Karalis: Thoughts on Jaylen Brown's SMH moment, and the rumors that keep following him

“SMH”

It was an appropriate reaction from Jaylen Brown on Twitter after his name resurfaced in trade rumors this week. I’m not in his head, so I don’t know what he actually meant by it, but I’m imagining there was some level of “here we go again” in there, mixed in with some eye-rolling directed at the ensuing discussion. 

Brown was born into the fire of NBA trade rumors. The selection of Brown with the third pick in 2016 was booed, not because people hated Brown, but because fans in attendance wanted Kris Dunn so he could be traded to Minnesota for Jimmy Butler (which was the reporting at the time). 

Brown was one of the Brooklyn picks that came over in the Paul Pierce/Kevin Garnett trade. By 2016, Boston’s most recent championship was starting to gray and their last Finals appearance was starting to fade into the background. Celtics fans wanted their next star, and they wanted him now. Brown happened to be collateral damage. 

Brown has been linked not only to Butler (there would be a second rumor dalliance later), Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, and others, always spurring a similar discussion as the one that played out yesterday: Is it better to keep the promising young star, or fast forward that roster spot into a current superstar. 

Even when there's nothing to the trade talks, the mere mention of the possibility pulls people into the squared circle for sports talk mayhem. Because Brown always seems to be the guy being discussed, I can understand the SMH tweet. 

Here are a couple of things everyone needs to understand.

- Brown is going to be in trade talks for a good portion of his career. Maybe all of it. There's a chance he’ll avoid them if he signs a long-term, five-year deal, but even then they’ll probably only quiet for a short time because that's just the nature of the beast. 

- The notion that all this talking is going to run a guy out of town is overblown. Sure, there's a possibility that Brown might not feel fully appreciated on the outside because of this, but this type of stuff is going to follow him everywhere he goes. 

He’s not in all of these rumors because he’s in Boston. He could be playing for the Lakers or the Thunder and he’d be in these rumors because he’s the type of player that is in high demand and his contract is very attractive compared to the production. 

- There's no credible indication that he’s unhappy in Boston. Aside from one sports talk radio host who says otherwise, everyone else around the team and people with inside knowledge believe that he like playing in Boston, that he’s happy playing for Ime Udoka, and with Jayson Tatum. This moment was meaningful: 

I know discord sells and people are paid to have opinions about things like this, but there's just no real credibility to any reporting other than Brown is happy in Boston, and the Celtics are happy to have him. 

- BUT even IF there is some feeling that Brown is a flight risk, he’s still under contract for two more seasons. The Celtics have a full season to sit with him and make him feel loved. They can put the Celtics PR team into full Brown appreciation mode and really make sure that all of the work important to him is very well publicized. They can take steps to make sure he feels better about things. 

I mean, if my girlfriend told me she was feeling underappreciated, it would probably make more sense for me to buy her some flowers, take her to dinner, and try to make it up to her rather than say “well, ok, time to dump you and try again with someone else.” 

I’m sure this process is annoying to Brown. I’d be annoyed by it, too. At the same time, I think he’s an adult who gets how things work. There will be some fence-mending necessary from the Celtics' side just to explain that due diligence is something every front office has to do. Boston might be able to get involved in the Durant trade as a third team and luck their way into a valuable player, so Brad Stevens and Sean Marks are still going to have to talk. 

The rest is probably just posturing from Brooklyn’s side in an effort to stoke the trade flames. As long as Brown and the Celtics are cool with one another and everyone understands how the business of this game works, they should be fine.