The Boston Celtics are currently preparing for a 2025-26 season that will likely be played in its entirety without superstar Jayson Tatum, who tore his Achilles vs the New York Knicks in last year's playoffs. This being the case, a lot of weight will be placed on the shoulders of Jaylen Brown, the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, who will be the first option for the first time in his career.
In those 2024 Finals, Brown had the chance to guard then-Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic, and did about as good of a job as one could hope. Doncic of course has since been traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, and recently, Brown had a blunt response to that trade in a preview of Netflix's upcoming Starting Five series, which will feature Brown.
“That might be like one of the worst trades of all time,” said Brown, per Showtime Luka on X, formerly Twitter.
Indeed, Nico Harrison and the Dallas Mavericks were widely panned in the aftermath of the Doncic trade, with some even floating the conspiracy that the trade was a ploy from the new ownership group to get the team out of Dallas and to Las Vegas.
A big year for the Celtics
Meanwhile, Brown would seem to have a good opportunity to put some excellent numbers on the board this year with Tatum sidelined and Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis now members of the Portland Trail Blazers and Atlanta Hawks, respectively.
Brown will still have Derrick White as a sidekick, and it will be interesting to see how much Anfernee Simons is able to contribute for Boston after the team acquired him in the Holiday trade.
However, the 2025-26 campaign will be the best opportunity Brown has ever gotten to put his skillset on display and quiet the many doubters he still has despite his Finals MVP win two years ago. If he's able to lead this iteration of the Celtics to the playoffs, there'd be little doubt left about his prowess as a player.
The Celtics will kick off their season on October 22 vs the Philadelphia 76ers.
