Jaylen Brown reveals what Brad Stevens told him about trade rumors

“Brad was the first one to reach out to me,” Brown said. “Brad reached out to me to let me know it was just rumors and he just wanted to try clear up whatever that was floating around. I didn’t really pay too much attention to it, so I didn’t really know what he was talking about when he messaged me, but Brad was the first one to reach out to make sure that nothing was going on, or to just give me the space to talk about it if I had any feelings toward anything. I appreciate that from our organization.”

Brown was heavily featured in a lot of offseason Kevin Durant speculation, and his name came up again just before the trade deadline. Obviously, nothing came of that, but it would have been easy for Brown to get caught up in the rumors.

The Celtics have done a fine job keeping both Brown and Jayson Tatum happy, suggesting the long-term partnership can work. Stevens certainly seems to play a role in that. In a league where players and teams can change their approaches so quickly, Boston deserves credit for keeping its stars on the same page so well.