Brad Stevens: Celtics had to ask if keeping Jaylen Brown was the right path

The Celtics didn’t trade Jaylen Brown because they suddenly decided he couldn’t play.

They traded him because Brad Stevens wasn’t convinced staying the course was going to get Boston where it wanted to go.

Stevens, the Celtics’ president of basketball operations, offered some additional insight into the blockbuster deal that sent Brown to the 76ers this offseason.

“It’s something that you have to just say, ‘Do you think where we currently are and doing what we’ve done will get us to where we ultimately want to go?’” Stevens said, via Celtics All Access. “If not, does it make sense to explore other pathways, even if that could be very tough in the near term?”

Apparently, Boston decided the answer was yes.

The Celtics sent Brown to Philadelphia for Paul George, first-round picks in 2028 and 2031 and second-rounders in 2028 and 2030.

It was a stunning decision for plenty of reasons. Brown was coming off perhaps the best individual season of his career, averaging 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 71 games. He also helped keep Boston near the top of the Eastern Conference while Jayson Tatum worked his way back from a torn Achilles.

Then there’s the destination. Boston didn’t merely trade Brown. It sent him to the division-rival 76ers, the same team that eliminated the Celtics from the playoffs.

But Brown’s massive contract was going to continue limiting Boston’s financial flexibility, and Stevens clearly decided that simply bringing back the same expensive core wasn’t necessarily the answer.

That’s a significant gamble. Stevens isn’t pretending otherwise.