Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics is now Philadelphia 76er. Getty
Paul George was traded by the Philadelphia 76ers to the Boston Celtics. Getty
Boston lost its mind over Jaylen Brown getting shipped to Philadelphia . Reactions to the trade were overwhelmingly negative. But one Celtics Blog writer says everyone else has it backwards.
The Celtics agreed to send Brown to Philadelphia on July 1 for Paul George and four draft picks, according to ESPN's Shams Charania. Boston fans have spent the week since deciding it's one of the worst trades in franchise history, but Jake Issenberg of CelticsBlog isn't buying the panic.
Brown, the 2024 Finals MVP and a five-time All-Star, landed on a division rival Boston will face six times next season, including the preseason. The 76ers also happen to be the team that eliminated the Celtics from the 2026 playoffs. That detail alone set off much of the initial outrage, before anyone got around to arguing about the actual basketball math of the swap.
GettyJaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics is now a Philadelphia 76er .
Issenberg's CelticsBlog analysis published this week calls the return underwhelming on its face, then makes the case anyway. The "Jays era," meaning for the Jayson Tatum -Jaylen Brown pairing, had already burned out through two straight early playoff exits, he argues, and the NBA's second-apron rules make keeping two supermax salaries close to impossible.
Brown was the inevitable name on that list, not Tatum, Issenberg wrote. Boston already dealt away Jrue Holiday , Kristaps Porzingis , Al Horford and Luke Kornet rather than pay the penalty for staying over the second apron threshold, Issenberg notes, and Paul George â who comes to Boston in the trade â comes with a shorter contract. That plus the four picks moved from Philadelphia to Boston buys the Celtics flexibility they didn't have with Brown on the financial ledger.
Brown is making top-five money without delivering top-five production in the playoffs, Issenberg writes, pointing to postseason letdowns in 2023, 2025 and 2026 that undercut the case for paying him supermax dollars long-term. George, by contrast, fits Boston's system as a career 38.4 percent three-point shooter who can be managed to something like 28 minutes a night, the same load-management approach the Celtics used with Al Horford.
Issenberg's analysis also recalls a long-forgotten near-deal. Issenberg writes that Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens tried to trade Brown for Kevin Durant roughly a month after Boston's 2022 Finals run, a deal that quietly fell apart and quickly faded into the mists of history. Nobody, Issenberg argues, understands what Brown is and isn't on a basketball court better than the man who coached him for five seasons and then built around him for five more. And that's Stevens.
GettyPaul George was traded by the Philadelphia 76ers to the Boston Celtics.
Issenberg's take has not caught on beyond CelticsBlog . Yahoo Sports called the deal an atrocious trade for Boston , arguing George at 36 is already declining while Brown, a recent Finals MVP, is just entering his prime. Talk radio in Boston skewed even harsher, with 98.5 The Sports Hub hosts labeling the swap a disaster.
Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston took a gentler route toward the same conclusion. Boston fans worked through something close to the five stages of grief over the trade, Forsberg wrote, before most arrived somewhere near acceptance without ever loving the return. He pointed to Boston's failed pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo as the reason expectations for Brown's return package spiked in the first place, only to crash back down once George's name replaced Antetokounmpo's.
Stevens is betting the picks matter more than the acquisition of George. Boston fans, and apparently most of the Boston press corps, aren't there yet. Issenberg's essay stands out as close to a lone rebuttal, betting that Banner 19 gets built on the assets nobody wanted to praise in the early going.
Brad Stevens Explains Why Celtics Traded Jaylen Brown to Rival Sixers
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