Category: Basketball

After two summer league games — and two DNPs for Mikel Brown Jr. — Nets fans may finally get to see their prized rookie on Monday.

The Nets split their first two contests tilts at the California Classic, dropping their opener Saturday at Sacramento before beating Milwaukee 89-69 the next day.

Brown, Danny Wolf and Nolan Traore all sat out against the Kings, while they had an even more threadbare lineup Sunday. But Brown — the No. 6 pick in last month’s draft — is expected to make his pro debut Monday against Golden State.

“The approach for the last game, have our roster guys back into the rotation. The hope is that Mikel is ready to play,” Nets summer league coach Dutch Gaitley said. “We’ll see about Danny, see how his back’s feeling.

“But these guys did a great job of setting the tone of ‘this is how we play Brooklyn basketball.’ And we need our guys to continue to strive for what our guys did today. And if our Brooklyn roster can play how our guys played [Sunday], we’re gonna have a lot of success.”

Brown missed a total of 14 games during his freshman campaign at Louisville with a lower back injury — eight games from December to early January, then six at the end of the season.

Now the Nets hope Brown will make his pro debut, though Gaitley wouldn’t put a percentage on the point guard suiting up.

“That is above my pay grade,” Gaitley said. “I think the plan is that he is going to play, but I don’t make the final decisions.”

The Nets held the Bucks to just 32 .324 percent shooting Sunday. Ben Humrichous had 15 points, eight rebounds and shot 5-for-12 from 3-point range. Hunter Sallis — James Harden’s cousin — added 15 points, six assists and six boards while Dion Brown was a plus-27 before limping off at the end.

The Nets sat Wolf, Nolan Traore Trarore (knee scope), Egor Dëmin, Ben Saraf, Drake Powell, Tyler Bilodeau and Chaney Johnson.

The trade that brought the Nets rookie Joshua Jackson becomes official Monday. Milwaukee didn’t have rookie Nate Ament available for the same reason.

Five days ago, the Boston Celtics agreed to trade Jaylen Brown for Paul George and draft compensation. The trade could not be made official until today, so the team hasn’t been able to officially discuss the details or explain the thought process behind the trade. That airspace has invited rumors, inuendo, conspiracy theories, educated guesses (and some uneducated ones), and every opinion under the sun.

At 4PM today we’ll hear from Brad Stevens and Bill Chisholm directly. We’ll get their official statements on the trade and we’ll hear them respond to many questions. I’m just not entirely sure if we’ll hear the full truth of what transpired and what it means for the future of the franchise.

I don’t have a crystal ball, but here are some categories of subjects that are sure to be addressed.

Financial Flexibility

One reason they may have decided to move on from Brown was his contract. Several smart people have pointed out that he’s getting supermax money and probably wouldn’t be ranked by many as a top 5 player in the league (or pick your range). Which makes him a bit overpaid in a league where the 2nd apron is treated as a defacto hard cap. Sure, even the biggest Jaylen Brown fans might accept that, but that’s why you lean into cheaper, high value contracts (like the guys on rookie deals and Payton Pritchard who’s on one of the highest value deals in the league). It also doesn’t explain why you would take back Paul George, widely considered one of the worst contracts in basketball.

I have a feeling that Brad Stevens will talk about flexibility on some level, because flexibility is one of his favorite buzzwords. Chisholm will field questions about how much of this was an ownership mandate, but it doesn’t really come across as a cost cutting move because they didn’t actually cut much cost in the deal.

We probably won’t get the full picture of how much money influenced this deal.

Analytics

One of the most popular topics being discussed in the aftermath of this trade has been the role of analytics in the evaluation of Jaylen’s value. The “well actually” articles and data analysis deep dives have centered around his advanced analytics that can be looked at to paint a pretty negative picture of Jaylen’s value to a basketball team.

I’m not going to go into detail pro or con on those numbers. I think analytics are very much a critical part of the game today and need to be considered as part of the overall analysis. The limitations to Jaylen’s game are well documented and don’t always need numbers to back them up. But it has always seemed to me that his positive impact almost always outweighed his struggles.

This is going to be a very delicate thing to address at the press conference. How do they justify the deal with numbers without it looking like they are trashing their former pillar of the team going out?

If he is really a net negative on the court, why did the team invest so much into him in the first place? Why wouldn’t they have traded him earlier? What changed and when did it change? Again, I’m skeptical we’ll hear the full truth about how much the numbers influenced this decision.

The Human Element

There are a lot of other theories and rumors that I’m just going to lump together under the heading of “the Human Element.”

Did Jaylen want his own team? It has been reported that he never asked for a trade, so I’m guessing that won’t be a stated reason. We don’t know how much he indicated a desire to the team to move on or if he was planning on demanding a trade later.

Was the team frustrated with the way Jaylen spoke about the past season on his twitch streams? Honestly, this seems weak even writing it down. Many pearl clutching words have been written and spoken about his “favorite season” comments, which were addressed by him and easily explained away. I don’t buy that this was a big issue and I highly doubt that it will be named explicitly by the team as a reason for the trade.

Did Jayson Tatum want to move on? Personally, I doubt this has anything to do with it and even if it was, (for so many reasons) they would never admit it to be true or have anything to do with the trade.

Jaylen was an extremely popular player with the fanbase and in the community of Boston. The team will undoubtably be very careful with anything they say about him. If anything, they could and should lean into celebrating him as a person and beloved member of the franchise. So if there’s anything personal going on behind the scenes, we won’t hear about it today.

Style of Play

This might be the only thing that makes some sense to me, but on the other hand it doesn’t. Maybe Jaylen shoots too many contested two pointers for the analytics team to be comfortable with. Of course, those are sometimes the only shots that you can get in the playoffs when all the better shots are taken away. So it helps to have a guy that can make those shots.

Brad Stevens stressed the need to put more pressure on the rim. Well, Jaylen does a much better job of that than Paul George, who has evolved into more of a deep threat perimeter player than anything else.

Maybe the team wasn’t confident that Jaylen would be ok sliding back into the 1B role he had before (related to the above section on The Human Element) and George will be happy being a 2nd or 3rd option. That’s not a great reason to make this trade either, and most likely won’t be named as a primary reason.

Timing

One big question that should absolutely be addressed is “why now?” The word that keeps coming to mind is “desperation.” By all accounts, it seemed like the team did not have good offers for Jaylen but were urgently motivated to complete a deal now. Why?

In any negotiation, you need to have a feel for what your walking away price is and be prepared to walk away if you don’t get it. Somehow, they either put a much lower value on Jaylen than most would have expected, or they were so desperate to get a deal done that they accepted under market value. Couldn’t they have gotten this same kind of deal later in the summer or even at the trade deadline?

Are there other deals coming? If so when? And why couldn’t this have waited to be combined with those additional moves?

Not sure if we’ll get satisfactory answers for this topic, but it will be interesting to hear their responses.

Must See TV

One thing I know, I will be watching and listening very carefully to what is said (and isn’t said). We need answers from the Celtics leadership. I’m just not sure if the answers will tell the full story or if they will be satisfactory to fans.

