Stevens: Celtics, Jaylen Brown In Contact As Durant Rumors End

One of the most-discussed trade packages included the Boston star and the Nets forward.

Kevin Durant is officially staying with the Nets following a summer-long circus of trade talks. One rumored deal included a trade package with the Celtics that featured swingman Jaylen Brown.

Since the possibility of a Durant trade is now off the table, Celtics president Brad Stevens opened up about the future of the team in the aftermath of the Brown rumors.

“We’re excited to move forward with our team, and that’s really been our focus for a while,” Stevens said in a Tuesday radio interview, via MassLive. “You say it’s been busy, and there’s been a lot of talk, but it hasn’t been from me. Hopefully, it gave everyone something to talk about. It’s been pretty quiet on our front for a while now.”

Stevens also minimized rumors that Brown still could be traded ahead of the 2022–23 season. Although nothing is confirmed about Brown’s future on the team, Stevens revealed that the team has been in close contact with Brown.

“Jaylen’s been through this from the standpoint of listening and the noise has been around him for a long time,” Stevens said. “… I think one of the things you have to be able to do is ignore the noise and know what’s important. Also, be able to reach out and have candid and transparent communications with the people involved. We’ve had those and been very open from the get-go as all of this has been going on for any of our guys. I sat down with Jaylen last week in LA. He looked great and he will be back to Boston soon.”

Brown helped the Celtics to the 2022 NBA Finals after averaging 23.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 66 games last season.