Joe Mazzulla Knows the Celtics Need a New Identity Without Jaylen Brown

The Celtics have moved on from Jaylen Brown. Boston’s longtime star is headed to the 76ers in exchange for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks.

It’s a stunning move that will be felt immensely once the Celtics step on the floor next season. Brown is fresh off a career year where he averaged 28.7 points per game—the fourth most in the NBA behind only Luka Dončić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Anthony Edwards. The scoring outburst came with career-high volume, mostly thanks to the Jayson Tatum-sized hole the Celtics dealt with for the majority of the season.

Still, Brown’s scoring kept Boston’s offense afloat and helped the team to 56 wins and the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. What followed, however, was a complete freefall in the playoffs as the Celtics blew a 3–1 lead to the 76ers in the first round. Early in the offseason, president of basketball operations Brad Stevens dangled Brown to the Bucks in an effort to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo. Milwaukee went with Miami’s more future-forward trade package, but the Celtics kept Brown on the trade market and dealt him to the team that ended Boston’s season a week later.

Mannix: The Celtics Need Everything to Break Right for the Jaylen Brown Trade to Work

Now, Joe Mazzulla will enter his fifth season at the head of the Celtics’ bench with a shaken up roster. Brown was sent packing, while the team brought in Mitchell Robinson and Mike Conley in free agency on top of the addition of George. Plus, most notably, a full season with Tatum. The departure of half of the franchise’s star duo instantly changed the franchise’s identity, a factor that Mazzulla is well aware the new-look team must work to build. Luckily for the Celtics, though, he steered a renovated roster in the past and it worked out pretty well.

Joe Mazzulla makes first comments since Jaylen Brown was traded

The Celtics’ coach addressed the media on Thursday while at the team’s practice for NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. Of course, the Brown trade was the center of the discussion as the availability marked Mazzulla’s first public comments since the blockbuster deal went down.

He admitted that he’s still processing the deal, which just became official on Monday. Lost in all the trade drama is everything Brown accomplished over his decade as a Celtic (he was an NBA Finals MVP after all) and Mazzulla was sure to give his now former star his flowers.

“I’m still processing it,” Mazzulla said Thursday via Celtics on CLNS. “Obviously, when something like that happens, it’s not a black and white type of thing. There’s a ton of stuff that goes into it on and off the court. The part that I hope that gets talked about more and the part that I want to focus on the most is the respect, the appreciation and the gratitude for what he did for the Celtics for 10 years. He was a Celtic longer than I have been. He was here before me, he set the tone and was a part of special things.”

With such a franchise-changing decision, Mazzulla was asked whether he had any input through the process as Stevens ultimately chose to move on from Brown. He said he didn’t necessarily provide input, but he had conversations with Stevens throughout trade discussions and he trusts the Celtics’ executive since he’s built a championship roster before.

Now that Brown is in Philly, Mazzulla must guide a restructured roster without its primary scorer from last season, even if Tatum’s presence helps with that.

“We have a different roster, we have a different identity now,” he said, “I think there’s been a clear identity the last 10 years with the roster that we had, especially the cornerstones of the organization. And now, that identity is a little bit different. So the challenge lies in how do we create that identity? How do we establish that identity? And how do we end our season on a win, which is really hard to do, but that’s the challenge.”

You can watch Mazzulla’s full comments on the Brown trade below:

The last time the Celtics drastically changed their roster, Mazzulla coached the team to a title

It’s not apples to apples since the two Jays were both still on the roster, but Boston underwent a significant overhaul before the organization won the NBA title in 2024. Brown and Tatum led the Celtics in scoring over the postseason and Brown became the Finals MVP as the pair led the franchise to its 18th championship. However, the supporting cast was just as critical in the title run as Boston had the most complete roster in the league by a long shot.

After the '23 season, Stevens traded longtime Celtic and fan favorite Marcus Smart in a three-team deal that brought in Kristaps Porziņģis. Smart was with the organization for the first nine seasons of his career and was named the Defensive Player of the Year in '22. It was a sudden shift, but a necessary one to bring in Porziņģis’s contract. Plus, the arrival of Derrick White a season earlier made Boston’s guard room crowded on an increasingly expensive roster.

Ahead of the 2023–24 title season, Stevens took advantage of Portland’s decision to trade Damian Lillard to the Bucks by acquiring Jrue Holiday from the Trail Blazers for Robert Williams III, Malcolm Brogdon and two first-round picks. The hole that Smart left defensively was quickly filled by the superior White-Holiday combo as both were named second-team All-Defense and they were Boston’s best scoring options after the two Jays throughout the title run.

Porziņģis struggled with injuries over the playoffs, but he averaged 20.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per game and he shot 37.5% on over five three-point attempts per game as an elite floor-spacing big for the rest of the roster.

It’s a different ballgame when the overhaul involves one of the team’s two stars, but there are parallels from Stevens’s most recent roster shuffle. He parted with a fan favorite that spent their whole career with the Celtics and was a key part of the team’s identity. The moves for Porziņģis and Holiday were to win immediately, whereas Stevens parted with Brown for “optionality.” Still, Boston has one of the NBA’s best players in Tatum and he brought in experienced veterans in George and Conley while adding Robinson to protect the rim.

Brown’s departure is a much bigger overhaul compared to the decision to trade Smart. It could go poorly, but Stevens’s roster-building moves and Mazzulla’s coaching have proved us wrong in the past.

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