The Celtics just told the whole league something they probably didn’t mean to. Jaylen Brown is not untouchable. They didn’t trade him for Giannis Antetokounmpo, but the fact that his name got that deep into those conversations isn’t something you can just walk back with a press conference and a smile.
Brown can stay. Brad Stevens can call him and smooth things over. The locker room can move on. But there’s a difference between moving on and forgetting, and in this league, stars don’t forget when they find out a front office was ready to ship them out. The relationship isn’t broken. It’s just different now. And different has a way of becoming a problem when the next stressful moment arrives.
So Boston should at least be thinking about what a bigger swing looks like. Just in case. And right now, the most interesting situation in the league might be in New Orleans.
The Pelicans have been a mess for a while, but the noise around their roster is getting louder in a specific way. For most of the year, Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy III felt like the guys who weren’t going to move, no matter what.
Then the narrative on Murphy has started to shift. ESPN’s Marc Spears didn’t dance around it; he reported the Pelicans are actively trying to trade Murphy. Marc Stein added that Joe Dumars’ front office is now willing to take calls, even if the asking price is going to make most teams flinch. Jake Fischer said teams around the league want him badly and that New Orleans is actually staying on the phone now when his name comes up.
Murphy is 26. He just had the best season of his career. He’s on a contract that doesn’t hurt you. The kind of player who hits the market at that age, at that level, at that price, almost never does so willingly.
The Pelicans have their reasons, and the Celtics should be the first team to pick up the phone. New Orleans could make the most of this situation, and with many suitors going after Murphy, they could jump the gun and move Zion’s contract in the same deal to start a new era.
Potential Trade Offer
Boston Celtics Receive: Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy III
New Orleans Pelicans Receive: Jaylen Brown, Hugo Gonzalez, Baylor Scheierman, 2027 first-round pick, 2030 first-round pick, 2027 second-round pick, 2031 second-round pick
The numbers are big, but they’re not impossible. Williamson is at $42.2 million next season, and Murphy is at $27.0 million, so Boston is absorbing $69.2 million in salary coming in. On the other side, Brown at $57.1 million, plus Hugo Gonzalez at $2.9 million and Scheierman at $2.7 million, gets close enough to that number.
The core idea is straightforward, even if the execution is complicated. Boston is trading one proven star for two high-level pieces. New Orleans is trading a risky star and their most coveted wing for a Finals MVP, two young players with real upside, and four draft picks. Neither side is getting robbed. Both sides are making a calculated bet.
And the Pelicans shouldn’t fool themselves into thinking they’re taking a step back in value here. Brown averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists this season while carrying a massive role after Tatum went down. He shot 47.7% from the field with a 57.3% true shooting mark and a PER of 22.0.
He was the best player on a Celtics team that was missing its best player for most of the year, and he handled it. That’s not a guy a contender trades away lightly, and it’s not a guy a rebuilding team should take for granted just because the circumstances of how he arrived are unusual.
Brown is a champion. He’s a Finals MVP. He’s 29 and in the best shape of his career. For a franchise that went 26-56 and finished 11th in the Western Conference, getting a player like that in return isn’t a consolation prize. It’s a foundation.
Why The Murphy Noise Changes The Whole Trade
If Murphy was fully off the table, this trade would not be worth talking about. Zion for Brown is too weird by itself. Zion is younger and more efficient, but Brown is safer, healthier, and easier to trust in a playoff series. The Celtics would need more.
Murphy is the reason the deal becomes serious. He averaged 21.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.8 assists while shooting 47.0% from the field, 37.9% from three, and 88.6% from the line. His true shooting was 61.3%, and he took 8.6 threes per game. That last number is the big one. This is not fake spacing on low volume. Murphy is a real high-volume shooter with size.
That is why so many teams want him. Anthony Slater reported that the Warriors have had interest in Murphy for years and that he could be more obtainable now. Fischer also reported that other teams “absolutely want him,” but the Pelicans don’t want a package built only around picks. They want a win-now return if they move him.
That is where Brown comes in. The Celtics can offer the type of player the Pelicans usually wouldn’t find in a Murphy trade. A lot of teams can offer picks. A lot of teams can offer young players who may become good later. Very few can offer Brown. That is the difference.
If the Pelicans want to move Murphy for a real star and not only draft capital, this is one of the cleanest ways to do it.
