Don’t Do It, Brad

[RJ87]

I hope there's some very open communication between Brad and JB.

His agent is Kanye, so my guess is that Brad doesn't have a great feel about how he operates.

How things have changed. Remember when Jaylen was his own agent and would hire industry specific consultants when negotiating contracts? Now it's Kanye - you've got to be kidding me.

Kanye's not his agent though. Donda Sports handles his marketing and branding. Not his actual NBA business.

It’s just as bad, though. Maybe worse. Wouldn’t be surprised if they are telling him that he needs his own team, in a bigger market as it will be better for his brand.

Sure. They could also just be advising him on growing his Jui7e brand and helping him land more media opportunities. Just pointing out that Donda sports does not handle his basketball and there'd be no reason for the team to engage with them around trade talks.

The pessimistic speculation around Jaylen is starting to get weird.

[Kuberski33]

Giving this a little more thought, it could also be that Brad gave a lowball offer just to see if Brooklyn might say yes since the market for Durant apparently isn't what they'd hoped it would be.

The next step would be to come out and say they're not trading Jaylen or they're out of the Durant Sweepstakes. But we'll see.

[Goldstar88]

I hope there's some very open communication between Brad and JB.

His agent is Kanye, so my guess is that Brad doesn't have a great feel about how he operates.

How things have changed. Remember when Jaylen was his own agent and would hire industry specific consultants when negotiating contracts? Now it's Kanye - you've got to be kidding me.

Kanye's not his agent though. Donda Sports handles his marketing and branding. Not his actual NBA business.

It’s just as bad, though. Maybe worse. Wouldn’t be surprised if they are telling him that he needs his own team, in a bigger market as it will be better for his brand.

Sure. They could also just be advising him on growing his Jui7e brand and helping him land more media opportunities. Just pointing out that Donda sports does not handle his basketball and there'd be no reason for the team to engage with them around trade talks.

The pessimistic speculation around Jaylen is starting to get weird.

All we can do is try and read the tea leaves. From a business standpoint, it makes sense for any player to want to be “The Man” on a team if they are trying to build their brand/business. I also don’t recall many (if any) instances where JB had mentioned that he loves being in Boston.

[Roy H.]

Antoine Walker sums up how a lot of Celtics fans feel:

“I’m so disappointed this morning because I think this is a terrible decision…. And I know people will be like ‘wait a minute, this is Kevin Durant, this is arguably a top-3 player in the league, and of course you make a trade for that.’

But, no, you don’t tear up what you’ve worked so hard to build. We’re talking about a team that is young, their core is young. And I know everybody hates to talk about age, but when you think about Jaylen Brown is 25, Tatum’s 24, Smart’s 28, Robert Williams is 24. Your core is young. You just lost in the sixth game of the Finals. Everything’s in place, you have an identity. And I was just giving them praise for having the best summer, to me, out of any team in the league because you added a point guard in Malcolm Brogdon, Gallinari, a guy who can come off the bench and score. So your team is set.”


Walker also questioned whether Durant is truly concerned about winning.

“Is Kevin Durant committed to winning NBA titles again? We don’t know that. He wants out of Brooklyn. He didn’t say ‘oh I want to go win a title,’ he said ‘I just want to get traded out of Brooklyn.’ This guy had an opportunity to win four or five titles…. If Kevin Durant was so concerned with winning titles, he’d would be still [in Golden State].”

[RJ87]

I hope there's some very open communication between Brad and JB.

His agent is Kanye, so my guess is that Brad doesn't have a great feel about how he operates.

How things have changed. Remember when Jaylen was his own agent and would hire industry specific consultants when negotiating contracts? Now it's Kanye - you've got to be kidding me.

Kanye's not his agent though. Donda Sports handles his marketing and branding. Not his actual NBA business.

It’s just as bad, though. Maybe worse. Wouldn’t be surprised if they are telling him that he needs his own team, in a bigger market as it will be better for his brand.

Sure. They could also just be advising him on growing his Jui7e brand and helping him land more media opportunities. Just pointing out that Donda sports does not handle his basketball and there'd be no reason for the team to engage with them around trade talks.

The pessimistic speculation around Jaylen is starting to get weird.

All we can do is try and read the tea leaves. From a business standpoint, it makes sense for any player to want to be “The Man” on a team if they are trying to build their brand/business. I also don’t recall many (if any) instances where JB had mentioned that he loves being in Boston.

"“I’ve been in Boston for five years, and I’m a Bostonian now in a sense,” Brown told reporters Saturday. “It’s a major time of my life I’ve spent in Boston now. I’m trying to be a part of the solutions and not the problems here, and trying to see where I can help out because it takes a community, and I’m trying to be a part of this community."

https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2020/12/12/jaylen-brown-bostonian-of-year-celtics/

That took all of 5 seconds to google search.