The cognitive dissonance of this still puzzles me. Brad Stevens has “won” so many deals over the years and has built up so much trust. It is just so jarring to see him “lose” one of this magnitude. What does that mean for the near and long term future? Is there anything that he can say in this press conference that is going to restore part of that trust? I guess we’ll see.

We will, of course, report on the presser. Feel free to use this post as an open thread for comments below.

Ex-Celtic reveals Jayson Tatum's reaction to Jaylen Brown trade originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

It’s no secret that most Boston Celtics fans aren’t pleased with Wednesday’s trade that sent superstar Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers. But what does Brown’s longtime teammate Jayson Tatum think of the move?

Tatum finally broke his silence on Friday with a social media tribute to Brown. On Monday, former Celtics guard Jeff Teague — an ex-teammate of Tatum and Brown in 2020-21 — shed more light on how Tatum feels about the C’s sending his co-star to an Eastern Conference rival.

“I talked to my boy yesterday, my boy JT motivated,” Teague said. “It ain’t no slight because he was legit like, ‘Damn, can’t believe that s— went down.’ You know what I mean? That’s some bulls—, really.

“You know what I said, I was like , ‘S—, what you gonna do? I was like, ‘S—, the pressure’s on now, killer.'”

You can watch the clip here.

Tatum has every reason to be irked by the trade. Not only did the Celtics part ways with Brown after 10 seasons, but they also shipped him to the team they blew a 3-1 series lead against in Round 1 of this year’s playoffs. With Brown now on their side, the Sixers will be an even tougher opponent in 2026-27.

Paul George will look to step up as the new 1B to Tatum’s 1A next season. The 36-year-old veteran averaged 17.3 points while shooting 43.9 percent from the floor in 37 games for Philly last season. Brown, meanwhile, set career highs in points per game (28.7), rebounds per game (6.9), and assists per game (5.1) in 71 games to propel Boston to the No. 2 seed in the East.

Tatum will have plenty on his shoulders as he looks to help the C’s overcome Brown’s departure. After missing most of the 2025-26 season with an Achilles injury, he’ll reprise his role as Boston’s No. 1 option.

The real question is, which members of Boston’s supporting cast will step up to help the team exceed expectations yet again?

Welcome to Inside the Suns, your weekly deep-down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team. Each week, the Fantable — a round table of Bright Siders — gives their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news.

This week, please join us in welcoming Zenzino as the newest member of the Fantable!

Fantable Questions of the Week

Q1: Because of his past, the acquisition of Miles Bridges has not been accepted well by many fans. Do you think it was a mistake by the front office?

Zenzino: It was jarring, to be sure. After all the talk about ‘character first’, this seems, at first glance, to be out of alignment.

At this writing, the trade is not official yet. I’m guessing we’ll be getting a press conference on or after the 6th. My opinion on this will depend on two things: how BG addresses Miles Bridges’ character and how Miles works to fit in during the season.

You can’t change the past. You can only move forward. Bridges has completed his mandated probation, domestic violence classes, parenting classes, and community service. For the past 2 years, he’s stayed out of trouble and worked to redeem himself in Charlotte. Sounds like he was largely successful. As I stated in a previous discussion, he’s going to have to do it again, probably to a lesser degree.

I’m a big believer in earning second chances, emphasis on ‘earning’. The stain can never be completely removed, but the FO addressing it head-on and Bridges demonstrating that he has learned from his mistakes will go a long way.

Ashton: I am already on the comment record for grading this trade as an F. I really have not let up in my criticism of this trade inside further comment remarks.

Let me point out the positives of the trade.

1. (Throws up in mouth)
2. Sorry all, I can’t do it. I am not really sure what benefit the Suns got in return. Cap space?

But seriously, what was the Front Office thinking? The Suns were supposed to be rehabilitating…er…rebuilding. That was the plan, and it was reasonable. Instead, they massively overpaid for a rehabbing project. I really hope the change of scenery does it, but it gets back to “do Zebras change their stripes?”. Can FO executives not make bad decisions on the golf course when the beverage cart rolls out in the summer?

I am going to stop here as I was looking for a bar of soap to wash my mouth out for the rest of my post and it turned out to be a coffee-flavored bar of soap. Somebody gave it to me as a stocking stuffer, so it could work? But the idea of coffee-flavored soap is as stupid as this trade.

To sum it up, I lost a lot of faith in the FO with this trade.

OldAz: For starters, it’s hard to blame any fan that does not want to root for accused wife-beaters, child abusers, or even just hot-headed bad dudes. Mr. Bridges has certainly earned every bit of being in that category with his on and off-court issues, regardless of what context or how much the others might have contributed to those incidents. His exploits have far too often spilled over onto innocent bystanders like the 16-year-old fan hit in the face by his mouth guard in his 2022 on-court tantrum, and the children who witnessed the incident with Bridges and their mother. At a minimum, we are talking about a dude with massive self-control and anger issues in his past.

With all that said, I tend to avoid these conversations in all areas of entertainment. I don’t look to athletes to be role models, just like I don’t look to actors or performers for advice on life or politics. If we are honest and had consistency in not rooting for or supporting bad people, then our sporting entertainment options would probably be limited to youth sporting events (where even some parents are not allowed to attend) or watching pick-up games at the Y (and even then, many of those dudes would be disqualified if we knew all their darkest acts).

As for the Suns’ decision, I will just say that it is a huge gamble. This is a franchise that has been to the precipice of winning it all with an overly likable team, and was there before with a team that (at the time) had Charles “I’m not a role model” Barkley, whom everyone loved because his on-court impact was greater than his (again, at the time) off-court antics.

It is also a team that shipped out good players who went on to have long and successful careers over far less than what Bridges has been accused of.

Grayson Allen and Dillon Brooks came with a lot of negative attention and became fan favorites, but all of their “negativity” was based on hard-nosed basketball within the game. Bridges brings that and a whole lot more for fans to “get over”.

In my opinion, fans will end up being forgiving for the most part if he plays well and shows a modicum of contrition and desire to grow and be a better person. However, no one really believes that Bridges is the final missing piece that puts them back playing deep into the playoffs, so this bar for playing well may be impossibly high. As I said, I think this is a huge gamble by the Suns, and as a fan, I hope it works out well for the team and Bridges.

Rod: I’m taking a wait-and-see position on this one. Yes, there’s been a good amount of backlash from many fans, but I’m willing to wait until the season gets underway before calling it a mistake or a win or something in-between. While some fans are likely never going to view this as anything more than a mistake, I want to see Bridges’ fit with and impact on the team before calling it that. Like it or not, he’s a member of the team now, and what he does on the court is how I’ll measure this trade as a mistake or not.

Q2: In your opinion, from a pure basketball point of view, have the roster changes the Suns made (so far) actually improved the team?

Zenzino: Short answer: I don’t know.

