Brad Stevens gives the salary cap reason behind the Jaylen Brown trade with Philadelphia

Sep 29, 2025; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens talks to reporters during media day at the Auerbach Center. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images

Jaylen Brown has now been confirmed as the newest Philadelphia 76ers player after a trade with the Boston Celtics. As the chief decision-maker in Boston, Brad Stevens addressed the media for the first time on Monday, as he spoke about what led to his decision to part ways with the 2024 Finals MVP.

It was a tough decision for him to make, considering he was the man in charge as the head coach for most of Brown's tenure. Unfortunately, it seemed that Stevens had to make the decision based on the money they were working with.

Brad Stevens points to the salary cap as the reason behind the Jaylen Brown trade

Brown ends his Celtics career as one of the greatest players in the franchise's modern era. He and Jayson Tatum were the primary reasons behind their recent success, but unfortunately, it seems they did not have long after signing their massive contract extensions.

As the architect of the current roster, it seems Stevens was well aware of the issues that the massive contracts had on the team. Considering Tatum is seen as the better player of the two, sticking with him was a no-brainer for Stevens.

MORE: Jayson Tatum pens his final farewell to his longtime running mate, Jaylen Brown

Unfortunately for Brown, he was the obvious choice to trade. However, it seemed the rest of the NBA was also well aware because they were not sending in huge trade packages. They could not turn back on the decision to trade him, so they received a 36-year-old Paul George and a significant draft pick haul.

"The path looked a little bit more challenging to me, I might be wrong, I'm not going out here to be defensive about that, but the challenging path was with 70% of our cap and such a high usage on two players, and the reality in this era and in this day and age in the NBA, you have to do a great job in building depth," Stevens said about the reasoning behind the Brown trade.

It is a perfectly understandable reason from that perspective. However, it is fair for the fans to expect a better package than what they got. George is still a good player, but he is tiers below Brown at this point in his career.

Now, the Celtics have room to operate without Brown's contract. It will be interesting to see how Stevens works under this renewed market, as he still wants to win a title with Tatum as the star player, but he needs to construct a roster that can help him.

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• There is a possibility that the Celtics flip Paul George in the near future
• The latest Trey Murphy III trade update that could give the Celtics an ideal Jayson Tatum co-star