JB has torn meniscus; Surgery possible

[Vermont Green]

I agree that Brown is not insanely overpaid.  Maybe a little but in a couple of years, it won't seem like it so much.  He has been 3rd team All-NBA which puts him in the top 15, at least in that regard.  Top 20 for sure.  He could be a decent #1 on several teams.

As to trading him, I don't think this knee thing is that big a deal unless he has the reconstruction surgery which comes with 6-9 month recovery.  I don't think it is likely he is traded in any case, nor do I think it is entirely off the table.  I think if DAL was interested in trading Flagg, that BOS would return that interest.  DAL needs to start doing some winning to justify the Luka/Davis trade.  Brown could go a long way towards that.  Flagg, not so much in the near term.  DAL would have to send back a lot though, unless they finagle something with a 3rd team.

[kraidstar]

Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown finished the season with a partially torn right meniscus, sources told ESPN.

Brown had been playing in pain during the last month of the regular season and the playoffs, which concluded with Friday's Game 6 loss to the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

He will be evaluated this week to determine if surgery is needed, sources said.

Fun times.  :-/

All the injuries to our important players kind of clumped together: Tatum, Brown, and Porzingis.

Brown will probably have surgery as well, won't he? This might make trade talks involving Brown murky and more difficult.

Dunno what we're going to do because I feel like we definitely need to move one of Brown, Porzingis, or Holiday to get under 2nd apron so we can have room to maneuver.

This team will need to make some changes in the offseason.

Trading Jaylen Brown ?to have room to maneuver? would be insane anyway

Sounds like it is very much up in the air whether Brown will need surgery. 

From Stevens a couple days ago.

"He saw obviously our team docs and a couple of other people, and as he even said a couple weeks ago, the knee is in a good place structurally," Stevens explained. "And so I think he felt comfortable getting out there and going after it. And hopefully he'll feel better after being off it for a couple weeks here.

Fans can ignore the financials but owners and GMs certainly cannot.  I don't see trading Brown as insane if it improves the financials a lot and there is a good return.  Trying to carry two 50M players who will be 60M players in a couple years could be called insane given the current CBA.  Brown isn't a top 10 player.  All the rankings I've seen have him around 20 and that's where he's been for the last few years.  It makes sense to at least consider trading him for a true #2 star who is paid like a #2 star plus additional assets while improving the financials.  I am assuming there is very high confidence that Tatum will come back to 100% or very near so in 1.5/2 years.

If that isn't the case and the likelihood is he'll be back at 80-90%, I'm not sure what I'd do.  I look at Brown as a #1B star (i.e. a poor teams #1 star (e.g. Morant)).  With Brown as the #1A star, we'd be a playoff team but I don't think we'd be a championship caliber team.   In the former case, I don't like a Brown plus assets for Giannis trade.  This is Tatum's team and I don't see how they'd fit together well as both #1A stars.  Now in the latter case Brown for Giannis does make sense and if Tatum could not deal with being a highly paid #2 star or if the financials required it, he'd have to be traded.  Of course in the latter case, the team could also go into a full rebuild.

JB will make roughly 53.1 million next year, which sounds like a lot. But there will be at least 16 guys making 50 million or more next season, so even if you think Jaylen is more like the 20th best player rather than a top 15 guy he's still only slightly overpaid as there will be AT LEAST 26 players making 45.6 million or more next year.

Basically, this is where contracts are, if you want two top 25ish players you are going to be paying each a bare minimum of 45 million each, more like 50+ moving forward as the cap grows. Would it be better if those guys were the #1 and #10 best players in the NBA rather than #5 (Tatum) and #20 (Brown)? Yes it would. But that's really hard to do.

Looking at the Ringers NBA rankings the best pairings are LeBron(/Luka(5), Mitchell(9)/Mobley(13), Tatum(4)/Brown(21), Curry(6)/Butler(20), Brunson(10)/Towns(17), Durant(11)/Booker(18). Those are the only six parings with two top 21 guys. There is only one pairing with two top 10 guys, and one of those is Lebron past age 40.

Basically you aren't going to do much better than Brown as your second-best guy, not realistically. He's a "top 5" second best guy in the league. Getting someone who is better is tougher, because if they are better than Brown they are more than likely valued as a #1 on some team somewhere.

The Celtics problem isn't that Brown makes 53 when he should make 46, tho he probably should make closer to 46. The problem is they have one too many guys making 30+ million and need to make up for that by nailing some late draft picks to be cheap rotation options.

TP, good post.

We have three $30 million players right now - that's almost double what Brown makes - and only one of the three, Derrick White, deserves anywhere near that money.
 
KP might be cooked as a fringe all-star type. With his injury history and possible physical decline he's probably a MLE player now. There's a reason we got him so cheaply via trade. We can't afford him as a luxury anymore.

Abd the Jrue Holiday extension was malpractice. We bid against ourselves and gave him too much money and too many years. If he were on the open market right now what contenders would even have the space to sign him?

He looked mediocre in the playoffs. Foul rate was up but most other counting stats were down per-36 from last year and career-wise. A guy at his age projected to further decline should be better than an average-ish playoff rotation player if they're going to be making $30m.