How do we define ‘improved’? Better record? Higher seed? 2nd Round of Playoffs? Finishing stronger?
I was a very vocal ‘run it back’ supporter. I felt that they would get better with the same roster. The injuries to Green and Brooks were anomalous. I expected to see more of the ‘rookies’. A more experienced Ott. More time playing together. The list goes on.

On paper, they have improved. But, I have concerns.

• Chemistry – In addition to the grit, one of the big things that was a breath mighty wind of fresh air was how this team obviously liked each other and loved playing together. That locker room chemistry was a huge part of what made them so much fun to watch last season. My hope is that this environment is something that Bridges embraces and thrives in.
• Shot Distribution – Green and Brooks averaged around 17 shots per game last season, and Booker and Bridges averaged around 18. That’s almost 80% of shots per game from only 4 players, and no one should be averaging close to what Booker averages. I would like to see offensive-minded Book from the pre-KD trade this season. Brooks came here wanting to prove he has an offensive game, so I don’t see him backing off and Green and Bridges are volume scorers; they need those attempts.
• Playing Time – I was thinking that Man Man and Rasheer would get some solid minutes in the rotation this season and maybe Sheer even cracks the starting lineup. Now, I don’t see that happening. More than ever, it looks like the Suns are working the ’two timelines’ game, and I’m not sure if that ever works out.

The trade brings with it more questions that can only be answered throughout the season. If Green and Bridges can work some downhill chemistry, they could be devastating with rim pressure, not to mention highlights. That pressure could open up Book to be the mid-range assassin he built his reputation with. Kennard was a great (and improbable) signing. He’s definitely going to have to get his shot attempts up.

All that being said, I am cautiously optimistic. Despite all the angst during the playoffs, this coaching staff and FO have earned my trust this past season. We spend a lot of time thinking about the goal, but the journey is what keeps us entertained, and I’m here for it.

Ashton: Losing RO and GA hurt, but Kennard was a good pickup to fill the shooting vacuum.

But this whole buzzword of being a 50-win team is ludicrous. 45 wins last year was ludicrous, and I would caution against expecting any more than 40 wins in a rebuilt Western Conference. I want to see how the final trade cycle ends, as well as Summer League viewing to give my final prognostication on the Suns win total.

But, for the most part, I like the direction that the Suns have taken with keeping the roster intact. Until, whatever Q1 was.

OldAz: I 100% think they will be better (although it may take some time to see it). The one area that they have stepped back is obviously shooting. Kennard helps there, but only when he is on the court. And even then, Kennard is 2″ taller than Allen, who was often playing in the front court last season.

By swapping Royce O’Neale for Bridges, many point out that Bridges is almost the same size, but they ignore that Bridges has played both forward positions his entire career, whereas RO was clearly out of his depth when he was matched up with the 2nd largest player for the opponent. In this way, Bridges is a lot like Brooks as both are undersized when playing the “power forward” role, but both are strong enough and athletic enough to pull it off. When the Suns were going well last season, all of Brooks’ minutes were at the PF position.

Also, by reducing the log jam of guards at the top of the rotation, Fleming should have a clearer path to earn playing time if (or when, from my perspective) he proves worthy. One of the centers flanked by ANY combination of Brooks, Bridges, Fleming, Dunn, or even Highsmith is superior to what Ott was running out there for long stretches late last season, which was a center surrounded by Allen, O’Neale, or Goodwin along with 2 smaller guards. Yes, they have to solve the shooting, and yes, on paper this is a lot of high-volume, low-efficiency scorers, but they did what I and many fans were asking for by getting longer and more athletic and clearing the way for some of the youngsters to contribute more. In the long run, I think this will make them better.

Rod: Yes, I believe they have. They lost a bit of their downtown shooting but have picked up some bigger bodies and added more quality depth to the roster…especially if we see even small jumps by Fleming and Maluach this season (which I have no reason to bet against). Last season, this was a tough team to beat…IF their threes were falling. If those threes weren’t falling, they faltered. They had no one other than Green (who missed most of the season) who really attacked the basket. They weren’t balanced offensively, but this season they have moved to correct that.

I don’t expect the Suns to be a far better team than last year, but still better. I believe the key to just how much better will rest upon Ott’s shoulders and his ability to best use the new tools he now has on the roster.

And there are some other teams in the West that are still in the process of making changes this summer. Some of them might look good on paper, but who knows how they’ll actually look on the court. What other teams are doing now will play a part in the Suns’ degree of success — or lack thereof — in 2026-27.

Q3: The Suns have moved early on everything this offseason. They could stand pat until training camp, but do you think they should do so?

Zenzino: I think they are done for now and I’m good with that.

They have a(n over) full roster (the news just broke about Pat Spencer). I don’t think there are any margin moves at this point that would make a difference. And I am absolutely in the camp of let’s see what a full season of Jalen Green looks like before we give up on him.

From the looks of it, they did everything quickly on purpose. They didn’t wait around for the FA market to develop. They went after what they wanted straight out of the gate. Ever since the season ended, the whole team was ready to get back to work, and I think they wanted to solidify the roster asap so they could do just that.

Ashton: Yeah, that works for me. BG gets an early vacation, and everyone else gets to gel with teammates over the summer. There are still a lot of NBA teams trying to finalize their rosters, and who the heck knows where LeBron ends up. Not interested.

No further movements needed other than to finalize the two-ways. Pat Spencer has one. That does seem like a good pick-up. There are two spots left, and they can only play 50 games on the “extended audition” for the regular roster.

OldAz: This totally depends on what opportunities arise. I think they are set and can totally go into the season with this roster and hope to be competitive and even build on what they did last season. This isn’t predicting any championships, and even second round of the playoffs would be a total stretch, but they are moving forward and not making themselves worse IMO. However, they have to stay engaged with what else is out there.

If someone talks themselves into wanting Green or Brooks or any of the current roster and it brings back an upgrade (starting PG who can also shoot/score, or a bigger PF/wing), then you have to be ready to move. This probably does not look like what fans throw out there on Twitter/X, as fans often get infatuated with older players who are beyond their primes and are stuck seeing them through the lens of that player’s no-longer-existent prime. This may look more like swapping young players who both need a new start, but fit a different role in roster construction.

If that opportunity presents itself, they need to be ready always. If it does not, they should stand pat and go into the season comfortable that they executed on what they wanted to accomplish.

Rod: I don’t think they will and believe they shouldn’t. They may not actually make any more moves, but they shouldn’t take the rest of the offseason off and should be continuously working the phones in search of any possible upgrade over what they already have. What that move might be, I won’t speculate on, but you never know what might pop up between now and the beginning of the 2026-27 season.

As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!

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Quotes of the Week

“It’s special being from the Valley. Just watching [the Suns] through the years, seeing how much better they’ve gotten. To be part of that journey now is a super special moment for me. I’m just blessed to be in this position. That next morning, I was still trying to take it in and still couldn’t believe I’m a Phoenix Sun. Still can’t believe it, honestly. I’m just super excited.” – Koa Peat

“The most important thing for us, with Koa, is that he plays with passion, he plays with energy. There’s a juice about him when he’s on the court. I know he brings that every single day. The impact he has on the court with winning basketball is critical.” – Brian Gregory

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Suns Trivia/History

On July 5, 1988, the Phoenix Suns officially signed power forward Tom Chambers, formerly of the Seattle Supersonics, to a 5-year $9 million contract. This was the first unrestricted free agent signing in NBA history.

