Brad Stevens BREAKS SILENCE on Jaylen Brown Trade: The Real Reason Celtics Let Him Go

Celtic Chalk Talk July 5 2026 === Steve: [00:00:00] Welcome to another week of "Celtic Chalk Talk." I'm your host, Steve Purciello, I'm here to talk about the Celtics. Been a Celtic fan my whole life, going back to, the Bill Russell days. So I could tell you stories or talk about all kinds of Celtic lore. Today we're here to talk about the trade, but before we do, let's talk about something else. Let's talk about this network you're listening to, the Peach Basket Network. We have a great group of of pods, podcasts on our network. If you listen to this one and you like it I si- sincerely suggest you go and look at the other podcasts on thePeachBasket.net network. We're a bunch of independent basketball fans. We talk basketball, we love basketball, and there's different people that do pods that have different teams they will work with, or the NBA in whole. But the podcasts are well worth it. They're interesting and basically fans expressing themselves. So take [00:01:00] a shot and take a look at it. Now, let's talk about the Celtics. I've given some thoughts about the Jaylen Brown trade, and I will elaborate in a minute, but I just watched Brad Stevens and Bill Chism do their press conference and there was a couple things that came out to me. First thing was Brad Stevens is a very sincere man, and Brad Stevens means what he says. And what really makes the Celtics or makes me bigger fan is the fact that Brad, it looks like, really wears it on his sleeve. Meaning, meaning his friendship or his relationship with Jaylen Brown, how that bothers him that, it ended like this and what happened. Ultimately losing Jaylen Brown's a big loss. I think a lot of fans have the biggest problem with seeing Jaylen getting traded but not getting much in return. Now, Brad talked about it, and I think one of the words he used a few times was optionality. And what he was talking about to me was about [00:02:00] the Celtics' future And I'm gonna get into a little bit about the NBA and a little bit about the modern NBA. We have a collective bargaining agreement that will end in 2029, and I know right away you say, "Oh no, I don't wanna hear about it." I'm not going to go into it, but I think the way you structure your team is what Brad was really hitting upon. First of all, in today's game, when you talk about Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown's salaries and what they're making, you need to understand both of them will be 35% players. When I say 35%, you say what the heck does that mean?" That means they will get 30%, 35% of what the salary cap is. So for easy numbers, if it were 200,000-- a 200 million salary cap, it would be each of them would be getting 70 million. Now, do the math. That's 140 of the 200 and [00:03:00] 200,000 taken up. That leaves you 60, 60 million left over to figure out what do we do, and you need to sign at least 12 or 13 players. Do some... Again, do some math. 12 into 60 is $5,000 players. Now, how are you going to build, and this is what Brad was talking about, how do you build a team around two superstars and a bunch of $5 million players? Now, last year, the Celtics were lucky. They were in this, in a bad spot as well. They traded a couple guys, and what made them successful last year was Mimi Queta was only making less than three million. Peyton Pritchard's making seven million. So those low salaries, Jordan Walsh was making maybe two. Baylor Scheierman might have been making three. So with those low salaries, they were able to afford [00:04:00] paying Derrick White 25 or 30, and they were af- able to afford paying Sam Hauser 11. But as you move forward and you have that, that 140 million already taken up by those two guys, and then you have Derrick White making 30, what do you have left? You have 30 million or so, give or take, left to spread around 11 people. You're not gonna do that. First of all, Queta's got another year of being cheap, but after that, he just signed for 14 million a year for four years. So y- right away you spend another 14. Peyton Pritchard's got two more years at seven, but the Boston's gonna try to re-sign him. I believe they can go to I think it's 17 after that, after this c- after this contract's up. They got two more years with that, but then it's gonna have to go up. Now- Knowing all that, you're gonna have to lose those players. So Boston can't-- They have to make [00:05:00] a thought, a, an estimation on what they wanna do. To build a team in the NBA today, you can't pay two guys max money and have much around them. And if you don't wanna hear what I'm saying, think about what the Heat are going through. They've got two stars, but the rest of their team, they're gonna be minimum players, two, $3 million players. That's a little difficult to put a team around them and be successful. Now, the other thing I think, and this is me thinking, but the 30-year-old player making 70 million is not a great idea because