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It’s understandable that some fans would find the attitude of “whatever it takes” to be incongruent with the action of trading Brown for an aging Paul George, no matter what the analytics department says about his usage rate or on-off splits. Brown’s declaration that the 2025-26 season, largely played without Tatum, was his “favorite year” in the NBA may have raised red flags, but plenty of Celrics fans remain adamant that the player underneath the personality was always worth holding onto regardless, and that the only reason to trade him must therefore have been a reluctance from Chisholm to pay him.

Not about the money

But the messaging from the Celtics front office has remained consistent that financial factors are not dominating the team’s drive to win. President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens, who served as Brown’s first coach in the NBA, commented on the current second apron era in the latest “Celtics All-Access” video.

At the end of the day, everybody is entitled to their own opinion regarding whether the Celtics got better or worse by handing the keys fully over to Tatum and shipping Brown off to a major rival. But the motivation for that move and all of the others being made in Boston under the current regime still has to be understood in terms of basketball, not the bottom line.

Titletown rarely finds a way to settle for second. Bill Chisholm has made clear that he won’t be bucking that trend anytime soon.