A week after their president of basketball operations said that breaking up their longtime star duo was “inevitable,” the Boston Celtics faced life after Jaylen Brown as they kicked off the preseason at their media day Monday.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla began the day by remarking on “an eventful offseason” and thanking Brown, who was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George and a collection of draft picks.
“I want to pay my respects to Jaylen and everything he represented for this organization and the community over the last 10 years,” Mazzulla said. “Obviously, what he’s been able to accomplish has been great, and it’s not a one-time thing to where you let go of that. There’s obviously a short-term perspective and then a long-term perspective about what he did over the course of his time here, both on and off the court, and that should not be forgotten.
“At the same time, today is the first day of our 2026-27 season, and shifting our focus towards the players and that team and the season that we have.”
Brown and Jayson Tatum had been teammates since the Celtics drafted Tatum third overall in 2017. Their nine-year partnership produced one championship (2023-24), another NBA Finals trip (lost to the Warriors in 2022), and an extended run as the cream of the crop in the East.
But after Brown led the Celtics for most of last season while Tatum recovered from Achilles surgery, their tenure together fizzled out in the form of a first-round playoff dismissal at the hands of the 76ers.
Brad Stevens, the head of Boston’s front office, said in a SiriusXM interview last week that trying to play through both ball-dominant players wasn’t a sustainable long-term path.
“At the end of the day, the biggest thing is that when evaluating how the team played in the past couple of playoffs, we have to build the depth to stay competitive as we can to build for a long, sustainable run; it was inevitable,” Stevens said.
“For us, it was a really hard decision. There were a lot of things that went into it. You have two max players, two max usage; those are the things you have to make a decision on. … Jaylen’s a great player, but I like the team we have.”
For his part, Tatum spoke highly of Brown in his press availability Monday.
“It’s tough, obviously,” Tatum said. “I always say, the business of the NBA always comes in and plays a part, always, and I’ve seen it throughout my 10 years of being in this league. For me, I’m just grateful for what we accomplished and what he meant to this city and this organization. Just the ups and downs in our career that we were able to grow and learn from and that made us the players we are today.”
In an Eastern Conference that features the defending champion New York Knicks, the Miami Heat with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Philadelphia 76ers with Brown and LeBron James joining Joel Embiid and company, the Celtics also move forward as a retooled unit. Tatum, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard will get to work with George, new center Mitchell Robinson and veteran Mike Conley Jr.
“The thing I’m most excited about is the unknown,” said Mazzulla, who made clear this summer that he had no input on the decision to trade Brown. “I always get excited about that because there’s risk to the unknown and there’s also opportunity to the unknown — what we can become, what we have to go through to get to where we want to get to. I’m inspired and motivated by the unknown more than anything else because I don’t know what we can be.”
Mazzulla also joked that the Celtics won’t be able to foul Robinson anymore, a reference to Boston’s strategy of constantly sending Robinson to the line when he played for New York.
In fact, Robinson told reporters that he demanded an apology when Mazzulla visited him in Nashville this summer.
“At first, we had a little issue,” Robinson said. “I’m like, ‘You’ve got to say sorry for fouling me.’ If he didn’t want to do that, then we would have had some issues. But, he apologized and we’re on the same team now, so it’s going to be great. Just continuing to build and get to know him as the year goes on.”
