organization with J.B.”
McGrady went on to clarify his comments when he explained he hadn’t heard from Brown directly, but said he “knows his friend” and noticed “certain things” after the team’s loss.
This doesn’t mean Brown won’t be putting on a Celtics uniform come October. McGrady recently said, in lockstep with Windhorst, that he believes Brown will stay put with the Celtics despite the rumors.
“I’m looking forward to having them back together if they stay together, which I think they will,” McGrady said in a clip from his “Cousins” podcast with Vince Carter. “If they can figure it out – they figured it out a couple years ago – but to get back to what they were, I like what we’re gonna see out of Boston next year. J.T. is hungry. You know Jaylen Brown is going to be hungry.”
Nevertheless, the unfolding saga involving Brown remains intriguing as the basketball world awaits a possible Giannis trade.
Kaley Brown
Kaley Brown is a sports producer for Boston.com, where she covers the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox.
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