The Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors are swirling and there are people talking about how the Celtics could make a deal without including Jaylen Brown.
That is not something that the Boston Celtics should be doing.
Yes, a Big 3 of Antetokounmpo, Brown and Jayson Tatum would be awesome but in this 2nd apron era, it would be too difficult to build a true contender around those three players for a lot of reasons.
Let’s start with what Boston would need to give up. Derrick White, Payton Pritchard and Sam
Hauser would all need to go out in the deal to make it legal and even still, the Celtics would be taking in more money than they’d be sending out. That means Boston would be hard-capped at the first apron of $209 million.
It would also send out all of their remaining future draft capital and probably one or two of their young wings of Hugo Gonzalez, Jordan Walsh or Baylor Scheierman, which limits all flexibility they have to get better around those three players.
It would really limit their ability to get better around the three stars. Having three guys making $174 million with a $209 million hard cap would put them at a disadvantage that would be close to insurmountable. This isn’t football where they can push money into future years. Boston would be trapped with those three players at those salaries.
Sending out three of your most important role players without the ability to replace them is not a business that the Celtics should be getting into.
We have seen a team try and build around three players making 35% of the cap in the apron era, the 2023-24 and 2024-25 Phoenix Suns. It was an epic failure, the Suns didn’t win a single playoff game over those two years and missed the Play-In Tourmanent in 2025 before breaking up the team last summer.
Now, Antetokounmpo, Tatum and Brown is a better trio than Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, but unlike Boston would be able to, the Suns spent into the 2nd apron to try and build around those three players. Boston, meanwhile, would only be allowed to spend $35 million to fill out the last 12 players on the team.
If you look at the past two NBA champions, the Knicks and Thunder, those two teams were built around their stars and a bunch of high level players around them. Even the 2024 Celtics had Tatum and Brown making 35% maxes but Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis were all great support players. Swapping Brown for Antetokounmpo allows for Boston to continue building that way; trading three of their top 6 players does not.
In conclusion, if you are hoping that the Celtics could trade for Giannis while keeping Jaylen Brown, don’t hold your breath. It is complicated to pull off and it would limit the Celtics team-building so extremely that it could close any championship window they would be hoping to have.
