Jaylen Brown seemingly offered his initial thoughts on Monday morning’s Kevin Durant trade reports with a simple tweet of “Smh.”
It caused some Celtics fans on social media to defend Brown, while others were fully entranced by the possibility of Durant landing in Boston. Sports Illustrated NBA writer Chris Mannix was among the former.
“Jaylen Brown has every right to be irritated by more trade chatter,” Mannix tweeted. “He’s an All-Star, a two-way play who just helped (and at times pushed) a team to the Finals. And he’s getting better. But whether it’s Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis or now KD, he’s constantly in trade talks.”
The Athletic’s Shams Charnia reported Monday morning the Celtics offered Brown to the Nets in a trade for Durant. Brooklyn reportedly deemed Boston’s trade package of Brown, Derrick White and NBA draft capital as insufficient.
This followed ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting the Celtics were among teams still interested in landing the Nets superstar.
It would be fair to think Brown was irked by those trade reports. But a tweet from longtime Celtics reporter Mark Murphy hinted Boston’s one-time NBA All-Star was not as frustrated as one might assume — well, at least that’s what someone close to Brown wants to share publicly.
“He loves it in Boston. He was two games away from a championship. He’s happy and looking forward to coming back,” Murphy quoted one source as saying. “Like Kawhi (Leonard), (Anthony Davis) and others on that level, he’s going to be included in every report because of who he is.”
Brown is under contract for two additional seasons before he is set to enter unrestricted free agency ahead of his age-28 campaign.
It is worth noting ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported Monday afternoon the Celtics and Nets are not engaged in “fresh” trade talks, and that the reports that surfaced Monday morning were from weeks prior.