7/2/88 – Jerry Colangelo met in person w/Tom Chambers and his agent Howard Slusher in LA. During the meeting, Colangelo offered Chambers a 5yr, $9M deal, then said he had 15min to decide or Colangelo will walk. TC agreed. The contract would become official on 7/5/88. pic.twitter.com/nFZd8y6Gah

— Arizona Sports History (@AZSportsHistory) July 2, 2026

On July 7, 1982, the Suns traded PF Truck Robinson for PF Maurice Lucas of the NY Knicks. Truck had been with Phoenix for three seasons, averaging 18.4 points and 9.6 rebounds as a Sun but had struggled in the 1982 NBA Playoffs and criticized head coach John MacLeod for a lack of minutes.

On July 11, 2012, Steve Nash was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers for a 2013 1st round draft pick (Nemanja Nedovic was later selected), a 2013 2nd round draft pick (Alex Oriakhi was later selected), a 2014 2nd round draft pick (Johnny O’Bryant was later selected) and a 2018 1st round draft pick (Mikal Bridges was later selected). In 2015, the 2018 1st round pick was traded to Philadelphia as part of a three-team trade that brought Brandon Knight to the Suns from Milwaukee. Many fans were upset when that draft pick was traded but later delighted when they still got the player selected with it (Bridges) in a draft night trade with Philadelphia in 2018.

On July 11, 2015, Devin Booker made his NBA Summer League debut for the Suns in Las Vegas against the Washington Wizards. He had 12 points and 4 rebounds on a disappointing shooting night making only 4 of 11 shots and missing all four of his three-point attempts. Booker’s teammate-of-the-future and fellow rookie, Kelly Oubre Jr., also had his Summer League debut that night and led the Wizards with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Archie Goodwin led Phoenix in scoring with 22 points in the 86-77 Summer Suns win.

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Important Future Dates

July 6 – Moratorium ends, official free agent contract signings can begin
July 9-19 – NBA 2K Summer League 2026 in Las Vegas
July 10 – Suns vs. Trail Blazers 8:00 PM (local), 11:00 PM (ET) ESPNU
July 12 – Suns vs. Pelicans 12:00 PM (local), 3:00 PM (ET) ESPN2
July 13 – Suns vs. Bucks 7:00 PM (local), 10:00 PM (ET) Prime
July 15 – Suns vs. Pistons 3:00 PM (local), 6:00 PM (ET) ESPNU
The Suns will play a fifth game based on the results of their first four.
Late September (dates TBD) – NBA Training Camps open

The Boston Celtics’ decision to trade Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for what initially felt like a paltry return was so shocking in the moment that a lot of people felt compelled to lie to rationalize it. The prevailing wisdom was that Boston had to trade their All-NBA wing because they already offered him to the Milwaukee Bucks for Giannis Antetokounmpo, and in doing so broke the trust between the two parties. I’m not buying that, because Shams Charania maintained Brown never requested a trade even after the Bucks chose Miami’s (much better) offer. Long-time talking head Collin Cowherd reported that Brown has a “disease” where he thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room. That quote just scans as racist, and also doesn’t get the real reason Boston traded Brown.

It’s easy to understand why the average NBA fan or analyst thinks Jaylen Brown is an elite player. He helped power the Celtics to 56 wins last season while Jayson Tatum was recovering from a torn Achilles, finishing No. 6 in MVP voting in the process. He helped the Celtics win the 2024 championship, and was named NBA Finals MVP for his efforts.

How could the Celtics possibly trade a guy like that for two first-round picks and an even worse contract in Paul George? Well, it’s because Boston’s front office thinks Brown is massively overrated by fans and media. Apparently the rest of the NBA agrees, considering the Celtics reportedly shopped him to the entire league, and this was the best offer they could get.

The sticker shock was real when the deal was announced. That’s all the Celtics could get!? The trade grades industrial complex was not kind to Boston. ESPN gave the Celtics a D+ and the Sixers an A-. CBS Sports gave Boston a D- and Philly an A+. The Sporting News gave the Celtics a C- for the deal. I gave the Celtics a C+ and the Sixers an A- in my instant grades, which somehow made me one of the highest media members on the deal. Other smart basketball writers were immediately calling me out, asking if I was okay and touting this as the most “lopsided trade since Luka.”

not sure how there's a way to interpret jaylen brown for paul george and 2 firsts as anything besides an F minus considering the haul they could've gotten if they had just traded him a few months earlier

haven't been this shocked by a lopsided trade since luka https://t.co/531tPzUFpV

— claire de lune (@ClaireMPLS) July 1, 2026

By the next morning, I wish I had been a lot higher on the deal for Boston. I would give both sides a B now if I regraded it. I think there’s a strong chance the Celtics actually won the trade.

The simple version for why the Celtics traded Brown is because he’s a good player, but a bad asset. He’s owed $180 million over the next three years, and the Celtics decided their team wasn’t good enough right now with him on that deal to win a championship. In this version of the CBA, it’s hard for teams to have massive contracts like that on their cap sheet if the player isn’t elite. By Steph Noh’s salary model, Brown is worth $41 million while making $57 million, bleeding $16 million per year in value. The Celtics opted for more long-term flexibility with the draft picks and George, whose contract is a year shorter.

Who’s to say Brown isn’t elite? He averaged 29-7-5! He won NBA Finals MVP! Well, if you’re reading this article, you already know this is a conversation about “analytics.” Brown simply doesn’t grade out very well in the advanced metrics that have now overtaken NBA front offices. This trade feels like a watershed moment for the analytics movement, and if Boston is still very good next season (which they should be) and if Philly falls short of an NBA Finals berth (which is likely to happen), this trade will be remembered as the moment when basketball analytics went fully mainstream.

Why did the Celtics trade Brown? I don’t think it’s because he believes he’s the smartest guy in the room, or because they couldn’t repair the relationship. It’s more because Brown finished with a -1.6 RAPM last season. By time decay RAPM, Brown ranks No. 270 in the league. What’s RAPM? It stands for “regularized adjusted plus-minus,” and it’s a metric that doesn’t consider traditional box score numbers like points and rebounds, instead measuring a player’s individual impact on their team’s scoring margin per 100 possessions. It’s adjusted for the strength of teammates and opponents, and features “ridge regression” to filter out statistical noise.

What this essentially comes down to is that the Celtics are better with Brown off the court. If it happened in one or two years, that might be a fluke. Instead, Boston is better with Brown on the bench when accounting for his entire 10-year career.

