Bill Simmons: Jaylen Brown wants to be traded to Houston?

That's the point.

 

Just seems like a weird system--"we are disincentivizing teams from spending too much, so we have instituted two salary aprons. We are also making it harder to spend less and not be in those aprons." I guess it helps disincentivize teams from ending up in that situation in the first place, but I can also see it backfiring and causing second apron teams to go "f*ck it, we'll just run it back anyway".

Feel like it would make more sense to punish them with even harsher lux tax penalties or something

 

NBA high payroll teams were artificially paying guys more than they were worth and then aggregating them with picks for a max player. This restriction removes this benefit for excessive spending. The NBA doesn't care if teams want to pay the luxury tax without gaining a competitive advantage.

 

exactly, its punishment. You enter that hell, your gonna have a hard time getting out. Its meant to prevent teams from just spending hundreds of million in tax dollars like the warriors did just to field an insane roster.

 

It would be interesting to know how teams around the league view Brown's contract. My gut says that most would say neutral to slightly negative, due length, declining performance and nagging injuries.

Holiday's contract is for sure negative.

So unless Boston can find one of the few teams that are in love with these guys, they're going to have to take discounts or attach assets to get a deal done.

 

The more Jay-lens the better imo.

 

We have always had financial penalties to help try and curb large market teams outspending smaller markets...and it didn't really work. These owners are so rich and these teams make so much money, the luxury tax won't threaten to make the LA/NY/GS like teams unprofitable.

What has changed here is the 2nd apron adds competitive disadvantages in various places(draft, free agency, trade market, buyout market, etc) so a team can outspend and keep a team together if they REALLY believe in the players on their roster....but if they are just maxing out a bunch of stars and then using the draw of the marketing dollars in their large markets to make it viable for them to underpay the rest of the roster and get players who otherwise would cost more in smaller markets - then that is unfair to the competitive balance of the league and more fiscally responsible teams.

That's what the 2nd apron is trying to do. It's not trying to encourage fiscal responsibility - it's trying to even the playing field to teams who don't have the ability to overspend forever by inhibiting how you can continue to construct a roster if you are well above those 2nd apron limits. You can overspend as a competitive advantage just like in previous years, but the longer you operate in that space, the more punitive the competitive advantages become until you start losing draft picks.

The 2nd apron is kind of like a buoy off a beach - you can swim past it if you wish, but no one is trying to save you if you drown out there. Boston just took their whole team out there and now has $137 mil tied up in a torn ACL, a torn meniscus, and a brittle big man with a mysterious respiratory illness....and the cap is at $154mil($207mil for the 2nd apron)

 

HOU IN: J. Brown

BOS IN: J. Green, Thybull, Reath, 2025 PHX FRP (10), 2026 SRP swap rights returned, HOU 2028 FRP

POR IN: Brooks

Houston depth chart:
FVV/Reed
Brown/Cam
Amen/Tari
Smith
Alpi/Adams

 

Brown has negative value when you consider his contract, injury, and dropping efficiency this year.

 

huge, massive upgrade over Jalen Green…4x All-Star, 1x 2nd Team All-NBA, Finals MVP

efficiency dropped this year, but he was playing with a partially torn meniscus and various other knee issues that will be corrected this summer

TS average of 58% the previous 5 seasons which is fine, and only 28 years old…pretty good defender as well that can guard multiple positions

however, he is not a #1 option which is 1 of our biggest issues, and he is getting paid a ton

 

No thanks.

Overpaid, overrated and bad knees.

DD

 

You want to be the team that finds Jaylen Brown. Not the team that pays him a supermax coming off a bad year.

 

We sort of did find our potential Jaylen Brown (Cam). We just have no care in the world to develop him and go through growing pains the way Boston did with Brown his first few seasons.

 

You want to be the team that has Jaylen Brown!

 

Not at $60m/yr with a torn meniscus you don't lol

 

After basketball he might go to NASA.

 

Jaylen Brown with a bad knee and he not a fast player.

Joe Johnson type of player. (Iso Joe)

 

No thanks. Overpaid and overrated.

 

I'd rather see us compete next year with Jaylen Brown as our number one option than Jalen Green as our number one option.

I don't care for the Bill Simmons trade proposal as I don't want the Jrue Holiday contract. I'd rather send Jalen Green off to Brooklyn along with Reed Shephard and Jock Landale. We can also give the Nets control of their 2027 1st back. They can then send Cam Johnson and a couple of the Knicks future firsts to the Celtics.

Celtics get a good player and drop a huge contract. They also grab some draft assets.

Nets get their new backcourt and control of their 2027 1st. A Reed Sheppard and Jalen Green backcourt will lose a lot of games next season which helps their future.

Rockets upgrade at SG.

Everyone wins.

 

That would be awful for Houston. Brown and Drew take up 55% of cap space and would handcuff them from extensions for Amen, wouldn't be able to resign Adams, and you would have to trade Brooks for young players that are on small contracts to make up for what you gave up. Now if it was a package for just Drew then I would only if it was for Fred and fillers so that Boston will have an expiring contract in Fred for the next 26-27 season.