{"id":2009463,"date":"2026-06-25T03:37:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T00:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2009463"},"modified":"2026-06-25T03:37:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T00:37:34","slug":"brad-stevens-wont-predict-celtics-future-but-will-it-include-jaylen-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2009463","title":{"rendered":"Brad Stevens won\u2019t predict Celtics\u2019 future, but will it include Jaylen Brown?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"Article_ContentContainer__jBNW3 article-content-container bodytext1\">\n<p>Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens could have quieted some of the Jaylen Brown chatter on Tuesday. While speaking after the first round of the NBA Draft, Stevens was asked directly whether Brown would still be on the Celtics roster come opening night.<\/p>\n<p>Stevens could have responded with a simple, \u201cYes.\u201d Though it has been widely publicized <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7385709\/2026\/06\/23\/giannis-trade-miami-heat-tyler-herro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">that the Celtics offered up Brown<\/a> in their pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stevens could have pointed out that he and his front office only made Brown available for a two-time MVP. With Antetokounmpo traded to the Miami Heat, Stevens could have made it clear he wouldn\u2019t consider moving Brown for anyone else expected to hit the market.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, despite praising Brown, Stevens avoided ruling out a split with him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m never going to predict the future,\u201d Stevens said.<\/p>\n<div data-ath-video-stream=\"sHGJop76tgRYNLN\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_Root__QeM_i\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_VideoWidth__XjNKI VideoHost_Portrait__XBaJC\">\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Root__AGckL\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Title__npf3B\">How the Heat pulled off a heist for Giannis<\/div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Authors__jxyYV\">Esfandiar Baraheni<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_VideoWrapper__Xgp47\">{&#8220;@context&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/schema.org&#8221;,&#8221;@type&#8221;:&#8221;VideoObject&#8221;,&#8221;@id&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/sHGJop76tgRYNLN\/&#8221;,&#8221;url&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/sHGJop76tgRYNLN\/&#8221;,&#8221;name&#8221;:&#8221;How the Heat pulled off a heist for Giannis&#8221;,&#8221;description&#8221;:&#8221;Esfandiar Baraheni breaks down the trade the sends Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat. &#8220;,&#8221;uploadDate&#8221;:&#8221;2026-06-23T17:20:09.711Z&#8221;,&#8221;duration&#8221;:&#8221;PT3M&#8221;,&#8221;thumbnailUrl&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/cdn-media.theathletic.com\/video-stream\/auto-thumbnail\/sHGJop76tgRYNLN\/doZ6wafq4S1i.0000000.jpg&#8221;,&#8221;contentUrl&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/video.nyt.com\/athletic\/streams\/sHGJop76tgRYNLN\/doZ6wafq4S1i\/doZ6wafq4S1i.m3u8&#8243;,&#8221;transcript&#8221;:&#8221;Did you notice the Miami Heat pulled off a heist to get Giannis Anntokopo? The full haul that the Milwaukee Bucks got for the former two-time MVP sounds like a lot. Tyler Hero, Jae Haquez, Kahalel Ware, Casperis Yakohoni, three first-round picks, including the 13th pick in the 2026 draft, one pick swap, and a second-round pick for Giannis and Bobby Portis. From the Bucks&#8217; perspective, none of these players are good enough to be your franchise cornerstone. The hometown kid hero is expiring contract that they either have to resign or trade for more assets down the road. The big piece of the pie here for the Bucks are the picks that they got. And while those picks have a chance to be good, it&#8217;s hard to bet against the team that just acquired Giannis and rarely, if ever, tanks. The Heat have had just 4 lottery picks in the last 15 seasons. Pat Riley and the Heat organization never throw the towel in, and so those picks, even that far away, might not have. As much value as they would if they were from a different organization. And to further that point, the Bucks don&#8217;t control their picks from 2027 to 2030, which makes this trade even more confusing for a team that just made a rebuilding move. Not having talent, not controlling your future picks, it&#8217;s a