Regardless of where you fall on the Jaylen Brown debate, it is pretty remarkable that the Boston Celtics were better with him off the court than on the court over his entire 10-year tenure with the team pic.twitter.com/J2dUkBU8vr

— Lev Akabas (@LevAkabas) July 1, 2026

Why have the Celtics been better with Brown off the floor? It’s because Brown negatively impacts Boston’s turnover rate and second chance points on offense, while also negatively impacting their opponent’s true shooting percentage, takeaway rate, and second-chance points given up on defense. Through this lens, the advanced metrics are easier to understand: it’s bad to turn the ball over and give up offensive rebounds. There are simply a lot of holes in Brown’s game that are covered up by this scoring.

The turnovers are a major issue. Brown’s “scoring turnover percentage” was 10.3 percent last season, which ranked in the 1st percentile of the league. His “creation adjusted turnover percentage” was 9.6 percent, which ranked in the 36th percentile . Brown isn’t a good playmaker for his teammates, either. He averaged 1.9 potential assists per minute, which ranked in the 15th percentile of the league. His assist-to-turnover ratio of +0.92 was ninth-best on the Celtics and No. 150 league-wide.

That’s just offense. Brown is even worse on defense, where his spacey off-ball defense leads to tons of breakdowns. People have been noticing Brown’s bad off-ball defense for years, but they can usually point to his strong on-ball defense to show his value. If you think about defense on a team level, defending off the ball is a lot more important than defending on the ball, because every player spends a lot more time doing it. At its core, defense is a team accomplishment. Being able to guard at the point of attack is obviously a valuable skill, but over a long sample, breakdowns off the ball hurt the team a lot more than staying strong on-ball when teams go at you.

The other important point about Brown’s departure is that the Celtics are simply redistributing his touches to other players. People have laughed at the idea that Payton Pritchard can be the Celtics’ Jalen Brunson, but one similarity they both have is elite turnover suppression. Pritchard’s assist-to-turnover ratio was +7.2, which was No. 1 in the entire NBA. By replacing Brown’s time on ball with more Pritchard, the Celtics are immediately gaining a turnover advantage they didn’t previously enjoy. It will also be interesting to see if Derrick White can shoot the ball better now, assuming he gets to play in better rhythm without such a high-usage teammate. Brown’s impact on his teammates sure wasn’t great.

No player in the NBA lowers the points that his teammates score, while on the court with him, more than Jaylen Brown

He lops off 4 points, per 100, from each of the 4 teammates that share the court with him pic.twitter.com/ZgVlCppSHE

— Jeremias Engelmann (@JerryEngelmann) June 28, 2026

It’s understandable if you think this all sounds like bullshit. The thing is, the Celtics are widely considered to have a top-2 front office in the NBA alongside the Thunder, and they apparently believe in it. In ripping Boston for the trade, there’s a lot of people who believe they’re smarter than Brad Stevens, Mike Zarren, and Dave Lewin. I respect having conviction in your takes, but chances are those guys are going to beat the NBA consensus more times than not, because they’ve already proven to be really, really good at this whole team-building thing.

The Celtics are probably going to be damn good next season. In fact, in early July, I think they have a pretty good chance to be the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. They’re essentially replacing Brown with a full season of Tatum while adding Mitchell Robinson and Paul George, and maybe even getting some additional growth from their young players like Hugo Gonzalez, Jordan Walsh, and Baylor Scheierman. With the Brown trade, the Celtics are leaning even further into their identity of chucking threes and crashing the offensive glass. George is a better spot-up three-point shooter than Brown. Robinson is one of the game’s best offensive rebounders. Eliminating all of Brown’s mid-range jumpers — he ranked in the 98th percentile of midrange frequency, per Cleaning the Glass — is one way to help the Celtics address another problem that has constantly plagued them: the need to get to the rim more.

You win basketball games by getting more scoring chances than your opponent, and by being more efficient with your scoring chances than your opponent. Through that lens, the idea of the Celtics improving without Brown really isn’t that hard to believe.

A good front office makes a trade a year early rather than a year late. That’s what the Celtics did here. In the process, they’ve saddled one of their biggest rivals with another bad contract while gaining more future draft picks from them. My quick list of the “least team friendly” contracts in the NBA right now would include Joel Embiid, De’Aaron Fox, and Brown. The Sixers have two of those guys. This better work for Philly quickly, because if it doesn’t, the bill is going to come due really quick.

If basketball is played on spreadsheets now, why even watch? The thing about analytics is they’re designed to capture truth over a long, large sample. In the NBA, championships are determined over a much shorter sample called the playoffs. Anything can happen in the playoffs, when the old axiom of “it’s a make or miss league” takes on greater importance. The Celtics might math-ball their way to a lot of regular season success, but they will have different issues come playoff time. I’d be shocked if they make the 2027 NBA Finals even if I think they may end up as the No. 1 seed.

When the Celtics lose in the playoffs, the people who bashed the Brown trade will take a victory lap. I’m not sure that will be deserved considering the Celtics just lost in the first-round as a favorite with Brown as their best player this past season. When the Sixers lose in the playoffs, the analytics crowd will say they were right, and that taking on Brown wasn’t worth it. This is how most things end, with both sides declaring victory and no true winners having been decided.

On a broader level, I think the Jaylen Brown trade will mark the moment when more fans and analysts fully embrace analytics. The end game here is probably the league office deciding to make some rule changes to make the game more watchable as teams continue to buy into what the numbers are telling them. Baseball has already done this to great effect.

I understand the hesitancy to embrace some of this stuff for fans and media. Listen, I think I have a pretty good eye test too after covering high school, college, NBA, and WNBA basketball for this site since 2012. I’m not smart enough to build one of these fancy data models, but I’m also not stupid enough to discount them. Basketball has been slowly building toward embracing analytics for the last 10 or 15 years. Something tells me the Brown trade will accelerate the movement.

The Warriors can’t waste another season for Steph Curry. 

They need to go all in on trying to acquire LeBron James, which means they need to get Anthony Davis. 

James reportedly would be much more interested in going to Golden State if they acquire Davis, whom he played alongside on the Lakers for 5 ½ seasons, winning a championship in 2020. 

The Warriors need to make it happen. 

Free agency is flying past them, and they virtually have the same roster they had last season. Curry will turn 39 during the upcoming season. Their only chance to compete for another championship is adding James — and Davis — to their roster. 

Acquiring Davis would mean trading Jimmy Butler for salary-matching purposes. It would mean they’d have to give up multiple first-round picks and pick swaps. It would mean they’d dent their future. 

But it would also mean the sunset of Curry’s career wouldn’t be wasted.

Curry, who’s widely considered the greatest shooter of all time, is still a top-10 player. The Warriors need to give him a real chance to win his fifth ring. They need to take some risks. 

They kept the band together by re-signing longtime coach Steve Kerr. Now they have to give the band a chance to really sing. 

For the Warriors, acquiring the oft-injured Davis is widely considered foolish around the league. 

He’s 33 years old. He appeared in just 20 games last season for the Mavericks before being traded to the Wizards in February. His contract is worth $58 million this season and a nearly $63 million player option for 2027-28. In other words, it’s gigantic. 

