Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown is coming off the best season of his NBA career. With Jayson Tatum beginning the year on the injured list, Brown carried the Celtics to the No.2 spot in the Eastern Conference and earned All-NBA second team honors. Despite those, he may be on the move this summer.
After the Celtics' dismal first-round exit, they have been linked to Giannis Antetokounmpo . And with Boston needing a big name to pull off that deal, Brown's name has been thrown in the mix.
"All the Smoke" podcast's Matt Barnes says he'd prefer to keep both Jayson Tatum and Brown in Boston. However, if JB has to be traded, Barnes prefers that he end up in Los Angeles with the Clippers .
"If Jaylen Brown has to go, which I wouldn't want him to, but if he does go, and that's the scenario where Giannis goes to Boston, and he goes to the Clippers . I think that's a good trade for both," said Barnes. "I think him and Kawhi, two of the better two-way guys in the league, Kawhi played a good amount of games last year. Garland is tough, super talented,"
The trade Matt is talking about is the one reported by the Dallas Hoops Journal, in which the Clippers serve as a conduit between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Celtics. Under the proposal, the Bucks will trade Giannis to the Celtics, while they would send Jaylen to the Clippers. Meanwhile, Milwaukee would receive the No.5 pick in this year's draft from L.A.
If he does end up on that side of Los Angeles, Brown will team up with an aging Kawhi Leonard and a young point guard, Darius Garland . With Kawhi not getting any younger, Jaylen has an opportunity to finally have his own team in a big-market city he's very familiar with, as he played college ball at the University of California, Berkeley.
"So yeah, L.A. business-wise for Brown, you also have to look at the other side, that he's a monster on the business of basketball. Outside New York, L.A., those are probably the two biggest markets for that," Barnes added.
But many die-hard Celtics supporters, including former captain Paul Pierce , are not in favor of the team going after Antetokounmpo and would prefer that Boston keep the Jays' duo together. The Truth feels so because Tatum and Brown are two legit stars who have proved that not only can they co-exist, but they can win a championship together.
"I'm not in on this one. I mean, you were the number two, two years in a row, with what you have. You keep Jaylen, you keep Jayson, and you build on that. Like, don't take that for granted. That's a winning combination. I don't care what people say," said Pierce on the "No Fouls Given" podcast.
Pierce has a point. The Tatum-Brown duo proved its critics wrong when it won it all in 2024. Sure, they lost in 2025 and 2026, but it's hard to give up on them after this year's debacle, especially since JT was never healthy this year, not even in the postseason. They have earned the right to get another chance. However, this is their only chance to acquire Giannis.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Jun 18, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
