The Greek Freakout is over. Time for the Boston Brownout
One crisis resolved creates another. It's the only way in the NBA. Plus: the first round of the NBA Draft lacked intrigue, even if the players have it.
One crisis resolved creates another. It's the only way in the NBA. Plus: the first round of the NBA Draft lacked intrigue, even if the players have it.
Good morning. It's Free Newsletter Wednesday. Let's basketball.
Giannis Antetokounmpo has been traded. The first round of the 2026 NBA Draft is complete with few surprises and few major trades. Yet the offseason is just getting started. And the biggest story is developing before our eyes: Jaylen Brown, a top-12 player in the league and half of possibly the best long-term duo in the NBA, is going to get traded.
That's conjecture, of course. But all the evidence is there to see. It's clear, based on reports, that Boston offered Brown and picks to Milwaukee for Giannis. ESPN's Shams Charania was reporting in the lead-up to Tuesday's draft coverage that even with Antetokounmpo off the table, the Celtics were listening to offers for Brown. Boston boss Brad Stevens was asked about the rumors and Brown's future in kelly green. He was pretty candid in that he didn't do the typical NBA GM nonsense of saying he wasn't trading Brown and never put him on the table.
Sure, Stevens blames "the rumor mill" without claiming that the rumors were false and leaves open the possibility that Brown retires as a Celtic, but I – someone who's been watching these dances closely for a couple decades now – see the writing all over that wall. Jaylen Brown is on the market.
It's easy to understand why based on what we know about Brown's personality and his weird comments since the end of the season. Everyone's stuck on his comment that this was the most fun he's had in a season ... and they should be! He won Finals MVP two years ago! This was his first season since his rookie year without his co-star Jayson Tatum on the floor for long stretches! It's a weird comment, and telling of priorities. Those priorities – preferring to be the man on an overachieving team that loses in the first round instead of a co-star on a title team – are valid. But it's not consistent with what Boston needs him to be going forward. The Celtics do not intend to be an overachieving team that loses in the first round any more. They would very much like to get back to 2024 status.
There's one more wrinkle in all this that's been undersold: how Brown looked in that fateful series against the Knicks in 2025. He was pretty shaky. It gets overshadowed because of New York's comebacks, because Kristaps Porzingis was a complete disaster and because Tatum got injured. But Brown let them down in that series, and then presided over the Sixers embarrassing them in the playoffs this year. He's a Finals MVP and he's certified as someone who plays well deep into the postseason ... usually. The last two playoff series have been enormous disappointments, and there hasn't been much public accountability.
When Stevens talked about the Celtics' limitations after the Philadelphia series, we all understood that to mean an indictment of Boston's style of play. But it could have been a hint that he was broadly interested in mixing up the personnel at the very top of the roster.
This is all good grist for Brown's exit ... without even getting to Brown's inevitable reaction to being dangled as bait again. The widely-held assumption is that Brown will be miffed and insist that the Celtics do move him this summer since he's clearly not intended to be a lifer in Boston. But again, Brown marches to a different beat. (He might have been exposed to the UC Berkeley student body and Kyrie Irving too early in his life.) Maybe he'll embrace becoming the mercenary who never left. Maybe he can again look past the rumor mill based on his affinity for Joe Mazzulla and getting to drop into classes at Harvard, MIT, Tufts and Emerson. Who knows how Brown will react, whenever he reacts?
It just seems like there's mutual unspoken interest in a career and team shake-up, and the Gods know there will be plenty of interest for Brown, who underneath all this is an excellent, rangy two-way wing, the type of producer just about every team needs. It feels like the Celtics should be targeting a big man on the market – Alperen Sengun feels like a good fit, and Houston has other assets to toss in; Domantas Sabonis appears more a consolation prize than a target this summer – or a high-octane wing replacement to keep Hugo Gonzalez on a development path and not overextend Baylor Scheierman.
