I mean it. This isn’t some click-baity way to get you to read this article. I am willing to throw the last 15 years of my beloved Celtics fandom in the trash, if the Celtics are going to throw away their next 10 years of Jaylen Brown for a locker room cancer. I don’t want to be that harsh, but there is absolutely no way around it. There are players in certain situations that will kill one team, and flourish another. This is not my first rodeo for this kind of thing either. I have been on record to be against any trade for Chris Paul, Anthony Davis, and I was absolutely heartbroken when Isaiah Thomas was traded for Kyrie Irving. Kyrie Irving, for as much as I cannot stand him, is a good example of this disruption-to-flourishing concept. He was not happy in Cleveland, with two years left on his deal, Cleveland traded him to the Celtics, and was the absolute worst possible thing to happen to our locker room. Like magic, as soon as he went to the Nets, he was happy, he was getting along with most of his teammates, and he was playing with his best friend in Kevin Durant. Sure there were some hiccups along the way, but now the Nets are the early favorite to win the East, if not the entire Finals.
Being a Celtic fan my whole life, basically, I have come to understand that players do not want to play in Boston. It is always cold, the fans can be ruthless, and the media isn’t as desirable as a New York or LA. The biggest free agent we’ve been able to sign is Gordon Hayward or Kemba Walker, and that was within the last five years. Our entire franchise is 74 years old, and it took this long to land a big name free agent. It takes a special kind of player to be able to play in Boston, and I’m honestly okay with it. I was, and still am, willing to keep Jaylen and Jayson, because if we traded them for Anthony Davis, he wouldn’t have stayed after this last season. I’m okay with keeping the Jay’s because Harden would leave us the literal millisecond his contract ended. Jayson Tatum has recently said he wants his jersey retired in Boston. Jaylen Brown says that he is a Bostonian now. So if both of these things are true, and it wasn’t just good PR, and especially after signing them both to huge contract extensions, why oh why would we jeopardize the chemistry of the team, and the next decade of the Jay’s careers for a two-year rental, who by the way, won’t even get us to the Finals?
Is James Harden a good player? Yes, obviously. I’m writing this after his season debut where he put up 44 points and 17 assists on pretty decent shooting splits. He is one of the top 10 players in the league. So is Anthony Davis, and Chris Paul is certainly still a top 10 point guard in the league. The only time I was willing to budge on a trade for any of these players was when a rumor floated around that we would have traded Al Horford and a metric ton of draft picks to the Pelicans for AD. Then, and ONLY then was I okay with a trade. In this case, we would have kept the Jay’s together, and with a potential five of Kyrie, Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward, Jayson Tatum, and Anthony Davis, it is pretty likely that we would have won a championship, even going up against the Warriors. We win a championship, and if AD decides he still wants out, no harm, no foul. We end up in the exact same scenario that we did in real life, with no Horford, no Kyrie, and Gordon Hayward leaving rumors still abuzz. Literally not one thing would have changed if we could have pulled off that trade. You want to trade for James Harden. Okay, how about Romeo Langford and the metric ton of draft picks from before? That is the only way I’d sign off on the trade, and EVEN THEN I wouldn’t be 100% okay with it just because of the fit. I’ve mentioned this in previous articles, but there are just not enough basketballs on the floor when the entire Celtics roster is healthy. On top of that, I have Jaylen Brown in my running to win the Most Improved Player Award. I believe that if we were able to trade for Harden without giving up a core piece, and only giving up assets, we would be too blessed with talent to win, as dumb as that sounds. Since I really don’t think we’d be able to get a trade like that off the ground after reports that Houston wants a young start AND draft picks, depending on your definition of “young,” we would have to trade Kemba Walker, who is already so beloved by the entire city of Boston, or Jaylen, who I mentioned many times up to this point, is a young superstar, who I believe has the ability to be on the same level as Jayson Tatum, especially now with the departure of Gordon Hayward.
Danny Ainge, I know you’re reading this, just like you read all my tweets, emails, job applications, and love letters. I’m pleading with you here, GM to life long fan, please don’t gamble your bright future away for two years of a guy that will cause dissension in your locker room and then leave when the contract is up. The Boston Celtics organization deserves better than that, the fans deserve better than that, the entire city of Boston deserves better than that, and I deserve better than that. You have, in Jaylen and Jayson, two of the brightest young stars in the entire league, and the oldest one is only 24! You have, at the very least, 6 more seasons of prime, high level production Jaylen Brown. Building for the future while playing for the present is the only avenue I believe this team should take. I am genuinely nervous that a trade like this could go down, because I know how active you are in trade talks. Please don’t do this. Please don’t make me sad.
Sincerely,
A Celtics Fan
Round The Game 
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