Paul Pierce explained why he thinks the Celtics shouldn’t trade Jaylen Brown
"I still think their window is open."
This has already become an eventful summer for the Celtics.
Jrue Holiday is gone. Kristaps Porzingis1 is gone. Luke Kornet is gone. They’ve acquired Anfernee Simons, Georges Niang and draft capital while dumping salaries.
It’s too early to tell if the Celtics are done making moves, and there continues to be speculation as to whether the Celtics will make an even bigger splash.
During a recent appearance on Paul George’s “Podcast P” show, Paul Pierce explained why he thinks the Celtics should not move Jaylen Brown.
“I still think their window is open,” Pierce said. “I hope they don’t trade JB though. As long as you’ve got Tatum and Brown, you can figure out the other pieces.
“They are in their prime, so you can say for the next six years let’s see what’s up with these two because when you look at OKC and what they did, they’ve got a for sure MVP and then you’ve got a bunch of good players. If you can surround that around JB and Tatum then you just have to re-figure it out now.”
Pierce said the Celtics are likely headed for a transitional year where they can figure things out. The Celtics were the favorites to win the title the past two seasons. Now, with an injured Tatum and a re-configured roster, there is plenty of adjusting to do.
The adjustments have already begun from a roster-building standpoint. Being over the second apron heading into next season was viewed as unsustainable by Celtics ownership.
“You don’t like it, because you looked at it when they won last year, you’re like ‘man, this team could be a dynasty,” Pierce said of the Celtics’ recent trades involving Porzingis and Holiday. “They were all relatively young. They had already been through their growing pains. You start to understand the business of it now, because it’s new ownership.”
During a recent episode of “KG Certified” both Pierce and Kevin Garnett explained why they weren’t particularly thrilled about the Celtics moving Holiday.
“I don’t know if I would have given up Jrue Holiday for scoring,” Garnett said, referencing Simons, who averaged 22.6 points per game for the Blazers in 2024.
“People on the outside are looking like ‘that’s a good one’, oh he averaged 20, scoring punch, but they don’t understand the little intangibles, the locker room, the whole DNA of the team shifts a little bit when somebody on the outside comes to your club and thinks they can do the same things they did over there over here.
“That ain’t how this works. That ain’t the impact that we need over here. But, you know, for a small patchwork to get through what everyone says is a gap year … it’s cool for one year and then you shed cost and everything.”
Celtics vice president of basketball operations Mike Zarren recently said the team hasn’t seriously considered trading Brown or Derrick White.
Brown has four more years left on the supermax extension that he signed in 2023.
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