Everything Celtics' Joe Mazzulla Said About Jaylen Brown, Paul George Trade with 76ers

Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla spoke about this summer's shocking trade of Jaylen Brown on Thursday.

"Still processing it," he told reporters. "Obviously, when something like that happens it's not a black and white type of thing. There's a ton of stuff that goes into it, on and off the court. The part that I hope gets talked about more, and the part we want to focus on the most is really just the respect and appreciation and gratitude we have for what he did for the Celtics over 10 years."

There have been plenty of reactions to the trade coming out of both Boston and Brown's new city, Philadelphia.

"To be honest, weird. It's weird," Jayson Tatum said Tuesday night. "You play on a team with a guy for nine years. I was fortunate enough to go to the NBA Finals with him twice, and win a championship, and push each other to be the players that we are today."

Joel Embiid is apparently pretty excited about his new teammate, meanwhile.

"He is fired up. I called him right after the trade, and he is excited," Sixers president of basketball operations Mike Gansey told 97.5 The Fanatic. "It will obviously be a big change, but I think they are welcoming it."

The reasons for Boston's decision to trade a star like Brown have been analyzed exhaustively at this point. There's his massive contract and Boston's unwillingness to tie up so much cap space to Tatum and Brown (though they would have been willing to do it for Tatum and Giannis Antetokounmpo, apparently; the disconnect between his on-court results and the advanced metrics that don't seem to favor his game; and potential tensions behind the scenes.

Whatever the case, the Sixers are now pretty loaded, with Brown joining Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and V.J. Edgecombe. If Philly manages to land LeBron James in free agency as well, they'll be trotting out a starting lineup that will have the feel of an All-Star roster.

Whether it all works out remains to be seen. The Celtics clearly felt a change was needed.