Boston Celtics

"In the most recent days, teams have been preparing for this eventuality that it wouldn't be the Boston Celtics who won the Giannis sweepstakes."

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First Kevin Durant, now Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The Celtics included Jaylen Brown in trade offers for both of them and wound up falling short both times. The Nets won the Durant sweepstakes in 2022, and early Tuesday morning, the Heat landed Antetokounmpo.

Now, the Celtics, who were reportedly “all in” on trading for Antetokounmpo, must change course.

“So now, if you’re Boston, there is going to be fallout from this,” ESPN’s Shams Charania said during an appearance on SportsCenter. “[There will be] some hard conversations, because for the second time in four years the Celtics have offered Jaylen Brown, their co-star with Jayson Tatum, in a trade.”

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said other teams may see an opportunity to pounce on Brown after the way this situation was handled by the Celtics.

“Boston is in a situation where they have put to the whole world out there that Jaylen Brown, their Finals MVP, [was available],” Windhorst said. “They of course knew it was possible they were going to lose to Miami. They wanted to win, they made a very strong offer, but they were not willing to put their entire team in because on the other side of this trade they had to have a team.”

“So, now, what I expect to happen is a bidding war for Jaylen Brown [from] other teams in the league. In the most recent days, teams have been preparing for this eventuality that it wouldn’t be the Boston Celtics who won the Giannis sweepstakes and there would be a Jaylen Brown market.”

Boston’s offer reportedly included Brown and a pair of first-round picks. The offer that got it done for Miami was:  Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, three first-round picks, a pick swap, and a second-rounder, in exchange for Antetkounmpo and Bobby Portis.

“You think about the haul that the Bucks got after negotiating with Boston and Miami in the last few weeks. You get Tyler Herro, that’s a homecoming for him. You get Kel’el Ware, a young center. Jaime Jaquez, a good two way wing, you get Kasparas Jakucionis who is just 20 years old, a young up and coming guard. Then they get a significant return of draft capital.”

The Celtics were reluctant to send more of their young assets to Milwaukee, Charania said.

“The hold up in those conversations ultimately became that the Bucks wanted more assets,” Charania said. “They wanted a couple of young players, Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, potentially others. They wanted more first-round picks, more swaps … my understanding is that the Celtics were not willing to part with enough young players and assets to get a deal done.”

Now the Celtics will continue on without Antetokounmpo. The reports of Brown being included in the trade offer are out there.

The Celtics and Brown were able to patch things up in 2022 after Durant landed in Brooklyn, and Boston won a championship two years later in 2024. Brown was named Finals MVP and Eastern Conference Finals MVP that year.

However, questions remain about whether the relationship can be repaired after a fresh round of trade rumors.