Jaylen Brown, Derrick White Reportedly Still Drawing Trade Interest amid NBA Rumors

Trade interest for the Boston Celtics' Jaylen Brown and Derrick White is "certainly still coming," according to ESPN's Shams Charania.

The Celtics have already cleared a lot of payroll by lining up deals involving guard Jrue Holiday and center Kristaps Porziņģis. Charania reported Thursday on Get Up that "most of their heavy lifting is done," so acquiring Brown or White would come at a steep cost.

"There's a couple of other players, Sam Hauser, Anfernee Simons, that at minimum if they do want to continue to shed even more out of the first apron, out of the luxury tax, they could," the NBA insider said. "There's heavy interest in those two guys, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, but a very, very high price threshold if anybody wants them."

Charania provided some more context:

"Of course, the preference is not to trade them. They're key cogs of a championship team. But if you're the Celtics, you have to at least listen. They're listening. They have a high, high price threshold on both of those players. I'm told it would have to take an offer that blows them out of the water for them to consider moving either of those players. We'll see if any of those offers come. They've done their job so far this week. They're going to continue to get calls and they're going to continue to monitor those calls."

Brian Windhorst of ESPN reported Wednesday on First Take that multiple teams with a top-10 pick in the 2025 NBA draft had inquired about Brown and White. ClutchPoints' Brett Siegel reported the Utah Jazz specifically "made an aggressive push in the last couple of days" for Brown.

The first round is now done with neither player having left, so the odds of them sticking around have seemingly increased.

The absence of further movement from the Celtics gives some more clarity about their short-term priorities.

There's no question they're hitting the reset button a bit in the wake of Jayson Tatum's Achilles injury. But there's a difference between taking a small step backward and pivoting toward a mini-rebuild.

Boston remains a threat in the Eastern Conference without Holiday and Porziņģis and with Tatum likely to miss most or all of 2025-26. The Celtics aren't the clear favorites to win the East like they once were, yet they could realistically challenge for a top-four berth.

However, that outlook changes if White or especially Brown is shown the door.