Key Reason Celtics Valued Jayson Tatum Over Jaylen Brown Revealed

The Boston Celtics will head into the 2026-27 NBA season with a new-look roster built around the skill set of Jayson Tatum. Earlier this summer, Brad Stevens made the difficult decision to trade away Jaylen Brown.

After spending his entire career playing next to Brown, Tatum is now the unequivocal centerpiece of Boston’s system moving forward. According to Brian Windhorst, who was speaking on a recent episode of the “Shump Street Podcast,” Boston’s actions this summer show they believe Tatum provides more on-court value than Brown does.

“In this season, we just had Tatum and Brown make about the same amount of money,” Windhorst said. “You look at each of their net rating, which is the effect of the score when they’re on the court. Tatum’s was about roughly double Brown’s…Their actions are going to tell you how they think, and their actions were— they’re keeping Tatum, and they’re trading. They seem to believe that Tatum has more ‘quote unquote’ value.”

Tatum is gearing up for his first full season since his Achilles tear. However, if he’s fully healthy, there’s no reason to believe that he won’t have another All-NBA season.

Iman Shumpert Says Tatum Will Break Out Or Raise Questions

During the same podcast episode, former NBA champion Iman Shumpert noted that without Brown, Tatum will either enjoy a breakout season or raise questions about the choice Brad Stevens made this summer.

“We’re either about to see a huge growth out of Jason Tatum, or we’re gonna see some question marks,” Shumpert said.

Tatum will undoubtedly have some teething issues, primarily due to working his way back to full fitness. However, over the course of the season, he should be more than capable of spearheading Boston’s offense, while providing value on the defensive end.

Furthermore, with the Celtics roster now built around Tatum, he could potentially emerge as an MVP candidate, if not this season, then in the very near future. That is, of course, assuming his injury issues are behind him and he remains healthy moving forward.

Dean Oliver Says Paul George Matches Brown’s Per-Minute Value

During a recent appearance on the “Celtics Daily” podcast, analytics guru Dean Oliver shared his thoughts on what Boston got in return for Jaylen Brown.

“They got a player in Paul George who is probably going to play 70% of the minutes that Brown has played, at least that’s what I think the average was over the last few years,” Oliver said. “And by the metrics, he contributes as much on a per-minute basis as Brown. There’s a question about his age. Of course, it’s fair…I think the Sixers are a little bit ahead of the Celtics. But if you look at the expected wins coming out of Vegas. I think the Celtics are projected at 51 or 52, and I think the Sixers are at 48.”

Celtics fans were universally displeased with Brown being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. However, we won’t be able to fully judge the deal for at least one more season.

How Stevens maximizes his new draft picks and Boston’s cap flexibility next summer will give us far more information as to whether trading Brown was the right decision.

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