Could the two Jays era be coming to an end? That’s one of the many questions the Celtics will be facing once their season ends, which could be as early as Tuesday night in Miami.
While Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have made the Eastern Conference Finals in four of their six seasons together, they’ve only advanced to the NBA Finals once. It certainly doesn’t look like they’ll do it this year, as they currently trail the Heat 3-0 in what has been a massively disappointing series for both of them. Questions about how Tatum and Brown get along and how compatible they really are on the court linger.
Jermaine Wiggins, for one, is ready to split up the Jays and try something different (listen to the discussion beginning at the 23:15 mark in the player below).
“I’m done with the two Jays,” Wiggy said Tuesday morning on The Greg Hill Show. “…It is now at this point where it’s about one of those Jays, and then building around him in a different structure, whether that’s going after Dame Dolla [Damian Lillard] or whatever.”
Greg Hill agreed.
“You can’t exist with both of those guys, it’s clear to me,” Hill said. “You have to get value for one of them, so it probably ends up being Jaylen Brown. He’s been miserable all season long, really. I don’t think he wants to be here. Whether that’s on Wyc [Grousbeck] and Brad [Stevens] for his name being in trade talks or whatever, it doesn’t matter to me.”
As Greg notes, it would certainly seem like Brown is the more likely of the two to be traded. His name has surfaced in trade rumors a lot more than Tatum’s over the years.
Brown is eligible to be offered a five-year, $295 million supermax extension this offseason. If the Celtics don’t want to offer him that, or if Brown doesn’t want to commit to them long-term if they do, then Stevens and company will have to try to trade him.
Wiggy and Greg aren’t alone in thinking that the Jays as a duo may have run its course. Kendrick Perkins said the same thing Monday on ESPN’s First Take, saying, “It’s time to break up the duo.”
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