Celtics should fix the team around Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown

The Boston Celtics hit the jackpot in back-to-back years when they drafted Jaylen Brown (2016) and Jayson Tatum (2017). Drafting an All-Star duo that develops into an organization’s franchise pillars is a rarity in today’s NBA. So the sudden urge to want to split up Tatum and Brown doesn’t make sense to me.

In years past, the Celtics made strong efforts to put a proper point guard on the floor around Brown and Tatum. In doing so, former president of basketball operations Danny Ainge acquired who he thought was the best in the league to propel the Celtics – Kyrie Irving (2017) and Kemba Walker (2019).

The effort to support Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum has always been evident by the Boston Celtics

With Brad Stevens is now the president of basketball operations after coaching the team for eight years prior. He, of all people, understands what Boston has in Brown and Tatum, and how special this team can be with just the right point guard around them.

Due to never really having a consistent facilitating point guard, there’s speculation that the pairing of Brown and Tatum “doesn’t work” and the Celtics should consider splitting them up.

To which, Brown defended his partnership with Tatum after a career night against the Knicks:

"“I disagree. I think we can play together. We have played together well for the majority of our career and things like that. The last year or so hasn’t gone as expected, but I think a lot of the adversity that we’re kind of going through now is going to help us grow and get better in the future. If we get over this slump and continue to learn, I think there’s a lot of good basketball on the other side of this.”“I only can control what I can control. I understand everybody has to do their jobs, but me and JT talk. We talked after the game, communicated with each other and things like that. So we’re on the same page. I get where all the other frustration comes from, but as long as I’m on the same page with him and he’s on the same page with me, that’s where we’re most focused on. So tonight we wanted to come out and get a win and we did it.”"

In the past, Ainge was criticized for never making a move at the deadline to help the team – whether it be for a position of need or depth. However, at the time, it’s possible a deal couldn’t be made without one of Brown or Tatum. But I don’t think that’s the case anymore.

Stevens has already been quite impressive in his first season in the front office. Most notably being able to manipulate the system in a way that allowed him to create multiple TPEs, as well as signing Josh Richardson sooner rather than later to acquire him at the previous year’s salary.

All are strong examples to me that he knows how to make a deal. Stevens isn’t going to separate a duo that he helped develop and had success of his own with as a coach.

One thing we know about Stevens is that he was always calm and patient on the sidelines when he was a coach. We have to assume that he’ll follow the same technique in the front office. Stevens isn’t going to make a deal just to do it.

The Boston Celtics have plenty of options in regards to trades that would help Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, not split them up

The Boston Celtics do have a handful of young talent and team-friendly veteran contracts that can be moved, and all of their draft picks can be used to create a nice trade package in a negotiation.

There are a few players that the Boston Celtics could potentially target at the deadline. Though it won’t come at a cheap price, it’ll certainly upgrade the team around Brown and Tatum. Some examples are De’Aaron Fox, Tyrese Haliburton, Dejounte Murray, and Jerami Grant.

In all, Stevens has been around an incomplete team for the past few years. He knows the inner workings of this team better than anyone as he’s been so close and hands-on as a coach as recently as just last year.

It’s fair to say that Stevens is going to find the right pieces for this team. Whether it be a blockbuster trade or finding a diamond in the rough, he’ll bring the right players in here to propel the Boston Celtics to the next level.