The recent news of Jaylen Brown being offered up to the Brooklyn Nets for Keven Durant is a bold and foolish move. While Kevin Durant is a future Hall of Fame inductee and a beast on the court still to this day, we can’t dismiss what the Celtics did just 2 months ago.
Although the Celtics loss in the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors, the team found an identity. The tag-team tandem of Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown was box office. The two young superstars make it really difficult to defeat the Celtics if your team doesn’t have a superstar as well.
In this playoff run, the Celtics managed to get passed the Brooklyn Nets by shutting down Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant in round 1. For round 2, Giannis Antetokounmpo posed a difficult challenge, but he too and the Milwaukee Bucks were sent home. Round 3, the Celtics clashed with the Miami Heat and cool them off to head to the NBA Finals.
Again, the Celtics lost, but to a veteran championship basketball team. The Warriors had won 3 other NBA Finals with-in the last 10 years. The Celtics, although young, were facing an uphill battle to beat the Warriors. The bright spot was Jaylen Brown who average 23.5 pts, 7.3 rebounds, and 3.7 assists a game. In game 6, Brown would put up 34 pts in the loss. Showing the world again he is ready for the moment.
Oklahoma City Thunder part 2?
This trade would be a huge mistake. The last time we saw a trade similar to this was when the Oklahoma City Thunder traded James Harden to the Houston Rockets. Ultimately, disbanding the team with 3 future NBA superstars. Remember, OKC had a young Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden.
OKC would lose to the older Miami Heat that had Prime Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh in the 2012 NBA Finals. James Harden was the Sixth man of the year in 2012 but had a terrible NBA Finals performance. That performance prompted the trade with Houston. Houston made James their star to build around and OKC went on with just Durant and Westbrook. That Miami Heat team was too much for the young Thunder. Now, looking back at that ground shaking move, it will go down as the worst trades and decisions in NBA history.
One thing we know about history is that it repeats itself time and time again. The Celtics are falling into a trap if they trade Jaylen Brown for the much older Kevin Durant. The team chemistry might have been shaken with the breaking news, but they can fix that over the course of the season.