If Tatum does not get injured, the Celtics get past Philly. The biggest issue is they would still get beaten by the Knicks and if not them, then trounced by OKC or San Antonio.
If the Celtics were able to trade for Giannis, it would not just be a Brown swap. The Celtics would need to give up multiple first round picks and perhaps even give up role players. After a Giannis trade the Celtics would have gotten older and with less depth.
I said this and the end of last season. The Celtics should have done a full rebuild. It was the perfect scenario, a generational draft and the first two draft spots were both teams that wanted to contend.
Nico Harrison would have traded Cooper Flagg for Jayson Tatum. If he did he would probably still have his job. The Spurs have always been enamoured with Jaylen Brown and they would have traded the Dylan Harper pick for Brown.
A full rebuild for the 2025-26 season would have given the Celtics a great chance at a high lottery pick in a stacked draft.