Listen, Jaylen Brown is a beast.
The Boston Celtics combo wing is a four-time All-Star, the proud owner of a championship ring, a former NBA Finals MVP, and an all-around great dude — the kind of player every team wants in their locker room.
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Thing is, the University of California, Berkeley product is pricey as hell, carrying a salary cap-killing supermax deal that runs through the 2028-29 season.
But what with his running buddy, F Jayson Tatum, likely missing the entire 2025-26 season with a torn Achilles, the Celtics are prepping for a gap year, as their revamped roster isn’t anywhere near competitive, even in the cushy Eastern Conference.
All of which is why right now, Celts GM Brad Stevens is likely focused on 2026-27 and beyond — and if he isn’t, he damn well should be.
So might it be worth his while to pick up the phone, give Atlanta Hawks GM Onsi Saleh a jingle, and offer him a deal that would change the Eastern Conference for the next half-decade.
NBA Mock Trade
Boston Receives
- Trae Young (G)
- Onyeka Okongwu (C)
- Zaccharie Risacher (F)
Atlanta Receives
- Jaylen Brown (G/F)
- Anfernee Simons (G)
- Luka Garza (C)
- Boston’s 2027 first-round draft pick
Why It Might Work for Boston
As noted, the C’s should treat 2025-26 as a gap year — it’s not like their roster, as currently constructed, could compete with Cleveland or New York in the East, anyhow — and prep for Tatum’s return.
What better way to do just that than to acquire a young and explosive 26-year-old backcourt monster in Young?
Yeah, Brown is 28, which puts him firmly in the young and explosive category himself, but fans and pundits alike have been grumbling, er, debating about Brown and Tatum’s positional overlap for years, so it might be time for a reboot.
The loss of Brown would be a painful one, but Risacher’s arrival would soften the blow.
The French forward’s 2024-25 rookie year wasn’t anything to write Paris about — 12.6 points and 3.6 boards in 24.6 minutes — but in the latter two months of the campaign, he flashed the skill-set that helped make him the 2024 NBA Draft’s top pick, most notably during the month of April, when he put up 16.3 points a night, highlighted by a 36-point outburst against Giannis Antetokounmpo and his Milwaukee Bucks.
(Side note: The 2024-25 NBA Draft was, in a word, dreadful. But that’s for another article. And a lengthy article, at that.)
In this thought experiment, Okongwu was initially a salary cap throw-in, but considering the state of the Celtics' center situation (they might roll into the season with Neemias Queta as their starter at the five-spot…ugh), he could be as enticing as Risacher.
In terms of his per-36 numbers, the USC product racked up a double-double — 15.4 points and 10.7 rebounds — while finishing last season with respectable averages of 13.4 points and 6.7 boards in 27 minutes. He could slide right into Boston’s starting lineup, giving them an interesting top five of Young, Risacher, Okongwu, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard.
Then come 2026, when Tatum is (hopefully) back to full health, Boston coach Joe Mazzulla can send Pritchard back to the bench — where, as we all know, he shines — and have himself a scary, scary roster.
Like, would you want to stare down Tatum and Young in a seven-game series?
Yeah, me neither.
Why It Might Work for Atlanta
Trae Young can score.
His 25.3-point career average ranks him third amongst point guards in NBA history, as per Stat Muse, ahead of Steph Curry and Magic Johnson, and a mere 0.4 points behind Oscar Robertson.
Trae Young can also dish.
Also as per Stat Muse, his 9.83 assists per game ranks third in league history, ahead of Isiah Thomas, Jason Kidd, and Steve Nash.
But Trae Young’s general awesomeness doesn’t add up to dubs.
Atlanta’s winning percentage with Young in the starting lineup is .453, which ranks the Hawks 21st in the league over that stretch. And in the 27 postseason games in which Young played, Atlanta is 12-15, a .444 percentage that tracks with his blah regular season record.
Thing is, Young has never played alongside a superstar, and save for maybe Jalen Johnson, there isn’t a single Hawk who has superstar potential, so moving on shouldn’t be as painful as one might expect…especially considering Atlanta’s return haul:
- Brown, as noted, is a perennial All-Star with a championship pedigree.
- Garza passes the eye test, and given intense one-on-one coaching and playing time, could develop into a Brook Lopez–lite bench chip, an ideal backup at the five-spot for new Hawk Kristaps Porzingis.
- Simons is a scoring machine whose numbers, outside of assists, compare favorably to Young’s.
Atlanta’s starting five then becomes Brown, Simons, Porzingis, Johnson, and Dyson Daniels. Brown and Daniels would create an opponent’s defensive nightmare, while Simons, Johnson, and Porzingis could deliver buckets galore. The fact that the Hawks would have an extra first-rounder in their back pocket — even though it would be a late-round pick, as the Tatum-led Celtics will be, y’know, good — certainly wouldn’t suck.
Fantasy Fallout
The big fantasy hoops winner would be Brown, who, without Tatum dominating the rock, could better his career-topping 2022-23 season, which saw him putting up 26.6 points, 6.9 boards, and 3.5 assists, making him a bottom-of-the-first-round option in nine-category leagues.
Without Tatum in Boston, Young’s 2025-26 would look a lot like his 2024-25, which looked a lot like his 2023-24, and so on. Like Brown, he’ll be worthy of a late-first/early-second pick, but come 2026-27 — when Tatum returns and he’ll likely be asked to tamp down his shooting and tamp up his passing — he’ll be a second-rounder.
Risacher will be a viable fantasy option this season, but when Tatum again finds the court, not so much. The sophomore will be a reasonable fifth- or sixth-rounder in 2025-26, but a big ol’ shoulder shrug in 2026-27.
And if your fantasy strategy is to focus on scoring — and punt on rebounds — Simons would make for a fine fourth-round selection.
Reality Fallout
Both teams’ fan bases would blanch at this deal, as moving on from a beloved All-Star would be painful and questionable.
But this mock trade— as outrageous as it might seem upon first blush — could put both Boston and Atlanta in the 2026-27 championship conversation.
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