they're not playing as many games as a young player. So th- there's a whole bunch of things that you have to do in building a team. I think what Brad is trying to do is, yeah, Tatum will get his money, and he's picking between Tatum and Jaylen or Jaylen Brown. He's picking between them. The question then becomes, too, did you ask Derrick did you ask Jaylen Brown, "Will you [00:06:00] take less money in the next contract? Because then you can do it." I don't know if that was asked, and they, they kind of-- someone intimated that with a question, but it wasn't really answered, and Brad doesn't wanna get into that stuff. So knowing all this and knowing how to put a team together, you need to make some smart choices. Look, if they were going to keep Jaylen Brown Pritchard might not be around, or Derrick White might be around. So how do you have a championship team when you're losing two key players? So that's the thoughts Bost- or Neemi is another one. But how do you put a team together when you lose that money? Now, you can argue with me and say, "Yeah, but why the heck did they sign Paul George?" It's a good argument. Technically, he's got paid 57 this year, and I think 60 or so next year. But it's an option. He, of course, he's going to pick up the option. But what you need to understand, okay, you got Paul George this year and he will be a [00:07:00] role player in the way that Tat- it's Tatum's show now, and that's what has to happen. But he will also only be here for a year. Next year, teams that are not doing well will take a Paul George for s- for maybe a pick, maybe a second rounder Paul George you can package, and a team will send you back something that will have an expiring contract. So Paul George probably is here for a year, and then hopefully you are freeing up a lot of money. And I think that is the thought behind it. That doesn't say, and Brad more or less said, nothing is imminent right now for the Celtics, meaning there's no trades on the horizon. But you never know in the NBA. Possibly they can get lucky and get rid of, get rid of Paul George this year. That, that very well could happen. I doubt it. I think they wanna go what they're doing, and if you watched Paul George in the playoffs, he played very well against Boston. So I think that was another factor that they said, "You know what? In limited time, [00:08:00] in the right spots, he's not gonna play s- 80 games, but in the right spots he can help us and probably in the playoffs." The team changes, but when you really analyze the team, you have Mitch Robinson you just picked up. That's a big pickup 'cause now you have that thick center, that big center that we-- I've talked about all year the Boston Celtics needed. Now, you have to hope that Robinson doesn't get hurt, but understand he's not a b-- he's a good defender, and more importantly... And by the way, he-- I watched him pick up guys on the perimeter, guards, and keep himself in front of them. So he's a real good defender. And the other thing, he's an outstanding rebounder. How does that work? Going with threes, it makes you a better team 'cause those rebounds he might get and kick back out. Now, that's one. But also, they-- Celtics will become more affordable in the future, and that helps them build a team. That is the key. Now, [00:09:00] what is my problem with it? I don't think Boston got enough. I'm not... Believe me, I'm not a GM. I'm not filtering or taking phone calls and finding out what teams were offered, but I just don't think that was good, and I think that was a deal that could've made, been made at any time. Meaning, let's say we got to late August or September when teams are starting to get themselves together. Do you think for a minute Philly will turn down that same trade? No. They wanna get rid of Paul George. I think it could've been there, and maybe through the summer you might've gotten a better offer. That's the one qualm I have it but then you look at-- Brad didn't talk about this, but then you look about something else and you say it's not fair to Jaylen Brown. This guy has given you 10 years, and you wanna be fair to him. Let him settle in a new place and, become acclimated with his teammates and everything else, where if it was in s- September, it would be a thrown together deal, and that- that's just [00:10:00] not right. So all in all and Brad, I'm happy we have Brad running the show, 'cause Brad you trust, I believe in, and I think he's a very sincere person, and he's what I want the Celtics to represent. And when I say that, I say this. He's a man that cares about people. He's not just using machines. He understands, and he's a very bright man, understands the future with this collective bargaining agreement and what you have to do to build a team. And I think those are the things that he realized, and those are the things and the reasons why he did what he did that's my thoughts on the whole mess. We'll be back again next week, and I thank you again for being with us, and take care. Thank you