Why The Celtics Should Take The Risk
This trade is risky, but the Celtics would be getting a totally different offensive ceiling. Zion averaged 21.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.2 assists while shooting 60.0% from the field. His true shooting was 64.4%, and his usage was around 25.5%.
He barely shoots threes, but he still puts huge pressure on the rim. He made 7.8 field goals per game on only 13.0 attempts, which shows how efficient his paint game still is.
The Celtics have had wing creation for years with Tatum and Brown. They have not had a rim force like Zion. That changes how defenses guard them. Zion forces help. He gets downhill. He gets to the line. He puts bigs in foul trouble. He also gives Tatum easier looks because defenses can’t load up the same way.
Murphy fixes the spacing concern. If the Celtics only added Zion, the floor could get tight. But Murphy taking almost nine threes per game changes that. A lineup with Derrick White, Murphy, Tatum, Zion, and a defensive or shooting center has enough spacing and way more rim pressure than the old group.
Murphy also replaces some of Brown’s wing scoring in a cheaper way. He is not better than Brown, but he doesn’t need the ball as much. He can score off movement, attack closeouts, shoot in transition, and punish switches. That fits Tatum better than another ball-heavy star.
The Celtics would still need to manage Zion’s defense and health. That is the scary part. He has not been a defensive anchor. His conditioning has been up and down. His playoff resume is thin. Brown is much safer there.
But the Celtics have enough structure to take the bet. Tatum is still the No. 1. White is still a strong guard defender. Murphy gives them size on the wing. If they keep one real defensive big, Zion doesn’t need to cover every mistake.
Why The Pelicans Would Want Brown
The Pelicans only say yes to this if Dumars has decided he wants to reset the whole thing without blowing it up completely. But after a 26-win season, it’s hard to imagine he’s still convinced the current path leads anywhere good. Brown is the argument for why this works for New Orleans.
He’s better than Zion. He’s more proven than Murphy. He’s 29, he’s at his peak, and he plays basketball in a way that makes sense within a normal offensive structure. He scores at all three levels, he can guard the opponent’s best wing, he creates his own shot late in the clock when the play breaks down, and he doesn’t require the entire offense to be designed around his specific skill set to be effective.
And the Pelicans desperately need a player who just plays. Their numbers last season were ugly across the board. A 114.4 offensive rating. A 119.1 defensive rating. A minus-4.7 net rating. That’s a team that couldn’t score and couldn’t stop anybody, and no combination of optimism about Zion’s health or Murphy’s development was going to fix both of those problems at the same time.
Picture that roster for a second. Brown as the main scorer. Dejounte Murray handling the ball and pushing the pace. Herb Jones doing the defensive dirty work on the wing. Derik Queen developing in the frontcourt. That team has a shape. It has roles. It has a reason to watch. It might not have the ceiling of Zion at his absolute best, but Zion at his absolute best has only shown up in glimpses, and the Pelicans have been waiting on those glimpses for years now.
The rest of the package matters because Murphy is not a throw-in, and Dumars knows that better than anyone. Gonzalez is a young wing with real defensive instincts who could develop into something useful. Scheierman brings shooting and feel off the ball, the kind of player who makes everyone around him slightly easier to play with. And the four picks give New Orleans the flexibility to keep building after gutting the roster of two of its most valuable pieces.
Without all of that sitting alongside Brown, this deal doesn’t work. The Pelicans aren’t doing a two-for-one just because the one is Jaylen Brown. They need the full package, and honestly they deserve it.
Both Teams Would Be Scared To Make This Move
Every good trade has a moment where both teams pause and ask themselves if they’re really doing this. That pause is usually the sign you’re onto something real.
Boston’s hesitation is obvious. Brown already won there. He already proved he belongs in the biggest moments. He was the second-best player on a championship team and then turned around and carried the whole thing when Tatum went down. You don’t move that guy lightly.
New Orleans’ hesitation is just as real, maybe more so. Murphy is 26 and just became exactly the kind of player that contenders spend years trying to acquire. A 6-foot-8 wing who can score over 20 points a game, shoot 37.9% from three on nearly nine attempts per night, and do it without needing the offense to stop and wait for him. If he goes to Boston and figures out how to play next to Tatum and White and a real defensive structure, he could become genuinely untradeable within two years.
Both teams are at a point where standing still carries its own risk. The Celtics can’t pretend the Giannis situation didn’t change something in that locker room. The Pelicans can’t pretend another year of the same roster is going to produce different results. Sometimes the most uncomfortable trade is the one that actually makes the most sense.
