Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla talks with guards Payton Pritchard, left, and Derrick White, right, during the first half of a preseason game at TD Garden earlier this month. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla talks with guards Payton Pritchard, left, and Derrick White, right, during the first half of a preseason game at TD Garden earlier this month. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Seated behind a microphone at the Celtics’ practice facility, wearing a team-branded short-sleeved Henley and a grimace, Brad Stevens offered a remarkably candid evaluation of the trade that shaped both this NBA offseason and the future of Boston’s franchise.
“What we ultimately decided could be right or wrong,” the Celtics’ president of basketball operations said on July 6, one day after his team finalized the deal that sent Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George and four future draft picks.
“It’s obviously unpopular, and most people think it will be wrong.”
The Celtics were the NBA’s winningest franchise over Brown’s 10-year tenure. He helped lead them to their first championship in 16 years in 2024. And his final season in green was a success relative to expectations.
After losing half of their title-winning rotation, the 2025-26 C’s won 56 games and boasted the NBA’s fourth-best net rating. Brown, who called it his favorite season to date, made second-team All-Pro, finished sixth in MVP voting and posted one of the best all-around stat lines ever by a Celtic.
But the feel-good season ended with a humiliating thud: a blown 3-1 series lead against the underdog 76ers, resulting in Boston’s first opening-round playoff exit since 2021. It was the third time in four years that the Celtics were eliminated by a lower-seeded Eastern Conference opponent.
Stevens had seen enough. After acknowledging the gap that had developed between Boston and the league’s true elites, he and his staff determined the Celtics were better off without Brown’s $57.1 million salary and high-usage play style. They first tried to trade him for Giannis Antetokounmpo before ultimately settling for the widely panned return they received from Philadelphia.
The move undoubtedly made one of Boston’s chief rivals better, especially after the Sixers used Brown’s arrival as a springboard to also sign LeBron James. What will it mean for the Celtics, who open their new season and the post-Jaylen era Tuesday afternoon in Detroit (3 p.m.; NBC)?
Viewed through the pessimist’s prism, the Celtics downgraded from Brown to a much older, far more injury-prone and similarly expensive player in George. Sure, the swap opened future avenues of “optionality,” to quote Stevens’ justification, but it seemingly made Boston a weaker team in the short term, especially if Jayson Tatum is at anything less than peak form in his first full season since his Achilles surgery.
But while George was not at the top of the Celtics’ offseason wish list, and carries a great deal of volatility as a 36-year-old who’s missed nearly 40% of his teams’ games over the last seven seasons, Stevens and Co. like the roster they’ve assembled. Oddsmakers do, too, with most major sportsbooks pegging them as the top challenger to the defending champion New York Knicks and the superteam 76ers in the East.
The Celtics believe the signing of ex-Knick Mitchell Robinson will give them a much stronger frontcourt this season, fortifying a unit that collapsed in the playoffs. They’re bullish on their depth — their second unit to open the season likely will feature four players who started 20-plus games for them a year ago, and that doesn’t include Hugo Gonzalez, who looks poised for a Year 2 leap — and their versatility.
Stevens said before training camp that this collection of players should be more malleable offensively than some previous Celtics squads, able to attack defenses in multiple ways rather than falling into patterns of late-game stagnancy. And though George probably won’t replicate Brown’s production at this point in his career, he might prove to be a better fit beside Tatum as a willing No. 2 who isn’t seeking superstar status.
“I just try to do whatever I can, honestly,” George told reporters Monday, echoing a point he’s stressed multiple times during his brief Celtics tenure. “Be the best version, playing both ends. Obviously, JT is the guy, and I only want to make this thing as easy as possible for him, while not having him put that burden or pressure (on himself) that he has to perform. Obviously, we need him to perform at a high level every night, but the expectation that he has to or we don’t have a chance, (I want to) alleviate that pressure off him.
“But whatever I can do — whether it’s rebounding, whether it’s defending, whether it’s playmaking, knocking down open shots — that’s what I’m trying to bring to the team.”
George has been a better 3-point shooter and a more disruptive defensive playmaker than Brown during his career, though only one of those edges was evident this preseason.
The veteran wing recorded seven steals in his two appearances — hinting at a potential philosophy change for a Celtics defense that’s forced turnovers at one of the lowest rates in the NBA under Mazzulla — but shot 3-for-14 from deep (21.4%).
“It’s been a struggle offensively for me,” George admitted. “Just getting rhythm, getting my legs under me, getting my conditioning down. But the beauty of it is, I’m healthy. That’s stuff that I can iron out.”
Mazzulla, who now has just four players remaining (Tatum, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser) from his first season in charge in 2022-23, said he’s looking forward to seeing how this new-look group handles adversity.
“I do love this team,” Mazzulla said Sunday. “I do want to see who we are when it doesn’t go our way. So I want to say, OK, yeah, I love our team, but what are we going to be after a winning streak, after a losing streak, after four games and five nights, all those things? So I love this team, love who we can become, but I would say, the one thing with these guys, I’m excited to go through all the (expletive) that the NBA season gives you.
“I’m excited to lose with this team. I’m excited to win with this team. I’m excited to do all those things to see who we become on the other side of it.”
The Celtics will have nearly their entire roster available for Tuesday’s opener against the Cade Cunningham-led Pistons. The only player listed on their latest injury report was Devin Carter, a guard on a two-way contract who is sidelined indefinitely with mononucleosis.
Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard during the first half of a preseason game at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard during the first half of a preseason game at the TD Garden. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)