By Kyle Wahl | Opinion

I have a hard time believing Jayson Tatum knew absolutely nothing about the possibility of Boston trading Jaylen Brown.

That’s my suspicion, not something that has been established. But when a franchise makes a decision that big, I’m skeptical that its remaining star is completely out of the loop.

Even so, the more interesting question is whether Boston made the right move. I believe it did.

Brown’s comment opened the door

Brown left a cap emoji under a clip of Tatum describing his surprise at the trade. The apparent suggestion was that Brown didn’t believe his former teammate’s account.

Tatum has since denied having any “beef” with Brown and said he called and texted him on the day of the trade.

Neither response tells us exactly what Tatum knew beforehand. Brown’s comment doesn’t prove Tatum helped arrange the move, either.

But would Tatum publicly admit it if he had wanted Boston to move on from Brown? I wouldn’t expect him to. There would be little benefit in saying that about someone he spent years playing alongside.

That doesn’t mean he wanted Brown gone. It means I wouldn’t expect a public interview to settle the question.

I trust Brad Stevens

I’m comfortable backing Brad Stevens on this decision.

Trading a player as good as Brown is a major call. He helped Boston win a championship and earned Finals MVP. Moving him was always going to bring scrutiny.

But I don’t believe Stevens needed to preserve that partnership simply because it had worked before. His job is to decide what gives Boston its best chance going forward.

I’d rather see him make a difficult move he believes improves the team than keep a familiar roster together because breaking it up would be unpopular.

There’s no guarantee every decision works. On this one, though, I agree with him.

Addition by subtraction

I believe the Celtics are better without Brown.

That’s a judgment about the team, not a claim that Brown stopped being a great player or that he was a bad teammate. I don’t know what happened inside that locker room.

My view is that Boston benefits from moving forward with Tatum as its clear centerpiece. I’d rather see the Celtics commit to that direction than keep revisiting how to balance the two stars.

Brown can play well in Philadelphia and Boston can still be better off having made the trade. His individual success wouldn’t automatically make the decision a mistake.

We’ll get a much better answer from the basketball than from Instagram comments. For now, I trust Stevens, and I like the direction Boston chose.

To me, this is addition by subtraction.

Archive photo: Jayson Tatum in November 2021. Credit: Erik Drost / Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 2.0.