The Boston Celtics reportedly discussed a trade with the Brooklyn Nets for Kevin Durant last offseason with a package built around Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and future draft picks. Jayson Tatum and Durant are friends dating back to their time together with Team USA in the Olympics.
Brown commented on the trade discussions in an interview with Logan Murdock of The Ringer.
“[KD] and JT are friends. They was working out together and whatnot,” Brown said. “So, I wasn’t sure what the energy was. I wasn’t sure what the direction of the organization was.”
Brown placed a three-way call to Stevens and Tatum. During that discussion, Stevens says he assured Brown that he wouldn't be traded.
“You just have to have a direct conversation,” Stevens tells The Ringer of the meeting. “And you just have to be able to say, ‘This is what’s real. This is where we are. Obviously, you and Jayson are the two guys that we’ve built the whole roster around. And our every expectation is for us to come and compete together and try to be two games better than we were last year.’”
“Once we all got together and kind of talked it through, we all left on the same page," Brown said. "But the actions that was taking place during that time, it just didn’t seem like that was the direction that the organization was going in. I don’t know. It was hard to tell, at least.”