The Boston Celtics won five of their last six games heading into their game against the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night. A game they would end up losing in large part due to horrific shooting performances from Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Tatum shot 0-for-7 from three-point land while Brown shot 2-for-11. It was an ugly, ugly night from beyond the arc, and most of the looks the Celtics got were open, too.
A lot of the talk this season has been about trading Brown in favor of splitting up the Jays. But no one ever talks about the possibility of trading Tatum?
NBA Trades: 2 blockbuster Jayson Tatum trades to shake up the Celtics
That’s probably because it’s not going to happen. Ten times out of ten the Celtics would trade Brown over Tatum because of how much more potential Tatum (subjectively) has.
Tatum has made an All-NBA team, two All-Star games, dropped 60 points in a game, and just overall projects to be the better play in the long run.
That’s why everyone assumes the Celtics would rather trade Brown than Tatum, and rightfully so. But what if the Boston Celtics took on a different mentality.
What if, instead of Tatum, they wanted to keep Brown instead, but only wanted to build around one of them? Again, the clear consensus is that the C’s want to keep both Tatum and Brown, but hypotheticals are always fun.
What sort of NBA trades are out there for Tatum? What packages would other teams have to offer that might entice the Celtics? Are there any NBA trades that would even be worth it? Well, here are two (completely unrealistic) ideas.
The Celtics will not and should not trade Tatum. Just because NBA trades are fun to think about.