But what other option do the Warriors have to vastly improve their roster and compete for a title?

As for giving up first-round picks, yes, that’s a tough pill to swallow. But it’s the only way they can complete this blockbuster deal. Not pulling the trigger means they’re going to tread water for another season. It means mediocrity.

Other teams are taking big risks.

Look at what the Lakers paid for Walker Kessler: $130 million over four years AND two first-round picks and two swaps. Was that a great deal? No way. Was it worth it for them to give Luka Doncic his dream center and a shot at competing in the West? Clearly. 

As currently constructed, there’s no way the Warriors can get past the elite teams in the West. If they convinced James to come aboard and traded for Davis, they’d have a shot.

Even though James will turn 42 next season, he’s still capable of being the best player on the court on any given night. Last season, he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists. He pretty much single-handedly carried the Lakers past the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs. 

James changes the Warriors’ ceiling. He’d bring so much business to The Bay. Imagine how much people would pay to watch James and Curry share the court? They’d be the hottest ticket in the league.

As for Davis, he’s vastly underrated here.

Let’s not forget that when Davis is healthy, he’s an absolute force on both ends of the court. He’s a 10-time All-Star, five-time All-Defensive Team selection and a three-time league leader in blocks. 

He arguably should’ve won a Defensive Player of the Year award as well.

Davis’ stock plummeted when the Lakers traded him to the Mavericks for Doncic in February 2025. Since then, he has been injury-riddled. He has been the butt of jokes. 

Next season, Davis is going to be out for revenge, especially if you put him alongside James, Curry and defensive wizard Draymond Green. If each of those guys believed they had a real shot to win, they’d each elevate their games. They’d be dangerous.

The Warriors must go all in. 

And they must act fast. 

It’s clear the Warriors are falling out of the James sweepstakes. 

James’ agent, Rich Paul, is a mastermind at controlling narratives. In an episode of his “Game Over” podcast that aired Friday, he showed a whiteboard that listed the 10 teams that could land James in free agency.

The Warriors were tucked into the top left corner of the board as though they were an afterthought, while the 76ers, Heat, Timberwolves, Nuggets and Cavaliers were featured front and center. 

When asked if the Warriors’ placement on the board meant something, Paul balked. 

“You can think whatever you think,” Paul said. “This is my board. You decide what you want to think.” 

It was cryptic. It was confusing. 

But above all else, it was a warning. 

If the Warriors want to compete, they need to take a big risk. 

They need to get Davis so they can get James.

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In his second NBA Summer League game, the former Blue Devil didn’t offer much offensively, but his defense is what Duke fans have come to expect, and then some. And that, he had plenty of.

One play in particular is going to get lots of oohs and aahs from fans and probably some from his teammates and the San Antonio management team.

Take a look. Former Michigan star Yaxel Lendeborg looks like he’s going to get an easy layup, but Brown comes rushing into the frame and absolutely soars to flick it out of bound.

This is not the clever defense we saw at Duke, where Brown mostly outsmarted you on the ground. This is some surprising hang time. If he had jumped just a little later, he would have had to have kept one eye on the rim, because his head would have run into it.

It was probably pretty sweet to do that to Lendeborg, since Duke beat Michigan late in the season and missed a chance to do it again in the Final Four.

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How to watch Brad Stevens, Bill Chisholm address Jaylen Brown trade originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Boston Celtics fans are still looking for answers following Wednesday’s stunning trade of Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers. C’s president of basketball operations Brad Stevens and owner Bill Chisholm will look to quiet some of the uproar when they speak to the media on Monday afternoon.

The Celtics scheduled a 4 p.m. ET press conference to address the Brown trade. Stevens and Chisholm will presumably tag-team a plethora of questions about Brown’s departure, including what led to the decision to send the 2024 NBA Finals MVP to Philly, and why they chose the Sixers’ trade package.

Brown recently opened up about the trade during his Twitch live stream. Monday’s press conference will give Stevens and the Celtics a chance to share their side of the story and explain what the move means for the franchise’s short- and long-term futures.

Here’s how to watch Monday’s press conference…

When is the Celtics’ press conference?

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens and owner Bill Chisholm are expected to address the media on Monday, July 6.

What time is the Celtics’ press conference?

The press conference is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.

How to watch the Celtics’ press conference

The press conference will air live on NBC Sports Boston at 4 p.m. ET during Felger & Mazz. You can also watch the press conference live on NBC Sports Boston’s YouTube channel or via the YouTube video player below:

Sixers release roster for 2026 Las Vegas summer league  originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Sixers’ summer league roster is all set.

The team on Monday released its roster for the Las Vegas summer league, which will run from Thursday, July 9 through Sunday, July 19 and include at least five games for all 30 teams. The Sixers’ opener is Thursday at 5:30 p.m. ET vs. the Pistons. Their first four games will air on NBC Sports Philadelphia+.

Sixers player development associate coach T.J. DiLeo will serve as summer league head coach for a second straight season. Below is the Sixers’ 15-player squad:

The two players on the Sixers’ main roster are No. 22 overall pick Labaron Philon Jr. and second-year big man Johni Broome. Philon should have ample opportunity to display the skills that helped him average 22.0 points and 5.0 assists as an Alabama sophomore.

“I would say with the ball handling, it definitely started in the streets in my mom’s backyard,” he said at his introductory press conference. “And at Alabama, working on everything I needed to work on. Working on getting to the paint, working on slowing things down and making the game easy for you and the people around you. 

“I feel like that’s one of the best traits that I bring to the table, really — just making the game easy for others, getting into the paint and being able to provide for myself and my teammates. I feel like just working on that footwork and things like that is very important, just to have those options and not just look to score the ball.”

Undrafted rookies on the roster include guard Duke Miles, who’s reportedly signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Sixers, and Yale product Nick Townsend, the 2025-26 Ivy League Player of the Year.

In 2014, the San Antonio Spurs won their fifth NBA title.Tony Parker and Patty Mills were the Spurs two point guards during that historic run. Recently, Tony Parker was named the new head coach of ASVEL. And now, Patty Mills is heading to ASVEL to play under his former teammate.

Patty Mills and Tony Parker are set to reunite. 🇫🇷

After winning together with the Spurs, Mills is reportedly joining ASVEL, where Parker will be his head coach next season, per https://t.co/SHTxgABcJM.

Full circle. 🤝 pic.twitter.com/HaZl7a8MiQ

— Spurs Nation (@SpursNationCP) July 4, 2026

Mills played for the Spurs from 2012-2021. He played for seven NBA teams over sixteen seasons. Last year he was hired as the general manager for the University of Hawaii.

Mills now heads to France, his fourth international team.

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Crazy slow start to Monday around these places, and on top of that, the muscles on my right leg don’t feel willing to cooperate when I try to move around. Links and notes next, so I can forget about my pains.

• Mitchell Robinson finally explained how he injured his hand before the NBA Finals and opened up massively on tons of personal stuff, which we all know Mitch for as a sentimental man. Spoiler: it involved a punch and his knuckle, and it surely is a hella sad story.