dangerous position to be in if you&#8217;re the Bucks, even if you feel like there are a lot of pieces in this trade. And for the Miami Heat, this is them definitively. choosing a direction. After trading Jimmy Butler, the Heat had been stuck in limbo in the middle of the Eastern Conference. And now with Bam Adebayo and Giannis, they have a core worthy of building a championship roster around. It&#8217;s not a perfect team. The Heat still need to re-sign Norm Powell this summer and try to add shooting and ball handling to a team that doesn&#8217;t have much money to work with. And while the addition of Portis gives them some assurance in the front court, their lack of depth is jarring, and in many ways, they The Heat will have to try and build out their roster from scratch, but they can do that with a player that can lead them to a championship at the center of it all. Giannis. Amid all the trade rumors, what has been lost is just how good of a player Giannis Antetokopo is when he&#8217;s healthy. He was top five in MVP voting from 2019 to 2025 and has averaged 30 points, 11 rebounds, and 6 assists for the last eight seasons. Those type of players don&#8217;t just grow on. Breeze. And while it&#8217;s true that the 31-year-old has dealt with injuries the last few seasons and is entering the second half of his career, betting on Giannis instead of toiling in mediocrity is well worth the risk for the Miami Heat. It won&#8217;t be easy. It might not even get them to that elusive championship, but the Miami Heat got substantially better after this trade by getting one of the best players in the world without giving up anything of true consequence. That is as big of a win as you can get.&#8221;,&#8221;ineligibleRegion&#8221;:[&#8220;BI&#8221;,&#8221;BY&#8221;,&#8221;CD&#8221;,&#8221;CF&#8221;,&#8221;CU&#8221;,&#8221;IQ&#8221;,&#8221;IR&#8221;,&#8221;KP&#8221;,&#8221;LB&#8221;,&#8221;LY&#8221;,&#8221;ML&#8221;,&#8221;NI&#8221;,&#8221;RU&#8221;,&#8221;SD&#8221;,&#8221;SO&#8221;,&#8221;SS&#8221;,&#8221;SY&#8221;,&#8221;UA&#8221;,&#8221;VE&#8221;,&#8221;YE&#8221;,&#8221;ZW&#8221;],&#8221;publisher&#8221;:{&#8220;@type&#8221;:&#8221;NewsMediaOrganization&#8221;,&#8221;@id&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/#publisher&#8221;,&#8221;name&#8221;:&#8221;The Athletic&#8221;,&#8221;url&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/&#8221;,&#8221;foundingDate&#8221;:&#8221;2016-01-25&#8243;,&#8221;logo&#8221;:{&#8220;@type&#8221;:&#8221;ImageObject&#8221;,&#8221;@id&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png&#8221;,&#8221;url&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png&#8221;,&#8221;contentUrl&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png&#8221;,&#8221;creditText&#8221;:&#8221;The Athletic&#8221;,&#8221;height&#8221;:&#8221;60&#8243;,&#8221;width&#8221;:&#8221;435&#8243;},&#8221;publishingPrinciples&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/edit-guidelines\/&#8221;,&#8221;sameAs&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Athletic&#8221;},&#8221;author&#8221;:[{&#8220;@type&#8221;:&#8221;Person&#8221;,&#8221;name&#8221;:&#8221;Esfandiar Baraheni&#8221;}]}<\/p>\n<div class=\"AspectRatioBox_root__AKv5b\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9 \/ 16;max-height:min(100%)\">\n<div class=\"AspectRatioBox_inner__86C_2\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9 \/ 16\">\n<div class=\"VideoStreamPlayer_GridStack__2H0p2\"><video preload=\"none\"><\/video><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It would be no surprise if Brown stays with the Celtics and continues his highly successful partnership with Jayson Tatum indefinitely. However, there is a growing perception that the organization would consider the idea of trading Brown for the right price. There have been whispers around the league of Boston\u2019s interest in New Orleans Pelicans wing Trey Murphy III. There is even some belief that the Celtics front office would consider offers based more on younger prospects, picks and pick swaps. In any potential deal, Boston would be expected to demand top value for Brown, who is coming off a sixth-place MVP finish.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid1\" data-position=\"mid1\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Stevens said plenty of other nice words about Brown, calling him \u201can amazing teammate,\u201d \u201ca great person to be around\u201d and \u201ca big part of us.\u201d Still, given the question, the part Stevens didn\u2019t say hit harder than what he did. For the Celtics, Stevens decides the future. And he didn\u2019t definitively say Brown fits into that future anymore.