Giannis to Boston?! Breaking Down the Celtics’ Most Dangerous Trade Rumor

Untitled project from SquadCast === Steve: [00:00:00] Welcome to another week of "Celtic Chalk Talk." My name's Steve Purciello, here to talk to you about the thing I really enjoy, the Boston Celtics. I've enjoyed them for my, much of my life. I go back to Bill Russell and how great he was, and how much fun it was to watch him and Wilt Chamberlain go at each other. So I have a, an extensive history of the Celtics, and I can talk about a lot of different things that were highlights that I watched in my life. Before I begin, I wanna just mention something. The Peach Basket Network is a group of fans really, fans of basketball. We're not experienced writers. We're not experienced podcasters. We just have opinions and thoughts that we'd love to share. And what I would suggest is if you like this podcast, or even if you don't, try some other ones on the network, thePeachBasket.net. If you go there and you begin to talk about or look at some of these, y- you will [00:01:00] form opinions. There's also articles on the website from fans like me, and we are totally independent. We think and say what we please, and sometimes you'll agree, sometimes you won't, but that's the fun of it. I really think that you should like and subscribe, but also go to the website and see what this is about. It's a great venue for us to talk about what we like, basketball and the teams or people we like. Now, but as for the Celtics, what an interesting time it is All kinds of rumors. Bill Simmons was talking about the Celtics are in on Anthony Kukumbor. Then someone else is saying maybe not." Miami's got their offer on the table, supposedly Jokic and Ware and and Hero and so on. That, that's an interesting offer. But th- there's so much on the table that-- and draft picks naturally, but there's so much on the table and I [00:02:00] wanna look at it in a couple different ways. Before we get to the Celtics actually involved, you gotta look at this from what Milwaukee might want. If they were to get Jaylen Brown or Tyler Herro or Khalil Ware, any of these people, Ware might fit best because they're not going anywhere. So you could take a Tyler Herro for a year or two, and, you might be a little bit better and you might win 30 games. That ain't gonna do it for you. You've gotta, you've gotta amass picks and younger players. And I say that with Jaylen Brown. If this Brown went to Milwaukee, they might win 40, which is a little better. Probably get them in the bottom rung or in the in the tournament. But that's just doesn't do it and there's not a future when Jaylen Brown's 30 years old. So I don't think Miami's deal is good enough, and I don't think Boston Brown is somebody that Milwaukee would like. They would like to take Jaylen Brown and maybe think about shipping him to someone [00:03:00] else and getting some draft picks, particularly Portland, who has some of their draft picks from from Lillard and that trade that Milwaukee gave them. Maybe that could work and get some of that young talent that Portland has. But they don't wanna do this directly. That, that's for sure and that's the way it's gonna be. Now, let me talk about Jaylen Brown for Antetokounmpo. Do I think that's a good deal for Boston? No, and I'll tell you why. I did a little looking at numbers. I'm just gonna give you some things that are interesting to me. In '25-'26, Jaylen Brown appeared in 71 games. Antetokounmpo, almost half of that, 36. '24-'25, Antetokounmpo 67, Brown only 63. He was hurt that year and had a rough year with that. '23-'24, 73 for Giannis, 70 for Jaylen, 67-- In '22-'23, 67 for Giannis and 67 for [00:04:00] Jaylen. Now, when you look at it, you say, "Okay they sat him out a lot last year. He probably could've played 50, 55 games." That's fine. That's not enough. You're gambling on somebody that gets hurt a lot, and if the wrong time comes along, he's going to get hurt. If the wrong time comes along and it's the playoffs, you got a major problem on your hands. You're m- like Milwaukee in a couple of their years, they didn't have Giannis in the playoffs, and they got beat, and that's gonna happen with Boston. So I, I don't feel that's good, and I'll give you something else to think about. 24-25, Giannis was 30, over 30 points a game. He was over almost 12 rebounds a game and six and a half assists a game. This year, he played a couple minutes less this year. What could be age or could be just other injuries or other problems, but this year he's down to 27.6 points per game. So that's a three-point drop just about. Rebounds, he dropped about [00:05:00] two rebounds. He's down to 9.8 this year. Assists, 5.4 compared to last year's 6.5. So he decreased in all of the major stats. Jaylen Brown, on the other hand, and I know he became this focal point for Boston, which means he got the ball more and he... It was his show, so he took more shots obviously. But Jaylen Brown this year averaged 28.7, last year, 22.2. Interestingly, rebounds almost seven, 5.8 the year before, and really something that's interesting and we could get into a little bit more, 5.1 assists compared to 4.5. Now, the next feature of Jaylen Brown's game with the dribble into the paint is the kick out. When he begins to do that, he will be making more layups per game because teams have to respect the kick out, especially if Boston's scoring. So Jaylen Brown looks like his numbers are on [00:06:00] the upswing. Giannis, I don't know about that. You're taking somebody... I know Boston gambled on Garnett 20 years ago and it worked out, or 18 years ago, but it worked out. You're gambling. Don't forget, Ya- Garnett came in and accepted Pierce as the star of the team and was happy to play the... Is Giannis going to be happy to play secondary to Tatum? I don't know about that. I don't think he would, but that's something you have to ponder to, to