New Jaylen Brown Trade Rumors Update Blazers' Pursuit of Celtics Star After Ja Morant Deal

The Portland Trail Blazers shocked the NBA world on Monday, reportedly trading for star point guard Ja Morant.

That created a bit of a roster crunch at guard, with some folks wondering if a second trade for a player like Jaylen Brown might be the next move. Don't count on it.

ESPN's Shams Charania reported during Monday's SportsCenter that the Morant trade is the team's "big move as of right now" and added that his "understanding is that they are not involved with Brown."

Portland may have to make some sort of secondary move, however.

Right now, they have Morant, Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday, Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe in the backcourt, while Deni Avdija will play the 3, creating quite the logjam for minutes.

And apparently the Blazers plan to start both Morant and Lillard together, an odd pairing considering they are both lead guards and are both undersized, defensive liabilities:

A starting five of Morant, Lillard, Avdija, Toumani Camara and Donovan Clingan is certainly interesting, but the majority of the team's depth—Holiday, Henderson, Sharpe, Yang Hansen and Sidy Cissoko—comes from the backcourt, at least as currently constructed.

It has everybody scratching their heads a little bit:

A Brown trade would consolidate the roster—it would likely include Holiday, Sharpe, possibly Henderson and a boatload of draft capital heading to Boston—and give the Blazers another true star. It would also nuke their depth and leave them without many avenues to add any.

But a core of Brown, Morant, Lillard, Avdija, Camara and Clingan would make some noise if it jelled (especially if the Blazers could convince Lillard to come off the bench in a sixth man role).

It would be a massive swing, no doubt. Many Blazers fans might prefer holding onto younger players and future draft capital. As of now, it sounds as though Brown won't be the move if the Blazers push all their chips onto the table. But until Brown is dealt, you can't rule it out entirely.