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery indication, everything that I think about over the past few years has been building around those guys, right?\u201d Stevens said. \u201cObviously, you never know. But at the same time, I think the one thing that I want to make very clear is how valued he\u2019s always been.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether that run ends 10 years from now when he retires or before,\u201d Stevens added, \u201cthere\u2019s a lot to celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One decade into Brown\u2019s Celtics tenure, there is indeed a lot to celebrate. He has reached the conference finals six times. He has advanced to the finals twice, winning one championship in 2024. He has racked up a Finals MVP award, five All-Star Game appearances and two All-NBA team berths. Coming off the most productive season of his career, he sounded thrilled about his place with the Celtics as recently as last month.<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-pickem\">\n<p>\u201cI love Boston,\u201d Brown said on a May 6 Twitch stream. \u201cAnd if it was up to me I could play in Boston for the next 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It might not be up to Brown. Since then, the Celtics tried and failed to trade him for Antetokounmpo. Even afterward, Stevens declined to close the door on moving one of his franchise cornerstones. While Stevens didn\u2019t come close to making any declaration that Brown has played his final game with the Celtics, the 29-year-old\u2019s future with the organization has become a question mark.<\/p>\n<p>Why would the Celtics consider moving on for Brown now? Though they won 56 regular-season games, their first-round exit helped reveal they weren\u2019t as close to championship caliber as their record suggested. Following the playoffs, Stevens pointed out that Boston went just 3-11 against the other top-three seeds. He saw a gap between them and the league\u2019s elite squads. He could feel that a bigger shakeup is necessary. And it could be smart to examine Brown\u2019s value now after he averaged career highs in points (28.7), rebounds (6.9) and assists (5.1).<\/p>\n<div id=\"inline-graphic\">\n<p>        a.showcase-link-container {<br \/>\n  display: flex;<br \/>\n  gap: 20px;<br \/>\n  flex-direction: column;<br \/>\n  align-items: center;<br \/>\n  padding: 20px 0px;<br \/>\n  border-top: 1px solid rgba(150, 150, 147, 0.4);<br \/>\n  border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(150, 150, 147, 0.4);<br \/>\n  text-decoration: none;<br \/>\n  color: #121212;<br \/>\n  cursor: pointer;<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link {<br \/>\n    font-family: nyt-franklin;<br \/>\n    font-size: 14px;<br \/>\n    font-style: normal;<br \/>\n    font-weight: 700;<br \/>\n    line-height: 13.8px;<br \/>\n    letter-spacing: 1.1px;<br \/>\n    text-transform: uppercase;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-image {<br \/>\n    border-radius: 8px;<br \/>\n    object-fit: cover;<br \/>\n    width: 200px;<br \/>\n    height: 150px;<br \/>\n    margin: 0px;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      width: 120px;<br \/>\n      height: 120px;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-inner-content {<br \/>\n    display: flex;<br \/>\n    flex-direction: row;<br \/>\n    gap: 16px;<br \/>\n    width: 100%;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-text-content {<br \/>\n    display: flex;<br \/>\n    flex-direction: column;<br \/>\n    gap: 20px;<br \/>\n    justify-content: center;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      gap: 8px;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-title {<br \/>\n    font-family: nyt-cheltenham;<br \/>\n    font-size: 24px;<br \/>\n    font-style: normal;<br \/>\n    font-weight: 500;<br \/>\n    line-height: 120%; \/* 24px *\/<br \/>\n    letter-spacing: 0.01px;<br \/>\n    text-overflow: ellipsis;<br \/>\n    overflow: hidden;<br \/>\n    display: -webkit-box;<br \/>\n    -webkit-box-orient: vertical;<br \/>\n    -webkit-line-clamp: 3;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      font-size: 16px;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-excerpt {<br \/>\n    font-family: nyt-imperial;<br \/>\n    font-size: 16px;<br \/>\n    font-style: normal;<br \/>\n    font-weight: 400;<br \/>\n    line-height: 139%; \/* 19.46px *\/<br \/>\n    color: #323232;<br \/>\n    text-overflow: ellipsis;<br \/>\n    overflow: hidden;<br \/>\n    display: -webkit-box;<br \/>\n    -webkit-box-orient: