What would it take for the Jaylen trade to be viewed positively?

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

If Sixers Celtics meet in the playoffs and we win the series lol that would be sweet

we could not hold a 3-1 series lead and now we are worse and they are loaded. no way we beat them now. or the knicks. we are in no mans land.

[SparzWizard]

If Sixers Celtics meet in the playoffs and we win the series lol that would be sweet

76ers are loaded. They'll sweep us or win in 5.

[Atzar]

Prove it on the court.

I'm not in the mood for GM-speak, and nothing Brad and Chisholm say on Monday will make me feel better.  If we look back in two years and the Celtics have built the next contender while the Sixers sank, then I'll tip my cap.

[SparzWizard]

Prove it on the court.

I'm not in the mood for GM-speak, and nothing Brad and Chisholm say on Monday will make me feel better.  If we look back in two years and the Celtics have built the next contender while the Sixers sank, then I'll tip my cap.

For now I'll be bombarding Brad over this nauseating deal that's almost Nico level.

Hope something is done in February

[Celtics2021]

If the Sixers are better with JB off the court than on, as the Celtics have been so many years, I will accept that JB did not have the value we would have expected, and this was about as good as Brad could do.  If the Celtics get to the conference finals or better, I will also believe the Celtics were better without JB than with.

Down the road, if we get a top 3 pick (and keep it) in the 2028 draft, that will help if one of the two conditions above is not met, but not if both are not.  (In other words, if we both do well and get a great pick, or both do poorly and get a great pick, I will be okay.  If the Sixers ascend while we decline, the pick will not make up for it.)

[Neurotic Guy]

Disappointing return for JB. I don?t think anything erases the discrepancy between what was expected and what was realized.  But this was so NOT a devastating or franchise destroying trade. We?ll likely take a step back this season more because of improved teams in the East than the roster is really any worse. And time will tell what we do with the PG contract and the draft picks. There are options.  Purchasing Sidney Wickes and trading Paul Silas for Curtis Rowe were more impactful than this will be. So was trading Joe Johnson for Delk and Rogers.  We recover from this trade just fine though that may not happen in 26-27. In the meantime we may enjoy PGs jump shot and his solid defense. And we may like the time on court Hugo and/or Baylor gets. We may also like what our draft capital gets us in trades and next off-season who knows what we?ll be thinking about Paul George.  I wish it was 4 picks. I wish it was PG and Edgecombe for JB and Sam.  But it?s less than that what we hoped for. But no need making it out to be a disaster that it isn?t. It?s a disappointment and Brad will recover pretty quickly.   

Looking forward to Hugo and to the two-headed beastly center combo we?ll have next year. And a bunch of smooth Js from PG13.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

If Sixers Celtics meet in the playoffs and we win the series lol that would be sweet

76ers are loaded. They'll sweep us or win in 5.

people are in serious denial right now. some in anger. some in bargaining.

[Smartacus]

Two top 10 picks and PG playing 70 games per season and/or one great season and then he's traded for a younger star?

This is pretty much where I am with it. A lot hinges on PG but I think people treating him like a negative throw in is a mistake. Time will tell but I?m optimistic.

Would have liked to get more for Jalen but that is as much a condemnation to the rest of league as it is to the FO.

[Neurotic Guy]

Should say that my opinion on judging a trade or signing includes both the initial sense of the quality of the move and the eventual outcome.  I don?t think signing Gordon Haywood was a bad signing though it didn?t prove to be a good one. So I think I?ll always view this as a low quality trade, one where more value was sent than received.  However there are enough variables in this trade that the long-term outcomes could turn out well.  This is why I just think the trade isn?t a disaster and Brad will recover.  Can?t wait to hear him talk about it.

One *half-full* way to look at it is that we got 2 decent second round picks that could be in the low 30s. If those seconds were firsts that landed in the mid-20s there is a difference there, but it?s not exactly massive.

[byennie]

If we luck into a high lottery pick, that would sure help, but really the measure is just winning. We need to justify the idea that Brown was overpaid and inefficient, even if he was good.

White and Pritchard thriving with higher usage, Queta/Robinson playing well, team chemistry and deep playoff runs will speak for themselves (or not). Will we look like a team that plays defense, shares the ball, and runs 8+ deep? If so, we might be thinking "glad we didn't tie up $70M in Brown". Shall see...

[Neurotic Guy]

Prove it on the court.

I'm not in the mood for GM-speak, and nothing Brad and Chisholm say on Monday will make me feel better.  If we look back in two years and the Celtics have built the next contender while the Sixers sank, then I'll tip my cap.

