Before James Harden was traded by the Houston Rockets to the Brooklyn Nets this January, there were several teams other than the Nets that were interested in trading for the All-Star guard. One of those teams was the Boston Celtics, but according to general manager Danny Ainge, the team couldn’t get a deal done because the price for getting Harden was too high.

He went on to say that the Rockets’ asking price for the 2018 MVP was something they couldn’t give up and that the trade ultimately wasn’t something that the team wanted to do.

However, Sam Amick of The Athletic reports that Ainge and the Celtics were far more interested in trading for the former Rockets star than what their front office was willing to admit publicly. However, a deal that would have sent Harden to Boston likely would have meant that the Celtics would let go forward Jaylen Brown, who is putting up career-best numbers in his fifth season.

It is no surprise that the Celtics had a higher level of interest in acquiring Harden than they revealed publicly, as the three-time scoring champion remains one of the league’s best players. Since joining Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant in Brooklyn, Harden averages 25.5 points, 8.7 rebounds, and a career-high 11.4 assists while shooting 49.7 from the field and 42.2% from beyond the arc.

Fortunately, keeping Brown instead of including him in a deal with Houston has also paid dividends for the Celtics. The 24-year-old is putting up averages of 24.7 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 1.1 steals while shooting 49.5% from the field and 38.8% from downtown in 33 games for Boston.

Even though they’ll be left to wonder about what a Harden-led Celtics team would look like, keeping Brown along with their other All-Stars still puts them as one of the contenders in the Eastern Conference.