The Boston Celtics botched the Jaylen Brown trade. Even if you are not a fan of Brown's game, it's hard to argue that a 36-year-old Paul George (who is on one of the league's worst contracts), two first-round picks, and two second-round picks is good value for an All-NBA second-team player.
There are two major mistakes that the Celtics made: making Brown all too available and jumping on an early offer before the market corrected itself. Again, it's hard to argue that this trade is Brown's true value after a stellar season, even if he has his clear flaws.
The Minnesota Timberwolves trading Karl-Anthony Towns backfired in many ways, with Julius Randle proving to be a poor fit. Nevertheless, they were able to extract more value by waiting to trade him and not continuously making it known that KAT was available. This gave the Timberwolves some genuine leverage and ultimately helped them land a more palatable offer.
If you recall, Towns was shockingly traded to the New York Knicks in October of 2024. The Timberwolves and Knicks were in talks for months about a KAT trade; the sticking point was Donte DiVincenzo. After Mitchell Robinson got injured, the Knicks eventually caved in, giving the Wolves a better offer.
Had the Timberwolves jumped on the first chance to trade KAT, they would have gotten a worse return. In the end, trading Towns didn't work out, but it could have been a lot worse. The Celtics should have waited for the Philadelphia 76ers or another team to get more desperate for a star. In the offseason, teams' desperation ramps up for several reasons -- the Celtics should have realized this instead of panicking and accepting an objectively awful package.
The Celtics took a polar opposite approach to the Timberwolves, and it backfired
As flawed yet highly talented stars who are on slightly oversized contracts, there are undeniable similarities between Brown and KAT. The Timberwolves gave the Celtics an ideal blueprint for moving a star like this -- but they ignored it.
Now, it's worth noting that the Celtics' attempt to trade Brown for Giannis Antetokounmpo added a different element than what Minnesota dealt with two years ago.
However, the Celtics could have gained some leverage had they signaled that Giannis was the only player they were looking to trade JB for while quietly listening to offers (if they were so determined to trade him).
There's no doubt in my mind this would have helped them avoid the disastrous package they took. Instead, Boston made itabundantly clear that he was available, which crushed their leverage.
And as noted, if the Celtics made it clear that Brown was available (for whatever reason), they should have been prepared to play hardball and held out for a better offer.
Who knows what the end result of this strategy would have been. It's unlikely (but not impossible) that the 76ers would have caved in and traded VJ Edgecombe. Could they have at least gotten rookie Labaron Philon and/or more draft capital? It's at least possible, right?
Moreover, at some point, I firmly believe another team would have jumped on the chance to add a top-20-level player and given the Celtics a better offer. Again, teams get more desperate as the offseason goes on, and the Timberwolves proved this two years ago.
Whatever the case might be, waiting couldn't have been worse than the package they ended up settling for.
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