Ramp to Camp: What is Brad Stevens’ next big Celtics move?

Ramp to Camp: What is Brad Stevens’ next big Celtics move? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Maybe you’ve spent the better part of the past three months wondering why Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens elected to trade Jaylen Brown to an in-division rival. Maybe you refuse to worship at the altar of Optionality. But the arrival of a new season demands that we all stop obsessing about what happened, and shift the focus to what comes next.

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While many panned Boston’s decision to trade Brown, fresh off a top six finish in MVP voting, for 36-year-old Paul George and a pair of future first-round picks, the reality is that the trade can’t fully be judged until we see what Stevens does with the assets acquired in the swap.

To kick off the third and final week of our annual Ramp to Camp series, we asked our panel to predict Stevens’ next big move.

Trading Brown certainly highlighted the roster reshuffling the Celtics have embarked upon in the aftermath of Banner 18. But it’s still very much a work in progress. Entering the 2026-27 season, Boston is banking that a healthier Jayson Tatum, coupled with increased opportunity for players like Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, along with the arrival of newcomers Paul George and Mitchell Robinson is enough to keep the Celtics competitive near the top of the East.

But the team’s ability to truly chase Banner 19 might hinge heavily on what Stevens does next.

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Stevens hasn’t been bashful in admitting there’s risk involved in a deal of this magnitude. He’s suggested that, even after finishing second in the East last year, the team simply didn’t feel it was truly positioned to chase another title. Boston struggled against the league’s elite then fumbled away a 3-1 series lead to the same 76ers team that they’d eventually deal Brown.

“At the end of the day, you just have to do what you think is the best thing for the organization. And it’s not always gonna be the popular thing,” Stevens said during an appearance on Sirius XM last week. “And it may be right, it may be wrong, who knows, right?

“But I think that, ultimately, we…

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Publish date : 2026-09-21 11:41:00

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