More importantly for us: the NBA always needs at least one major player drama. Some reporters were trying to stir up stuff around Anthony Edwards in the wake of the Julius Randle salary dump, but this is weak sauce: Edwards' team has had success; Edwards didn't appear to like playing with Randle much and appears to love Ayo Dosunmu, who the Wolves re-signed after dumping Randle; Edwards' best friend on the team, Jaden McDaniels, is a fellow untouchable cornerstone; and Edwards adores his coach, Chris Finch. Reporters trotting out the "other teams are circling Ant like vultures" storyline is terrible form, and those reporters should be ashamed for trying to create a saga out of thin air. Of course other teams hope Anthony Edwards becomes less gruntled! That's not news! Until Edwards or his team actually expresses interest in fleeing Minnesota even anonymously, for which there has been no indication, this is a bulls--t story that doesn't deserve oxygen.
The Boston Brownout is a much different situation, and Jaylen Brown – while not Anthony Edwards – is definitely good enough for his saga to have our attention.
Write It In Chalk
As mentioned up top, there were relatively few surprises in the first round of the draft. Here are some scattered notes:
- I think the top four picks will all be successful with their teams, getting high-dollar second contracts. The teams will be satisfied with their work here; the work elsewhere on those rosters, especially for Memphis and Chicago, will determine whether team success follows draft success.
- I am going to fall madly in love with Darius Acuff Jr.'s game. I basically already have! (Picked up a new pack of exclamation marks at Costco.) It may even be a full circle moment from the team when the Kings could have drafted NorCal legend Damian Lillard but took Thomas Robinson instead! Also, Kings PA announcer Scott Moak is going to do wonders to Alex Karaban's name.
- More Kings: is Russell Westbrook ready to mentor? If so, I'd be happy to have him back as a reserve on-court mentor. Gods know I trust him to guide Acuff more than I trust Doug Christie. DeMar DeRozan, bless him, a heroic career: they have to move or waive him. But you can run Zach LaVine (expiring contract), De'Andre Hunter (expiring contract) and Domantas Sabonis (one more pricey year after 2026-27) back out there if there's a limited market. Please just don't extend them! Let this Acuff era blossom a bit, hope Keegan Murray bounces back and see how Nique Clifford, maybe Devin Carter, Maxime Raynaud, Dylan Cardwell and Karaban develop. Also, having blown a chance to replace Christie with a proper offseason coaching search, just hang onto him until April and don't put Mike Woodson in the interim seat ... unless you're at risk of landing bottom three in the league and need to anti-tank in the last month or two.
- Not every Sam Presti pick works out perfectly. I regret to inform you that either last year's pick Thomas Sorber or this year's Aday Mara are totally going to work out perfectly as an eventual Isaiah Hartenstein replacement.
- I was skeptical of this fact but it's true: Warriors draft pick Yaxel Lendeborg, who is not French, Belgian, German, Swiss or Luxembourgian despite that name, is a week older than Jonathan Kuminga. Holy s--t.
- The Hornets drafted a dude named Hannes and then another dude named Christian Anderson.
Links
Justin Kubatko assesses the best drafts ever.
Dan Devine's got your draft winners and losers.
Jared Dubin on the Giannis trade. Henry Abbott on the Giannis trade. Kelly Dwyer on the Giannis trade. Paul Flannery on Boston's Giannis non-trade.
Good news: the Blazers hired a head coach, and it's well-liked Micah Nori, most recently of the Wolves. Bad news, via ESPN:
Sources confirmed to ESPN that Nori's deal has just one guaranteed year, with options on the second and third year. Additionally, sources told ESPN that Nori's contract features a sliding-scale salary based on incentives and team success.
One guaranteed year for an NBA head coach! Tom Dundon is reinventing the sport (derogatory).
Spencer Hall shreds Alexei Lalas, who I have only experienced via viral clips thanks to the beauty of Telemundo. This Guardian piece on Lalas vs. Thierry Henry by Aaron Timms is required reading even if you don't care about soccer and sports media. It's a part of the Mean Internet canon now, like Pete Wells' infamous (and now gauche) review of Guy Fieri's Times Square restaurant. ("Did your mind touch the void for a minute?" remains one of the great lines of our time.)
By the way, paid subscribers have access to the GMIB Discord. We are now talking about the World Cup in there alongside draft and trade stuff.
Alright, back on Thursday for paid subscribers. Be excellent to each other.