““I would like to address the concerns regarding my finger, which was actually my knuckle. To provide some context, I had been dealing with personal issues, relationship problems, and internal struggles, which affected my performance on the basketball court. In this league I simply follow the instructions given to me y’all have seen videos of everything I’m very capable of doing. Moving forward to the Eastern Conference finals, after our victory in Cleveland, everything seemed to be going well. We were celebrating our achievement, but for me, things took a turn for the worse.

“As many of you know, I am a compassionate and private person who enjoys listening to country music. Without going into details about my upbringing, I am extremely protective of my siblings, whom I care for deeply. Upon returning to New York, I received an unexpected phone call, and my family members contacted me, informing me that my youngest brother had been involved in a car accident. I did not see the messages until I arrived home late that night. As the eldest sibling, I felt a deep sense of concern, and I immediately went into panic mode. I began returning calls and texts, and when I FaceTimed my brother, I thought he was deceased. He was wearing a neck brace, unresponsive, and not speaking.

“I broke down in tears, feeling like a failure for not being able to protect my siblings. Being 910 miles away, I felt helpless. In a moment of frustration, I banged my hand on my truck. As many of you know, I have a deep affection for my trucks, but my siblings and daughter are my top priority. Before judging someone, it is essential to understand their circumstances, which may not be publicly known. Life is unpredictable, and it is how we respond to challenges that truly matters.

“After consulting with doctors, I was able to gain the confidence in myself to go in and get the job done and WE DID 2026 NBA CHAMPS.so at the end of the day I battled with so much throughout this season even made a huge sacrifice to not see my daughter as much this season because I needed to focus and lock in so she can have a better future than I did.”

• Carmelo Anthony said on 7PM in Brooklyn that he does not think the rest of the league is intimidated by the Knicks following their title-winning season. According to Melo, all the Knicks did was catch fire for a minute.
• That’s also probably why Miami added Giannis Antetokounmpo, Philadelphia added Jaylen Brown, Boston stole Mitch and redrew their whole blueprint, the Hornets outright tapped out, and the Raptors went nostalgic and brought back an aging Kawhi. As I wrote the other day, though, Parity… or just plain dumb randomness?
• Jalen Brunson, meanwhile, is having a better summer than me. That’s for sure.
• Ric Bucher “touched” on the LeBron James “situation,” and didn’t hold back. A tease:

“I had to smile when it was reported that LeBron informed the Lakers that he didn’t intend to play for the Lakers next year. As if the Lakers weren’t intending for that to be the case. But kudos to the Lakers for allowing LeBron to present it that way and preserve some dignity on the way out.”

• The USMNT got away with one.

USMNT fans seeing that Folarin Balogun can play against Belgium pic.twitter.com/fxQHAUSPgZ

— . (@tosinmm_) July 5, 2026

You can follow Antonio on Twitter at @chapulana.

Kings draft pick Alex Karaban drops one-word recipe for winning basketball originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Kings are looking to rebuild their roster this NBA offseason with the hopes of returning to playoff contention.

During the 2026 NBA Draft, Sacramento selected Arkansas guard Darius Acuff Jr. and UConn forward Alex Karaban in the first round and Houston guard Emanuel Sharp in the second round to add much-needed depth to its roster.

NBC Sports California contributor Deuce Mason recently spoke with Karaban, who revealed the characteristic that he believes brings winning basketball to a team.

“I think it’s accountability,” Karaban said.

“Everyone wants to be buddy-buddy with their teammates and just try to be nice to everyone. But at the end of the day, if we’re hard on each other and we’re holding each other accountable, it’s going to make us closer when we have the good moments and realize that those real talks and the pain that we went through in practices were truly worth it.

“I think now people can be afraid to say what’s on their minds, and if someone is messing up, people just don’t want to critique people anymore. I think accountability is a huge thing. That’s something I learned how to be more comfortable with [UConn] coach [Dan] Hurley.”

Karaban was a key piece to UConn’s back-to-back NCAA championships during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. The 6-foot-8, 210-pound forward averaged 12.5 points, five rebounds, two assists and one block per game in 150 starts in five seasons with the Huskies, including a redshirt year during the 2021-22 season.

Near the end of the 2026 draft, the Kings acquired the No. 29 overall pick from the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for the No. 34 selection and a future second-round pick to select Karaban after already successfully drafting Acuff Jr. at No. 7 overall.

The Kings have had two consecutive losing seasons with a 40-42 record during the 2024-25 season and a 22-60 record last season, following two winning seasons with at least 46 victories.

Coming from a winning culture at UConn and having a mindset of keeping each other accountable, Karaban brings a certain trait the Kings need heading into the 2026-27 NBA season that potentially can deliver more victories for Sacramento.

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The five stages of the Jaylen Brown trade, and what's next for Celtics originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

For maybe the first time in league history, the NBA’s annually awkward summer moratorium might have been a good thing. It gave everybody in Boston nearly a full week to process the Jaylen Brown trade.

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens and lead owner Bill Chisholm will make their first official comments on the trade on Monday afternoon, finally spinning forward a trade that left everyone’s heads spinning. The league’s annual break, an awkward dead zone where trades and signings get negotiated but can’t be finalized over a six-day accounting stretch, gave Celtics fans the opportunity to navigate the entire five-stage grief spectrum.

From the denial that Paul George could truly be the headliner in a Brown package, to maybe the first bit of anger directed at Stevens in his 13 years in Boston, to bargaining whether George is really that much of a dropoff from Brown given his Round 1 performance last season, to the depression that the Jays era is truly over, it feels Boston fans have emerged from the July 4 holiday weekend having finally arrived at acceptance.

We’re guessing most don’t feel any better about the trade itself. But it’s time to move forward.

We’re not certain there’s much Stevens and Chisholm can say Monday about the Brown situation that will make anyone feel much better. They will smother Brown with praise for his decade-long contributions to the organization, including being a monster part of delivering Banner 18. They will likely tiptoe around the circumstances that forced the team to move as quickly as it did at the start of the offseason, especially given the seemingly lukewarm market for Brown’s services.

The best we might hope for is a clearer vision of what comes next.

You can twist yourself into a pretzel trying to determine how we ended up here. The three years, $185 million remaining on Brown’s max-money deal, coupled with the potential for a two-year, $142 million extension later this month, likely left Boston pondering harder if two supermax players commanding 35 percent of the cap was sustainable long-term.

Sprinkle in some analytical debate about Brown’s overall impact on winning, his arrival at his age-30 season, and the perpetual consternation about the 1A/1B stature of him and running mate Jayson Tatum, and it all might have all simmered together to force the Celtics to make a swallow-hard decision on his future.

We’d consider ourselves a numbers guy, leaning heavily into analytics during our time covering the Celtics. We’ve long shrugged our shoulders at Brown’s sometimes unexplainable on/off numbers.

