Celtics 'Blow It Up'? Jaylen Brown Trade Idea Worth Dallas Mavs Offer?
In the NBA, it doesn’t matter what you did last year: your team is going to be judged based on what they’ve done lately. Perhaps no team knows this better than the Dallas Mavericks, who made it to the Western Conference Finals last season before everything started falling apart around them.
If the Mavs are first in that category, though, the Boston Celtics might be a close second. After making it to the finals last year, Boston is on the verge of being swept out of the Eastern Conference Finals against the eighth-seeded Miami Heat. Because of this, speculation on whether or not the Celtics should keep their current core together has caught fire among NBA discourse.
Dallas has several needs, and it's unlikely that all of them can be addressed in one offseason, but among those needs are better perimeter defense and scoring from the wing position. Mavs GM Nico Harrison has proven that he's not afraid to pull off surprising blockbuster trades over the last two years, and pushing for a deal with the Celtics for Jaylen Brown this summer could help get things back on track for a team that was in the West Finals just a year ago.
The biggest question, though, is: Do the Mavs have enough in their trade asset cupboard to entice the Celtics into such a deal?
Despite the Celtics being at the brink of elimination, the play of Brown has been commendable throughout the playoffs, as he's averaged 23.1 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists through 16 playoff games while shooting 50.7 percent from the field and 38.9 percent from deep. A trio of Doncic, Irving and Brown could do a lot of damage in a Western Conference that currently has more parity than it ever has before.
When considering this particular trade idea, some might bring up how Brown and Kyrie Irving didn't exactly mesh well together when they were teammates on the Celtics from 2017-19. However, that relationship has grown since Irving left Boston, and it might be time to give that on-court pairing another try – this time, though, with Doncic in the mix.
“It’s been a lot of growth and interesting to follow,” Brown said of his relationship with Irving in December after the Celtics beat the Nets. “Being a teammate of Kyrie, we got into it a lot. We didn’t see eye-to-eye the majority of the time he was here. And since then, it seems like our relationship [has improved]. We’ve been able to have conversations. We’ve been able to talk to each other. We’ve been able to understand where he’s coming from.”
Based on Irving's quotes after that same game, the feeling his former teammate shared is mutual.
“He’s a brother of mine. I’m grateful that we’ve built a relationship off the court,” said Irving when speaking of Brown. “When I was in Boston, we didn’t get a chance to know each other on a deeper level. Again, I’m just grateful we’ve been able to build on a top of a great foundation of aligning on how we live our lives and treat people. He’s a brother of mine.”
With Brown only having one more year remaining on his contract — and also having shown signs of discontent at times — it might be time for Boston to move on before it gets to a point where Brown could leave for nothing after next season.
Assuming the Celtics have a prospect they’d like at the No. 10 pick when the Mavs make a selection during the draft on June 22 — a draft projected by many to have one of the deeper pools of talent we’ve seen in a while — here’s a trade package that could make sense for both sides.
Mavs receive: Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, Sam Hauser
Celtics receive: Tim Hardaway Jr., Maxi Kleber, Reggie Bullock, Josh Green, 2023 first-round pick (traded after selection is made), 2027 unprotected first-round pick
One recent NBA rumor floating out there has to do with the Portland Trail Blazers potentially trading the No. 3 overall pick and Anfernee Simons for an “elite small forward.” If that’s the package the Mavs are having to compete with for Brown, then they probably don’t have much of a chance to pull this off. But if the aforementioned rumor is more about Pascal Siakam, Kawhi Leonard or someone else, then perhaps things can work in the Mavs’ favor around draft night.
Stay tuned to DallasBasketball.com as trade and free-agency rumors are sure to pick up steam in the coming weeks.
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