Jaylen Brown has found himself thrust into the spotlight recently after news broke that the Boston Celtics had included him in a package for Kevin Durant. The Celtics seemingly came out of nowhere as a contender in the Durant sweepstakes as the news surprised everyone, including Brown.
Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t too happy when he heard that they were looking to trade him away after the team had just made the Finals, but that is the business of the league. Kendrick Perkins, who has ties to the Celtics, stated his surprise at the team’s willingness to part with Brown and said this wouldn’t have been the case if Danny Ainge was still around.
(starts at the 24:56 mark):
“We have to always remember this, Danny Ainge drafted Jaylen Brown, not Brad Stevens. I’m gonna tell you this, I’m gonna go even further, Jaylen Brown could have been traded for James Harden when he wanted out of the Rockets, wanted out of Houston. Me and Danny had an hour’s conversation about it, Danny said, ‘I ain’t trading Jaylen Brown for James Harden,’ because he knew his value.”
It is an interesting point to bring up that it wasn’t Brad Stevens who drafted Brown, so he is perhaps more open to trading him than his predecessor Danny Ainge would have been. Considering how Brown has grown since then, combined with Harden’s struggles by his own high standards, it seems like Ainge made the right decision.
We can only wonder how differently things would have panned out if Harden had ended up in Boston in 2020, as that would have completely changed the current landscape of the NBA. There would be no Big 3 being formed in Brooklyn, which in turn means Harden wouldn’t have forced his way out of town, which ultimately led to Ben Simmons landing with the Nets. It is another fascinating what-if in the NBA.