The Celtics owned a +6.4 net rating during Brown’s 2,443 minutes on the court this past season. That’s a strong number and one that stat site Cleaning the Glass says puts the team on the same 56-win pace that Brown ultimately delivered the team. Boston was somehow 5.6 points per 100 possessions better without Brown, per Cleaning the Glass data. There’s some noise in there: lower-leverage minutes with an overachieving bench competing against some lesser competition. But it’s also Brown’s fourth straight season in the negative, including having a minus-8.9 on/off differential in the 2024 title season.

We struggle to reconcile with those numbers. You can’t watch what Brown did in the 2024 Finals, or nearly the entirety of last season, and suggest that he doesn’t impact winning. His greatest strength was his desire to take on challenges on the biggest stage, often producing his best moments when the stakes were the highest or the competition the toughest.

But now, coming off an MVP-caliber season and with Boston pondering the need to reel back in a sky-high usage rate with a healthier Tatum, we understand the consternation that has long existed about how exactly the Tatum/Brown combo might share duties moving forward. That Boston couldn’t immediately put the sort of surefire championship-ready supporting cast around them, this while navigating the new second-apron minefield the new collective bargaining agreement has delivered, added a layer of complication.

So the Celtics made a tough decision to pivot. Unfortunately for them, a very public pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo, which might have further forced Boston’s hand, created an expectation for the level of player that might have been obtained in return for Brown.

While there were all sorts of risks with Antetokounmpo, including health and the need to pay him a very hefty long-term contract at an even more advanced age, the idea of pairing two top-10 players was at least intriguing to the Boston fan base. Landing on a past-his-prime George earning his own super max money at age 36 was not the Plan B most expected.

Maybe the Celtics simply felt like it was time to rip the Band-Aid. There was a justifiable fear that, if things didn’t go well this season, Brown’s trade value could have diminished even lower than what Boston seemingly settled for. We refuse to believe that there wasn’t a higher probability that league volatility might have eventually pushed Brown’s value up again, but certainly that was another part of the risk that Stevens and Co. had to ponder.

Maybe the bigger “What if?” is whether the Celtics should have moved off Brown last summer. If the team knew it was going to navigate the so-called gap year the team vehemently pushed back against, then could the Celtics have gotten a bigger haul for Brown (or even Derrick White) and chased a lottery pick while Tatum rehabbed?

The 2025-26 season was such a joy to watch that it feels weird to suggest the team should have embraced a far less enticing path. That said, that route might have expedited the return to true contender status. Hindsight is, of course, 20/20.

Little good can come from lingering on the past. What’s done is done. We’ve had an entire moratorium to process this trade. You don’t have to like it, but this is the path that Boston brass has chosen.

Stevens deserves some benefit of the doubt given his track record. He built a title team in 2023. The last two summers have been incredibly painful with the teardown in the aftermath, but there’s a pathway to a similar roster splurge in the summer of 2027.

The Celtics can reset pesky repeater penalties by staying under the luxury tax again this year. Next summer could provide an opportunity to chase a new star to pair alongside Tatum. There’s a very real pathway to combining the final year of George’s contract with Boston’s growing pile of picks and chasing one of the league’s biggest names.

Of course, we’re not patient around here.

The Celtics will still be competitive this season. George showed in the playoffs that he has something left in the tank, Boston will simply have to be diligent in how quickly they dispense it. There will be an opportunity for Payton Pritchard to step into a bigger spotlight yet again, and White will get every opportunity to show last year was simply an outlier shooting season. Newcomers Mitchell Robinson and Mike Conley can aid in winning.

But all eyes are on the summer of 2027. That’s when Stevens and Co. will have a real chance to show why they made the Jaylen Brown trade.

Bay Area native, G League guard Chance McMillian chasing Warriors roster spot originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – Pat Spencer’s impending departure from the Warriors created, at least on paper, a vacancy on the roster for a combo guard who can come off the bench and invigorate an offense that sometimes stagnates when Stephen Curry is on the bench.

Chance McMillian is using the California Classic Summer League to submit his application for the opening.

After a solid season with the Santa Cruz Warriors, McMillian came into the weekend at Chase Center realizing Golden State is holding roster auditions; only first-round pick Yaxel Lendesborg is guaranteed to make the team. McMillian, a 6-foot-3 Bay Area native and childhood fan of the Warriors made a nice bid to get a deeper look.

Playing 17 minutes off the bench Sunday afternoon, McMillian produced 12 points and three assists in a 98-69 win over the San Antonio Spurs. His totals for the first two games – 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field, including 4 of 6 from deep; six assists, six rebounds, three steals over 35 minutes – indicate that he knows his way around the court.

“He creates good situations for himself, good open looks,” Summer League coach Khalid Robinson said. “And then, when plays break down, he’s a very talented guy that can go create something for us. He gives us a little bit of everything.”

McMillian’s road to this opportunity has had more detours than Bay Area freeways at night. From two high schools in Vallejo to Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, where he spent three seasons. From GCU, he went to Texas Tech, where he played two seasons and as a senior was named to the All-Big 12 second team.

The Warriors brought McMillian into their circle last summer after he went undrafted, despite knowing surgery on his left ankle would render him unavailable. Once he recovered, he was assigned to Santa Cruz, he appeared in 30 games (24 starts), averaging 17 points, on 44.7-percent shooting from the field, including 35.7 from beyond the arc, with 5.0 assists and 4.3 rebounds.

“That whole Santa Cruz coaching staff just had unbelievable confidence in me,” McMillian said. “I felt that. I just put in the work, and each day it was just getting better for me. So, I credit the coaching staff.”

McMillian shot 40.8 percent from distance in college but was so unimpressed with his deep shot last season under coach Lainn Wilson with the Sea Dubs that he has spent countless hours in the gym at Chase Center since April. 

“Lainn and his staff did a great job with him, just teaching him like how we want to play, our spacing, making good decisions,” Robinson said. “He had a full season of doing that. He’s worked throughout this summer, like the past two months on this, with the same teaching points. He’s done a very good job of carrying over the things from Santa Cruz and postseason into the Summer League.”

In his desire to improve, McMillian also is taking cues from Curry.

“My last year at Texas Tech, I played off ball, and I literally pulled up some of his film on how he gets open off the ball,” he said. “I remember getting face-guarded at the start of conference. And he was getting face-guarded, too, in big games. So, I was just picking and choosing on how he was moving off the ball, like little things on how to get open.”

McMillian, 25, would love a chance to be on the same roster as Curry. There is a path, probably with a two-way contract. But a lot can happen between early July and late September, when Golden State opens training camp.

Spencer, who last week reached agreement to join the Phoenix Suns, began last season on a two-way contract with the Warriors before being promoted at midseason to a standard NBA contract. He used grit, fearlessness and a few memorable scoring outbursts to elevate himself from intermittent appearances to being a staple in Golden State’s rotation.

When given an opportunity, Spencer exploited it.

McMillian is seeking an opportunity to fill a void on a roster still in progress. His best bet, as the California Classic ends Monday night and the team moves to the Las Vegas Summer League later this week is to maintain the early trajectory that began with the last two games.

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