Celtics rumors: The 1 bench player that cost Boston Giannis Antetokounmpo trade

The Boston Celtics were among Giannis Antetokounmpo’s foremost trade suitors, and they even went as far as to dangle Jaylen Brown, fresh off an All-NBA Second Team campaign, to try and acquire the Milwaukee Bucks star via trade. In the end, the Bucks decided to trade Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat, deeming the Heat’s offer superior to that of the Celtics’.

ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the Celtics’ final offer for Antetokounmpo ended up bring Brown and two first-round picks. That is not a bad offer whatsoever, but the Heat sent out Tyler Herro, their first-round picks over the past three years in Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, and Kasparas Jakucionis, to go along with three future firsts (2026, 2031, and 2033), a first-round pick swap (2030), and a 2033 second-round pick — dwarfing Boston’s offer.

In the end, a young bench player may have ended up costing the Celtics Antetokounmpo. Reading between the lines, NBA insider and diehard Celtics fan Bill Simmons mentioned in a previous tweet that he’d be “shocked” if Boston were to include Hugo Gonzalez in the trade.

Boston, indeed, did not include Gonzalez in their reported final offer for Antetokounmpo, so there is indeed a chance that he ended up being the player that prevented the Celtics from trading for the two-time MVP.

Nonetheless, as things stand, it’s not as if the Celtics’ short-term outlook is looking bleak. As long as Brown’s inclusion in trade talks don’t ruin his relationship with the team, they can simply run it back with a healthy version of Jayson Tatum for next season.

Boston won 56 games last season even with Tatum missing the majority of the campaign while recovering from a ruptured Achilles, so they’re not too far away from contending for a championship anyhow. Missing out on Giannis is painful, but unlike the Heat, Antetokounmpo’s arrival wasn’t necessary anyway for them to compete.

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