Jaylen Brown’s trade market appears to be heating up.
The Boston Celtics star Brown is being linked to both the Atlanta Hawks and the LA Clippers as potential tradde destinations, Celtics reporter Alex Goldberg revealed in a recent appearance on the “Third Apron” podcast. Goldberg notes that the Hawks and the Clippers have been floated as possibilities to take on Brown as a third team involved in a bigger trade that would send Giannis Antetokounmpo to Boston.
Antetokounmpo, the disgruntled Milwaukee Bucks star, is widely expected to finally get traded this offseason. Meanwhile, we have been hearing for over a month now that the Celtics could potentially break up their core this summer in order to trade for Antetokounmpo.
Brown, the 29-year-old former Finals MVP, is at the peak of his value right now. He just enjoyed a career year for Boston, averaging 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game as co-star Jayson Tatum missed most of the year while recovering from Achilles surgery.
But the Celtics went on to lose in the first round of the playoffs, blowing a 3-1 lead to the No. 7 seed Philadelphia 76ers. There has also been some chatter over these last couple of weeks that Brown is supposedly frustrated right now in Boston.
Both the Clippers, who own the No. 5 overall pick in this year’s draft, and the Hawks, who own the No. 8 pick, have some connections to Brown. The Clippers are a West Coast team (Brown played his college ball at Cal) and also employ former Celtics consultant Jeff Van Gundy as an assistant coach. Meanwhile, the Hawks hit even closer to home for Brown, who is a native of nearby Murietta, Ga. and has already been linked to an Atlanta-area return in years past.
Brown is on a massive contract with Boston (owed roughly $183 million over the next three seasons), so the only feasible possibility for a trade is if he is indeed included as part of a multi-team Antetokounmpo blockbuster. That said, it now appears there are multiple teams that could make such a possibility happen with the Celtics and Bucks.
