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3 hours ago
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The Boston Celtics are in an unenviable situation for an NBA franchise that will soon lose its title of “defending champions.”
Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles tendon in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the New York Knicks and will likely miss the 2025-26 season. Jaylen Brown, who will now be blamed for not carrying the load in Tatum’s absence if/when the Knicks close the door on the series, is hearing his name in trade talks again after discussing how that’s impacted him in the past.
Meanwhile, Boston is years away from having significant cap space and may soon regret handing out hundreds of millions of dollars on one championship.
The Athletic’s John Hollinger proposed a swap that could make sense for the Cs as they face a sudden rebuild: swapping Brown for the expected No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft, Cooper Flagg, with the Dallas Mavericks.
“The other avenue, we must whisper, is asking Boston about Jaylen Brown,” Hollinger wrote. “Brown is a much easier positional fit next to (Anthony) Davis and (Dereck) Lively, but he’s owed $236 million over the next four seasons, and the Celtics’ roster gets frighteningly expensive next season. Would Boston mind resetting around a New England native and waiting out a gap year if Tatum needs it to recover? For that matter, would Dallas do this unless it also had considerable capital coming back in addition to Brown?”
NESN’s Adam London seemingly shut down the possibility, considering the high price it’d take to land Flagg.
“Green Teamers probably can bank on major moves being made by the front office this offseason. That comes with the territory of pricing yourself out in an attempt to create a dynasty. But none of those transactions likely would result in a homecoming of sorts for Flagg,” London wrote.
Despite how good of a fit he’d be in green, Flagg returning to his home region to play for his favorite team growing up is a fantasy.
A Brown trade feels far from impossible, though.
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