Boston Celtics
Having so much money and usage tied up in two players would have made it difficult to remain at a championship-caliber level, Brad Stevens said.
Brad Stevens and Bill Chisholm addressed the media on Monday Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe
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Celtics majority owner Bill Chisholm and president of basketball operations Brad Stevens addressed the media on Monday afternoon, speaking for almost 45 minutes about their decision to send Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia in exchange for Paul George and several draft assets.
Stevens opened the press conference with a lengthy statement about how much he appreciated Brown’s contributions on and off the court. He also explained his view of the trade from a basketball and financial perspective.
The Celtics concluded pairing Brown and Jayson Tatum together was no longer a formula that could lead to winning championships under the rules of the new collective bargaining agreement.
Together, those two players were scheduled to make 70 percent of the team’s salary cap. Stevens said that number was under 50 percent when the Celtics won the title in 2024.
Yet, as the salaries kept growing, Boston’s playoff exits grew earlier and earlier. The Knicks eliminated the Celtics in the second round in 2025. Philadelphia overcame a 3-1 series deficit and eliminated the Celtics in the first round this season.
Chisholm said that ownership did not give any mandates that Brown had to be traded. Stevens said the decision came from the front office’s conviction that the league was heading in a different direction and the Celtics had to adapt.
Brown is out, George is in, and the Celtics are making a play for the future. Here are five takeaways from Monday’s press conference.
This move clearly wasn’t the Celtics’ first choice
The Celtics’ pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo, with Brown reportedly as the centerpiece of Boston’s trade offer, was widely publicized.
The deal fell through, and the Celtics decided to trade Brown anyway. Stevens said that he was upfront about the offers that he was fielding and that Brown didn’t seem disgruntled.
Stevens acknowledged that the noise around the possibility of an Antetokounmpo trade was “loud” and that this deal involving George will be scrutinized.
“Obviously there was a lot of talk everywhere, but we still weren’t going to do anything unless we felt like it was the right return,” said Stevens.
Word of the day: Optionality
The balance that the Celtics tried to achieve when considering trade offers for Brown, Stevens said, was getting a player that could help the team stay competitive while also getting assets in return.
Stevens kept calling it: “Optionality.”
“We may not be sitting here if there was a rule in the CBA that said the guys that you drafted that you signed to a 35 percent supermaxes count as 25 percent of the cap,” Stevens said. “Because then that would allow you to build out towards the aprons with a lot more flexibility, but the reality is that those are hard to build.”
Boston landed on George, a nine-time All-Star who still scores the ball at an efficient clip, but primarily relies on 3-pointers and has had issues staying on the floor. He has missed at least half of the last two regular-seasons due to a various injuries and a lengthy suspension for using performance enhancing drugs.
While George’s $54 million salary is comparable to what Brown makes, George has one guaranteed year left on his deal followed by a player option. He is also accustomed to having fewer touches, averaging 14 field-goal attempts per game compared to Brown’s 21 last season.
Analytics a ‘small’ part of the bigger picture
The Celtics need to get deeper and have more ways to attack on offense while keeping an eye on the future, Stevens said.
“Both offer potential big swings at the apple,” Stevens said of the first round picks, “And then the second-round picks are sweeteners you can use in deals to do things to put your team over the top or maybe draft Jordan Walsh or Dylan Mitchell or somebody you’re really excited about.”
“At the end of the day, those guys aren’t Jaylen, but I understand that ultimately there’s a lot of small steps to build out the depth and team that we ultimately want to.”
Over the past three seasons, the Celtics are 36-6 in games without Brown. Despite Brown winning the 2024 Finals MVP and finishing sixth in the MVP voting this season, there has been speculation that his advanced stats may have played a role in his departure.
“You take in every angle and every ounce of information that you have and you put it all together,” Stevens said. “For me, and Mike [Zarren] and his staff might get mad at me , they do every day, I would say that was a small piece of information.”
Other stars may take critical look at how Brown was treated
Brown spent ten seasons in Boston, helped lead the team to an NBA-record 18th title, won Finals MVP, made five All-Star teams, and embraced giving back to the local community in various ways over the years.
Yet, he was repeatedly included in failed trade offers. Brown said that his talks with the Celtics were going well until — all of a sudden — they went left, and that he felt disrespected by the way the Celtics handled things. Stevens said he was sorry that Brown felt that way and added that he hoped Brown felt like he was treated well over the course of his ten years with the team.
Stevens and Chisholm were asked if the franchise’s reputation had taken a hit based on how they had treated Brown at the end of his time in Boston.
“If that were the case, that’s not acceptable,” Chisholm said. “Because this is the Boston Celtics. That’s not what we’re about, and we want this to be — we have to be the best and we want to be the best place for players to play.”
“If that’s the case, then we’ve got to fix that whether perception becomes reality, we’ve got to make sure that we deal with that.”
Stevens says Tatum had no input on decision
Other than an Instagram post, Tatum has largely remained quiet about Brown’s departure and the process leading up to it.
Stevens said Tatum had no input in the decision to trade Brown. Tatum and Brown had played together for nine seasons, and, now that Brown is gone, Tatum is the team’s unquestioned No. 1 scoring option.
“I have a real hard and fast rule,” Stevens said. “I don’t ask other guys about other guys because it’s not — I won’t put them in that position. So, he had none.”
Khari A. Thompson
Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.
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