Can a person be nauseated by the trade but optimistic about the Cs?  I think that?s where I am. Optimistic may be too strong a word but definitely hopeful.  Look forward to seeing how things roll out next off-season. Yea I?m fine with low expectations this year. There?s enough here to keep make this season interesting. And until I actually know what?s in the heads of Chisholm or Brad, I won?t make judgements. 

[Who]

2. Paul George is an asset. Paul George had an excellent 2026 playoff run so it?s possible that he has settled in to his twilight career role and is worth at least 80% of his contract.

I have PG13 rated as a $20-25mil level player versus a contract of $57mil so I reckon he is worth about 40-45% of his contract.

[Who]

Now that the dust has settled are there any silver linings to the worst trade in Celtics History?

I don't think it will be that bad of a trade at the end. It is bad today but this isn't the real return. The real return will come when we trade PG13 & picks for a star player to replace Jaylen.

How good that star player is relative to Jaylen will determine how useful or how bad a trade this is.

(1) If the star is worse then Jaylen, it is a bad deal ... but how bad depends on how much of a gap there is between Jaylen and that star.

(2) If the star is roughly equivalent to Jaylen, the trade is fine.

(3) If the star is better than Jaylen, this trade improved the team.

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I don't think we will fully be able to judge it until this next part plays out. Likely in the next 12-18 months.

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But basically ... I don't think this will be historically bad trade. I don't think it will be anywhere close to that.

This trade has given us enough flexibility (PG13's contract expires in 2yrs) and assets (likely lotto pick, distant 2031 could-be-anything pick) to add to our current assets (young guys, own picks) to make a major move.

And when that plays out, we will then have a different viewpoint of this deal.

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Now if all that fails to materialize then we go into 2028 free agency with added cap flexibility. That Queta contract today was fantastic for us. If Pritchard gives us a sweetheart deal by signing early as well, we will be sitting comfortably heading into that.

If that 2028 FA fails again, then yeah, we will look at this trade as historically bad.

Basically we have created an opportunity but how well we take advantage of that opportunity is yet to be determined.

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A historical example would be Joe Dumars when he broke up the Chauncey Billups Detroit team in 2008-09. He positioned his team brilliantly for a quick retool / rebuild and back to title contention. Instead his impatience got the better of him and he wasted his money in the 2009 FA class on Ben Gordon & Charlie Villanueva instead of rolling it over to 2010 which was a historically great FA class.

So just because you create the opportunity doesn't meant you get the great outcome. It is about how well Brad utilizes these opportunities he has created with the Jaylen trade.

I expect Brad will get something that is either decent (downgrade to Jaylen but decent / acceptable) to solid (equal to Jaylen). Smaller chance he makes a great deal that improves the team beyond what Jaylen could have done.


But I don't think this trade will be some huge catastrophe ... unless Brad craps his pants like Joe Dumars did back in 2009. In which case it will be remembered as a historically bad deal.

[Who]

I think George's stats were a bit deflated playing next to Embiid, which is normal, and his stats could be close to 20-5-3 this season.

PG13 played quite a few games without Embiid over the last 2 years because Embiid was hurt so often. He didn't see much of a boost in his numbers.

That was surprising to me at the time. I, like you, expected to see a boost in his stats without Embiid around. So it looks more like age-related decline rather than being limited by a smaller role due to Embiid & Maxey taking up so much of the offense.

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Actually, his stats aren't as discouraging as I thought they were.

Paul George averaged 15.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 13 games without Joel Embiid in 2025-26.

First blush that is not great. However, PG13 only played 25.8mpg in those 13 games so relative to minutes played those are pretty good numbers.

Paul George averaged 17.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.2 assists in 23 games without Joel Embiid in 2024-25.

32.9mpg in those 23 games.

I don't know how to check PG13's numbers when Embiid is off the floor when both play the same game. Those stats are from Statmuse.

[Who]

If they finish top 3 in the conference and win a playoff series or two all will be forgotten. But I also don't think that's happening.  We've got one guy who can create his own shot, a hope that Pritchard develops into a reliable 2nd option and then more questionmarks.  Plus a roster full of guys who shoot 3's.

I wish we had of brought back Anfernee Simons.

I'd love to have (1) one more guard to allow PP to start (2) one more shot-creator / shot maker.

That series against Philly was so disappointing when we only had 4 guys who could get a bucket (JT, JB, PP, D White). The rest of them were too limited. We are in the same position again. Only with a worse version of JB in PG13. We need at least 3 out of 4 of those guys to play well in a playoff game to have a chance of winning. We do not have enough scoring.

We have little to no margin of error when our 1 or 2 of our main 4 guys have a bad game. They are not all going to play well at the same time. At least not often. It will be rare. It will be the norm for at least 1 if not 2 of them to struggle on any given night. They need some help.