Jaylen Brown's 'F--king Big' Contract & More on Teams 'Scared' of Trade Called Out by NBA GMs, Execs

Many around the NBA are still perturbed by the Boston Celtics' decision to trade star guard Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for several reasons.

The Celtics acquired veteran forward Paul George, two first-round picks (2028, 2031) and two second-round selections (2028, 2030) from the 76ers in exchange for Brown, who had previously been floated in trade discussions when Boston was pursuing star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. Brown is owed a whopping $183 million over the next three seasons, and ESPN's Shams Charania spoke to multiple executives who feel his impact doesn't live up to his astronomical price.

"The stats guys in every room don't see him close to that -- probably the widest gap in the league," a general manager told Charania. "They're certainly telling you they don't think he's the sixth-best player in the league. Then the contract is really f--king big, and the expectation to [extend] that is really big."

Brown is coming off a career year in which he led the Celtics to a second-place finish in the Eastern Conference despite being without star forward Jayson Tatum for the majority of the year while he recovered from a torn Achilles. However, that wasn't enough to convince other teams to take on his massive contract.

"The credit goes to guys who score, but they're not always driving team success," another GM said. "There's guys like this all over the league -- Brandon Ingram, DeMar DeRozan, etc. The difference is he's not at $40 million [salary] -- he's at $60 million! It's really hard to tie up that much of your salary cap in one player unless they're truly generational. And he's not even close to that. If you supermax Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] or Joker, it makes sense. That's probably the list. The league is getting smarter now. And here's the thing: The dumb teams are also the cheap teams, so the Celtics couldn't take advantage of one of them."

To make matters worse, the Celtics initially were "extremely aggressive in their proposals, such as asking for four unprotected first-round picks," per Charania. The strategy reportedly "backfired," leaving multiple teams content to end negotiations with Boston.

"The asking price for Brown was so high that teams got scared away and moved on to other business," said an executive from a team that engaged in brief discussions with the Celtics. "There was no need to circle back."

The perception that Brown was unhappy in Boston also raised fear among other teams, causing some to wonder if it was worth the risk to trade for him.

"If Jaylen isn't happy winning Finals MVP, All-NBA, winning with the Boston Celtics, how's it going to be with us?" a president of basketball operations said. "If he's not happy there, what is he looking for? It scares teams."