Trading a player of the status of Jaylen Brown is an ownership decision. Most NBA owners don’t have to sign off on a trade or releasing the 14th man on the roster, but when we’re talking about an All-NBA player, the team’s leading scorer last season and a guy who finished sixth in MVP voting, the owner is in on the process.
Celtics owner Bill Chisholm said he had to be convinced to make this trade, but was by the “best brains in basketball,” he said in an appearance on the Greg Hill Show on WEEI (hat tip Robby Kalland at CBS Sports).
“I definitely have a level of trust in Brad and his team. But man, as a fan, that was tough. I really needed to be convinced to take the fan passion out of it, because I’m a super fan, was tough. You have to be a sociopath if you don’t worry a little bit about what other fans are going to think…
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“We’ve got the best brains in basketball, and this was something they had conviction around.”
Stevens was direct when addressing the trade in its wake: This was about the financial realities of the NBA and having two players, Brown and Jayson Tatum, on supermax contracts: “The path looked a little bit more challenging with 70% of our (salary) cap, and such a high percent of our usage tied into two players.”
That the realities of the second apron and tax system forced the trade is just fine with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and 29 other NBA owners, but it doesn’t sit well with fans — the people who ultimately pay the NBA’s bills. Celtics fans were invested in Brown, he was drafted into the organization, grew there into one of the game’s top players, and won a title there. Being forced to trade a fan-favorite player like that starts to erode fan loyalty and trust, and that is a slippery slope for the league.
Boston will still be good next season. They got back Paul George in the trade, who, at age 36, is still a good player when healthy and will fit well in a role next to Jayson Tatum, Derrick White and a Boston team that will still be near the top of the East in the regular season. The Celtics also picked up a couple of first-round draft picks in the deal, giving them future flexibility.
However, any trade where the owner needs to be convinced is one a team should think long and hard about.