A whirlwind week for Jaylen Brown following the Celtics’ elimination in the first round of the playoffs earlier this month appeared to slow on Saturday when Tracy McGrady walked back comments about Brown’s deep frustrations with the Celtics organization. McGrady’s initial statement on NBC raised the question of whether Brown wanted to remain with Boston alongside a frustrated Twitch stream early last week where Brown address officiating, the Celtics’ play style and why he considered 2025-26 his favorite season.
Tracy McGrady, Carmelo Anthony and Vince Carter discuss comments about Jaylen Brown and the Celtics. pic.twitter.com/wTen4d5JUA
— NBA on NBC and Peacock (@NBAonNBC) May 9, 2026
“I talked to Jaylen Monday after the loss just real quickly and he was nothing but positive,” Brad Stevens said last week. “He has not expressed those frustrations to me. We’ve been here 10 years together and I love JB and everybody around here loves JB. Just like any of our other guys, as we get to the end of the season, I’ll be here and my door is always open if anybody ever wants to come in and talk about their team, their place, whatever the case may be. I’m all ears. That would be one through 16, not just Jaylen, not just Jayson, not just the guys that have been here. I think it’s really important to be available. None of that has been expressed to me.”
McGrady’s close relationship with Brown, who McGrady deemed the league’s MVP to CLNS Media in February, raised questions about whether his comments stemmed from a personal conversation with Brown, or a message Brown wanted conveyed. McGrady clarified that he meant Brown looked and sounded frustrated in the aftermath of the series, including on the Twitch stream. He did not talk to Brown in the aftermath, McGrady said before fixating on the fact that Brown only learned 45 minutes before Game 7 that Jayson Tatum would not play.
Brown also took to Twitch, again, late last week and regretted Stevens needing to address McGrady’s comments. While affirming his favorite season stance, Brown expressed that he would like to stay in Boston for the next 10 years if it was up to him. Regardless of that momentary pause in speculation over his future, the Celtics need to move quickly to assess and address whatever frustrations to exist ahead of a two-year, $141.9 million extension he becomes eligible for in July.
“I wish we played that style and trusted that style more, even throughout the playoffs, even through wins and through losses,” Brown said before Game 7. “It’s not always the easiest decision, but I wish that style for our team was how we empowered the rest of our group, and you saw tonight how everybody came out and they played their tail off. I wish we trusted that more.”
The team can’t let disagreement or pause over that deal linger into next year: they need to sign Brown or trade him. The beauty of a hard deadline and the action demanded by one doesn’t quite emerge over the summer, but both sides will struggle to kick the can down the road if either wants to solidify a deal now.
Boston previously signed Brown to the five-year, $285 million deal he plays on now following a string of interviews where he expressed several gripes then. Brown responded by winning East Finals and Finals MVP awards on the way to the 2024 championship, and bounced back from an injury-riddled 2024-25 season with an All-NBA campaign where he led the Celtics to 56 wins, 41 coming before Tatum’s return. But building around two super-max players would always prove difficult. Boston only postponed that conversation last summer, regardless of the results that followed, by retaining both players. They denied fielding calls for Brown after the NBA Draft.
Brown attributed this year becoming his favorite season, something he said throughout the campaign, to proving to himself that he can lead on and off the court, the growth younger players achieved alongside him and their success coming in spite of preseason doubts. Brown also mentioned Tatum’s return and his own off-court pursuits, like streaming to connect with fans directly, as reasons he loved this year. The issues he shared sounded more directed toward play style than any power struggle with Tatum.
“The game has changed a lot,” Brown said on his stream. “The game is moving from this three-point era to this more physical, in-the-paint style of play, so I think as the Celtics, we’re gonna have to adjust with that, because we’re kind of still in that three-point era that Curry kind of created … it’s going back now … it works … it’s changing now though. You see teams, it’s going back almost to like the 90s, where the game is played in the paint, where most of the points are in the paint, the physicality is increased, all that type of stuff is shifting a little bit. I’m not sure what the front office thinks, we’ll talk to them when we get to them, but it was a great year. We did what we had to do.”
The Celtics received their critiques of that style between Joe Mazzulla and Stevens’ final press conferences, where Mazzulla expressed liking the looks they got while Stevens sided closer with Brown by saying he loved dunks, that the team could get rid of the bad threes and struggled to generate quality playoff looks dating back to last April against Orlando. That proved as scathing of a rebuke of the team’s postseason results as Stevens could deliver. Yet Brown also bears some responsibility, posting losing minutes in the postseason with Tatum off the floor and shooting 41.8% FG across Games 5-7 with 11 turnovers alongside his 11 assists. He blamed officiating for his uptick in offensive fouls in the series.
It’s not fully clear what Brown thought of the experimental lineup Mazzulla courted in Game 7. His support of the style they played seemed to at least partially endorse it. Stevens did not received a question about that decision last week.
For Boston, the team can stand to affirm him with an extension immediately, involve him in more big picture decisions for the franchise and keep him more involved in developments like Tatum’s Game 7 availability. They also should not allow him to sit in limbo through another summer of trade rumors like last year and in 2022 when Kevin Durant became available. Stevens, who didn’t receive a specific question about Brown’s future last week, affirmed him while emphasizing the unique perenial contention this core allowed for in recent years.
“Our margin for error needs to get bigger,” Stevens said. “At the same time, I don’t think we’re way far away. But we’ve lived it here. This is where the honest assessment part has gotta come in. We’ve been to six Eastern Conference Finals, a couple Finals in the last few years. We’ve won one. When you get beat in the first round, you’re not there.”
Stevens’ willingness to weigh changes will feed into some of the uncertainty regarding Brown’s future. Only Tatum, Brown and Derrick White make enough money or carry enough value in trades to make transformative changes to the roster. Stevens did not sound interested in minor tweaks, standing so far from the championship. They have time, with the draft and its corresponding activity coming before Brown’s extension eligibility. Leaks will inevitably happen should they enter trade talks over the next month involving Brown.
That’s why a firm decision on the direction of the franchise becomes paramount over the coming weeks. Will Boston assess a revamp around Tatum while capitalizing on Brown’s value, which potentially peaked last season? Or will they buy into a more even partnership between Brown and Tatum? Especially considering the latter’s continued comeback from a major injury. The grass could look greener with a top draft pick, Giannis Antetokonmpo or any number of directions the team could take instead of Brown. But Brown, who’s continuously improved throughout his career, continued to tease growth beyond his MVP-caliber campaign.
For the sake of both sides, the Celtics cannot leave him in limbo this offseason.
“I feel like I’m just entering my prime,” Brown said. “I feel like I’m still getting better, I’m growing and Imma just keep showing you motherf***ers that this ain’t the peak yet. I can’t wait to get back in the gym, I can’t wait to keep mastering my craft, because I know that I can be even better than I did this year, which some people couldn’t even fathom that I would do it this year. They’re not gonna be able to fathom what I do it the next year, so that’s my mindset and that’s my approach, and the people that care about the analytics and s*** like that, they’ll never understand.”