vertical;<br \/>\n    -webkit-line-clamp: 4;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      font-size: 12px;<br \/>\n      line-height: 121%;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<br \/>\n}<\/p>\n<p>.showcase-link-inputs {<br \/>\n  .showcase-link-input {<br \/>\n    width: 100%;<br \/>\n    font-size: 1rem;<br \/>\n    background-color: white;<br \/>\n    margin-bottom: 12px;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-indent {<br \/>\n    margin-left: 25px;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  option {<br \/>\n    width: 100%;<br \/>\n  }<br \/>\n}<\/p>\n<p>@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {<br \/>\n  .native-mobile a.showcase-link-container {<br \/>\n    background-color: #121212;<br \/>\n    color: #f0f0ee;<br \/>\n    .showcase-link-excerpt {<br \/>\n      color: #c4c4c0;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<br \/>\n}<\/p>\n<p>            \/\/ Remove all onclicks on imgs for apps to prevent image zoom on click<br \/>\n            document.querySelectorAll(&#8216;.showcase-link-image&#8217;).forEach((img) =&gt; img.removeAttribute(&#8216;onclick&#8217;));<\/p>\n<p>        <a id=\"showcase-link-7389224\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7389224\/2026\/06\/24\/celtics-brad-stevens-jaylen-brown-giannis\/\" class=\"showcase-link-container in-content-module-link testbed-shortcode\" data-shortcode-id=\"101\" data-shortcode-string=\"showcase-link\" data-content-id=\"7389224\" data-content-post-type=\"headline\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"showcase-link\">What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n<div class=\"showcase-link-inner-content\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/06\/24015526\/GettyImages-2249969231-scaled-e1782280550206-1024x683.jpg?width=400&amp;quality=70\" alt=\"Celtics\u2019 Brad Stevens honest with Jaylen Brown before news of Giannis interest leaked\" class=\"showcase-link-image\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"showcase-link-text-content\">\n<div class=\"showcase-link-title\">\n                  Celtics\u2019 Brad Stevens honest with Jaylen Brown before news of Giannis interest leaked\n              <\/div>\n<div class=\"showcase-link-excerpt\">\n                  &#8220;We certainly wanted to be as proactive and upfront as possible,&#8221; Stevens said. &#8220;I thought we had really good, candid conversations.&#8221;\n              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>        <\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>Even so, Boston has already taken a significant risk with its offseason approach. Stevens said he was honest with Brown before his name popped up in the trade rumor mill, but it must have been emotional for Brown to hear the Celtics were shopping him after he played such a critical role in helping them defy expectations last season. And if Boston does trade Brown, it could be doing so just in time for him to enter his prime somewhere else. He earned second-team All-NBA honors last season and has consistently shown an ability to improve his weaknesses. Beyond his on-court impact, Celtics teammates emphasized how critical Brown\u2019s leadership was last season. His voice would be missed if Boston finds a trade for him.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid2\" data-position=\"mid2\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Celtics continued solidifying their roster Wednesday night by selecting St. John\u2019s forward Dillon Mitchell with the 40th pick in the draft. They also acquired Houston big man Chris Cenac Jr. with the 27th pick in the first round on Tuesday. Stevens still has work to do with a need for more frontcourt help and a desire to add a speedy perimeter player.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever else the Celtics do, their next steps with Brown promise to define their offseason.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens could have quieted some of the Jaylen Brown chatter on Tuesday. While speaking after the first round of the NBA Draft, Stevens was asked directly whether Brown would still be on the Celtics roster come opening night. Stevens could have responded with a simple, \u201cYes.\u201d Though it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-2009463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2009463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2009463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2009463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2009463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}