Passing on Kawhi when he was probably available for Brown is the one move that drives me bananas. I firmly believe we’d have won a title had we been the ones to trade for Kawhi instead of Toronto. And I’ve got a feeling joining the Bill Russell Celtics Pride Club would have resulted in him re-signing to have an epic rivalry with LeBron in LA. And Kyrie would have stuck with his enigmatic soul mate in Kawhi, keeping in mind we’d have a Big 3 of Kawhi/Kyrie/Tatum (anybody who thinks they’d rather have JT/JB today is in denial about how badly Danny botched his final years).
Frankly, if people wanna know why I want JB out of here so badly, it’s essentially because I know choosing JB over Kawhi in 2018-2019 is why the Raptors have more titles in the past dozen years than we do. The Raptors. Think about that. And I’ve got a feeling Kawhi/Kyrie would have been the enigmatic duo keeping us in title contention for years including today and many to come. With Tatum still being even more awesome than he is today because he’d be learning from Kawhi/Kyrie, not watching JB take his turn. So on that note…
The dudes who ran the Nets in 2013 are no longer around, so let’s keep it realistic about my preferences for dealing JB at the deadline (all to the West so he’s out of sight when watching the Celtics all but twice per year):
Top Preference
BOS In: D. Murray, Young
SAS In: Brown, Schröder
Why: Murray has the potential to be the next John Stockton. I absolutely adore him and think he would elevate Tatum to top fivedom, and improve the game of everyone around him (something Brown clearly does not do for us).
Second Preference
BOS In: Giddey, as many 1st round picks as we can get
OKC In: Brown, Schröder
Why: Let’s us have space to sign Beal as our number two with Giddey giving us a Big 3. Giddey has potential to be a poor man’s Magic Johnson, but that’s still an all-star PG who makes everyone around him better.
Third Preference
BOS In: Kawhi
LAC In: Brown, Schröder, 2+ firsts (no way to get Kawhi without them)
Why: Top five players win titles and usually cost a lot to obtain. The injury scares me, though, otherwise this would be the clear cut number one.
Fourth Preference
BOS In: Halliburton, Mitchell, Barnes, Len
SAC In: Brown, Schröder, Nesmith, Langford
Why: Halliburton has similar potential to Dejounte Murray. Mitchell is basically Smart’s younger brother. Barnes would be solid.
Fifth Preference
BOS In: Zion, Louzda, Satoransky
NOP In: Brown, Schröder, 3+ firsts (no way to get Zion without them)
Why: Zion is a ticket/jersey seller but I’m skeptical. Doubtful we’d have the shot, anyway.
Sixth Preference
BOS In: Towns
MIN In: Brown, Schröder, 2+ picks
Why: Not even sure I’d do this. Towns is kind of the big man version of Brown in my mind: Really, really good, but not great and doesn’t have the it that wins championships.
All of these moves probably give us better balance and better chemistry.
The hilarious part if the JKJB crew rule the day for a little over two more years: I bet heavily that JB jumps ship for LA or Miami when his contract is done if he finishes it in Boston (and we’ll still have fewer titles than the Raptors do in the past dozen years). And when that happens, guess who peaces out next: Yep, JT. And we’re left with Smart, Timelord and whoever we draft the next couple years. Real exciting to imagine, huh? But JKJB…
Unless Tatum loves Brown and wants to stick with him above all other options, we gotta do whatever it takes to make/keep Tatum happy or we’re up a creek in 2.5 years (that is, we’ll be longing for the days when JT/JB kept us consistently around .500 🤣)