There are no tea leaves. I don't believe that Jaylen is disgruntled because of a liked tweet or that he took a picture with Kyrie. There's been zero reports that he told management he's not resigning in 2 years - that's all made up conjecture by posters here. Even if he did want out, he's 2 years out from free agency. There's no way to predict what the free agency market looks like. Which teams have cap space? Are those rosters he's going to want to join? Is he going to get to free agency and realize that leaving a contender that can pay him the most money and has a coach he advocated for hiring isn't the best basketball decision?

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

Antoine Walker sums up how a lot of Celtics fans feel:

“I’m so disappointed this morning because I think this is a terrible decision…. And I know people will be like ‘wait a minute, this is Kevin Durant, this is arguably a top-3 player in the league, and of course you make a trade for that.’

But, no, you don’t tear up what you’ve worked so hard to build. We’re talking about a team that is young, their core is young. And I know everybody hates to talk about age, but when you think about Jaylen Brown is 25, Tatum’s 24, Smart’s 28, Robert Williams is 24. Your core is young. You just lost in the sixth game of the Finals. Everything’s in place, you have an identity. And I was just giving them praise for having the best summer, to me, out of any team in the league because you added a point guard in Malcolm Brogdon, Gallinari, a guy who can come off the bench and score. So your team is set.”


Walker also questioned whether Durant is truly concerned about winning.

“Is Kevin Durant committed to winning NBA titles again? We don’t know that. He wants out of Brooklyn. He didn’t say ‘oh I want to go win a title,’ he said ‘I just want to get traded out of Brooklyn.’ This guy had an opportunity to win four or five titles…. If Kevin Durant was so concerned with winning titles, he’d would be still [in Golden State].”

Employee #8 is right. They're building a team, not the 2003-04 Lakers of aging stars.

27, 72, 62, 68, 78, 35, 55. Those are the amount of regular season games that KD has played since the 14/15 season. Why are people convinced that this guy will hold up for a long playoff push?

He's a better fit in PHX. They should try to maximize their window while Chris Paul can still run.

[ETNCeltics]

The only way this makes sense is if JB has told Brad he wants out. No way I'm giving them Smart, too.

[keevsnick]

I hope there's some very open communication between Brad and JB.

His agent is Kanye, so my guess is that Brad doesn't have a great feel about how he operates.

How things have changed. Remember when Jaylen was his own agent and would hire industry specific consultants when negotiating contracts? Now it's Kanye - you've got to be kidding me.

Kanye's not his agent though. Donda Sports handles his marketing and branding. Not his actual NBA business.

It’s just as bad, though. Maybe worse. Wouldn’t be surprised if they are telling him that he needs his own team, in a bigger market as it will be better for his brand.

Sure. They could also just be advising him on growing his Jui7e brand and helping him land more media opportunities. Just pointing out that Donda sports does not handle his basketball and there'd be no reason for the team to engage with them around trade talks.

The pessimistic speculation around Jaylen is starting to get weird.

All we can do is try and read the tea leaves. From a business standpoint, it makes sense for any player to want to be “The Man” on a team if they are trying to build their brand/business. I also don’t recall many (if any) instances where JB had mentioned that he loves being in Boston.

From a strictly business standpoint it also makes a ton of sense to play on a contender with an actual chance of winning it all and for the team that can offer you the largest contract on a franchise that gets a ton of national TV attention in a situation where the team you're on might win 60+ games increasing your all-star or all-nba odds.

[boscel33]

Just don’t.

#JKJB

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

Seems like there’s an overwhelming sense on here that the Celtics shouldn’t trade for KD. Is there anyway to communicate with Stevens that the fans don’t want the malcontent?

[Roy H.]

Seems like there’s an overwhelming sense on here that the Celtics shouldn’t trade for KD. Is there anyway to communicate with Stevens that the fans don’t want the malcontent?

If Stevens let the fans dictate his decisions, he should be fired immediately, don't you think?

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

Seems like there’s an overwhelming sense on here that the Celtics shouldn’t trade for KD. Is there anyway to communicate with Stevens that the fans don’t want the malcontent?

If Stevens let the fans dictate his decisions, he should be fired immediately, don't you think?

Oh definitely. I wasn’t that serious about communicating with BS.

I am serious when I say that KD is an aging malcontent. Haven’t we gone down this road with sensitive all stars that get traded to Boston?

I think JB wants to stay in Boston more than KD wants to be traded here. JB has consistently said that he wants to play here, and Durant told Bill Simmons that he never considered Boston during his FA tour.

We can doubt their sincerity, but I’m going with their actual words and not some 3rd party’s interpretation.

[ozgod]

Would people be interested if it was a straight up KD vs JB trade?

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

Would people be interested if it was a straight up KD vs JB trade?

Only if JB hates Boston.

JBs best days are ahead and KDs are behind.

[Surferdad]

Rumors will come and go. I don't believe this one has legs.  Yes, I would probably trade JB for KD straight up, but that is not going to happen.