really get a better understanding. The last thing I'll talk about is age. Very important. Ja- Jaylen will be 31, I believe 31-- 30 rather, in November. I'm sorry, he's gonna be 30 in November. Giannis will be 32 in December. Now, peak athletes, usually 32, 33, it begins to decrease. Giannis has been beat up and it's gotta be decreasing his [00:07:00] value meaning that he's not gonna be as good as he was. So these are factors in why I wouldn't want Giannis for Jaylen. Now, if you came back to me and said we'll take Derrick White and..." Then I'm interested, but I still have some caveats, some things I don't want. One of the things I don't want is to see Payton Pritchard get traded. I think Payton Pritchard, he's the best deal in basketball, seven million a year, eight million, s- just the best be- deal in, in, in the league because he's such a good offensive player and he does so many good things. And defensively, not big, but he busts his butt and he plays it hard and he's physical for a little, smaller guard. I think that's somebody you don't wanna lose, especially at that salary. In fact, I would, if I were Boston, he's got two more years, they can re-up him. I would give him, the most they can give him is 17. I would give him the 17 gladly Because he's worth it. And he-- it's almost like the [00:08:00] organization saying, "Thanks for your service for all those great years." And I give him a two-year, 17, and it gives him money to walk away with, a lot of money. But now when you look at Boston, would I be amenable to trading Derrick White? Yeah, I would. I would. But I'd want a good return, and I want somebody who I consider at least equal with Derrick White to be back. Remember, in a trade, you wanna get the best player in every trade, because if you do that, you're only gonna get better and you wanna get stars. Would I trade Jaylen Brown? I don't think so right now. I might wait a year or two and then think about it. He's got three more years on his contract, so you're pretty set. What I would do if I were Boston, there's a s- series of things I would do. One of the things is I would think about, Queta's got an option. Naturally, Boston will take it. They've gotta think about trying to sign him. They could probably get him cheap, probably for about eight to 10, 10 million a year for a couple years. That would be one of the things. Jordan Walsh, I would think about giving. He's gonna be... [00:09:00] He's on an option. He'll-- Boston will probably take it, but I would-- you could probably get him for four or five million for two, three years. I think he will get better. I don't know if he'll ever be a big time or anything better than a guy off the bench that can defend, but for five million, it's well worth it. When you compare that with Myles McBride on the Knicks, who's making a little over four, you realize that maybe Jordan Walsh, he's the opposite of Myles McBride. He can defend. Why not? And it's a cheap thing you can deal at any time, and it's easy. So those are things I would think about. Now the other thing I would think about is even seeing if Harper, you could probably put a deal together. He's got an option for next year. You could probably get him another y- give him next year, guarantee next year, and then give him another year with an option and a little slight raise. And you're gonna see if these guys continue to develop. If they don't develop, then it's time to get rid of them and move on. But by doing that, it gives them more time. Queta, [00:10:00] I think, will develop, and I think it depends on where the Celtics go next year as to what you do with Queta. If they were to get Anunoby, which as I said, didn't want, if they were to get him, yeah, you could use a center, but, you got Anunoby who can do a lot of things as a big and protect the rim, so Queta becomes less valuable. So there, there's a lot of different ways to play that And those are some of my thoughts on it. Now, as for the Celtics, Joe Mazzulla just always surprises you, does something that's off the beaten path. Last week he decided to go and spend some time in Nebraska, which is not a great vacation place in the US. He spent a couple days with Bri- Baylor Scheierman. And I guess what he does is he gets to know these people. He knows them as people. He did work out Baylor, probably talked to him about things we have to work on. But more importantly, that's why players wanna play for him, because he doesn't just think about the basketball game with these people. He lives with them. He [00:11:00] hears what they have to say, and it's more than just basketball. Players love that. He went, then went to Portugal. Going to Portugal, why? To see Neemi. He went to see Queta. He attended a Portuguese basketball game with Queta, spent some time with him the same way. Now, think about this. If you're Mazzulla, and if you watch Celtic games, you know he jumps on Queta when he screws up or pulls him out and is right on him. But you know what? Queta accepts that because he knows this man has his most-- he's got his respect. And he respects Queta, Queta respects him, and he takes what he's being told, even if it's critical and nasty, and he comes back and does what, what's asked. That's a good relationship. Mazzulla has a great way of connecting with his team. Players respect him from Tatum down to Amari Williams. Every one of them hears him [00:12:00] and usually follows through on what he does. That's not to say that the Celtic locker room is Camelot. It's not. But there's always gonna be problems when you put a bunch of people in a room for a year. But when a game starts, players play for him, and that's what the most important piece to that is. We've come to an end of another great week of Celtic Chalk Talk. Again, if you like it, subscribe. If you like it, send a comment. We'll be glad to answer and listen because we are all Celtic fans. Thank you. Take care.