The Boston Celtics were on the verge of history heading into Game 7 against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, but they ended up turning in the type of performance that became customary for them throughout the postseason. The Celtics never showed up in this game, losing 103-84, ending their quest to be the first team to overcome a 3-0 series deficit in NBA history and their championship pursuit.
As far as crushing losses go, this is up there with the worst of them. The Celtics fell apart, revived themselves from seemingly out of nowhere, only to once again throw everything away at the worst possible time. The way in which they battled back in this series made you truly believe a Game 7 victory was inevitable, but it turns out the whole entire thing was just one big act.
The entire team is culpable for this loss, but this was once again another putrid outing for supposed superstar Jaylen Brown. This wasn't the first time Brown struggled in this series against Miami, but in Game 7, he could not step up for Boston with Jayson Tatum laboring through an ankle injury. And in the process, it became increasingly clear that the Celtics cannot afford to pay Brown the $295 million supermax deal he will almost certainly be looking for this offseason.
It's time for the Celtics to move on from Jaylen Brown
This isn't Brown's first rodeo going on a deep playoff run with the Celtics. He's been in the NBA for seven seasons now, and has made it to the Eastern Conference Finals in five of those seasons. Yet only one of those trips to the ECF has resulted in an appearance in the NBA Finals, and while that's not solely Brown's fault, it's a bit of a telling stat.
The 2022-23 season was the most impressive year of Brown's NBA career (26.6 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 3.5 APG, 49.1 FG%). And yet against the Heat, Brown was awful (19 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 3.4 APG, 41.8 FG%). It's tough to win when your second best player regresses to such a massive extent, yet somehow, the C's very nearly overcame Brown's poor play to make it back to the Finals for the second straight season.
This is due in large part to the play of Tatum, and it wasn't exactly surprising to see Boston's offense crumble with Tatum's ankle swelling up as a result of the painful landing he endured on the opening possession of the game. Technically speaking, this is where Brown should have stepped up and led Boston to victory; he had a chance to create a defining moment for himself given all the stakes surrounding this game.
Instead, Brown was horrible in this game (19 PTS, 8 REB, 5 AST, 8-23 FGM) and that doesn't even paint the whole picture. Brown committed an astounding eight turnovers in this game, showing that his handle is still a major work in progress, and shot 1-9 from three, with most of those threes being ridiculous heat-check takes that destroyed the Celtics efforts to rally. This was Kyrie Irving Game 5 against the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2019 Eastern Conference semifinals bad from Brown.
On the other end of the floor, Brown was once again showing no effort on defense. Brown is supposedly an elite perimeter defender, yet he got destroyed all game long. Boston merely came back in this season with Brown, rather than because of Brown, and that was never more clear then when they needed him the most in this game.
Given how Jaylen Brown earned second-team All-NBA for his play in the regular season, the Celtics can hand him a $295 million supermax extension this offseason, and chances are that's what Brown will be expecting. But after this awful Game 7 performance, and really his play throughout the series against the Heat, how can that sort of money even be justified for Brown?
This isn't the first time we have seen him struggle in the playoffs, and given how he will be 27 next season, it's becoming clear that his deficiencies cannot be improved upon. Brown still turns the ball over like crazy, gets lazy on defense when his shots aren't falling, and contributes nothing on offense if he doesn't score. Make no mistake, Brown is an elite scorer when he's hitting his shots, but if Brown cannot make shots, he is basically a league-average player.
The hope was that he could continue to grow alongside Tatum, but whereas we have seen Tatum make strides as a playmaker and defender in addition to his high-level scoring, the same commitment hasn't been seen from Brown. He seems so intent on proving that he can be the top option that every other area of his game has floundered, and it may have just cost him a lot of money.
It became increasingly clear that the Celtics absolutely cannot give Brown the supermax deal he wants throughout the playoffs. If that's what he wants, and he doesn't budge on it, he needs to be traded immediately. There will be quite a robust market for an elite scoring wing who is entering the prime of his career if he is to be traded, even after this series, but it's clear that the Tatum-Brown duo has reached its ceiling.
Who is a logical trade target for Brown in this scenario? That is a tough question to answer, but hey, we have all offseason to figure that out now, don't we? Damian Lillard seems to be the most discussed option, but he doesn't exactly fit the Celtics mold. Maybe a guy like Mikal Bridges, who was fantastic with the Brooklyn Nets in the second half of the season, could be an option, but this is a discussion for another time.
It's a tough pill to swallow, because the duo of Brown and Tatum should be winning titles, but the Celtics may have to move on from Brown this offseason. They cannot tie a massive chunk of their salary cap to a player who disappears like he just did against the Heat in the postseason if they want to win a title. Raising Banner 18 is all that matters in Boston, which is why handing Jaylen Brown a massive supermax deal is the last thing the Celtics should be looking to do over this offseason.
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