Jaylen Brown's name is now exploding in trade speculation as reports surge of the Boston Celtics' interest in a potentially imminent and blockbuster deal for Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The issue for teams interested in acquiring Brown as a third party in the trade is coordinating comparable salary, but that gives the Golden State Warriors a distinct advantage in that respect because they have an obvious matching financial piece in Jimmy Butler.
Warriors have one major advantage in Jaylen Brown trade pursuit
According to NBA insider Marc Stein on Friday, multiple teams are interested in Brown but face the obstacle of sending out enough salary to match the $57.1 million that the star wing will make next season.
"Portland, Houston and Atlanta are teams routinely mentioned as suitors with Brown interest, but the sheer salary numbers do add a layer of complexity to any talks. Brown, who turns 30 in October, just assembled a career season but also has three years and $183 million left on his current contract," Stein wrote.
While there's plenty of speculation on social media over whether the Warriors could begin a Brown trade pursuit, there's been no concrete reporting that the franchise is considering a play for the 5x All-Star to this point.
However, if Golden State were to express interest in Brown, they'd actually have a fairly clean and obvious path to making an offer. It would essentially be a swap of Butler-for-Brown, then would come down to how many first-round picks Milwaukee might need as part of a blockbuster three-team trade.
The less players involved, the seemingly less complicated and the more likely a deal would become, giving the Warriors an edge over other teams who would have to combine two, three or even four salaries.
Warriors might be hesistant to sacrifice future for Jaylen Brown
As much as a trade may appear simple in terms of the finances, it's still incredibly complicated given the value of Golden State's future picks, particularly with the recent lottery reform and the uncertainty over that going forward in the next 5-7 years.
Considering how conservative the Warriors have been with their future picks in recent years, it's very likely that they prove hesitant again to put together the sort of package it will take to acquire Brown after a career-best season.
The former third overall pick averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists this past season, potentially providing the Warriors with an ideal second option for Stephen Curry with his perfect combination of age, position and skillset.
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