Not since LeBron James’ 2010 free agency has there been a trade scenario more studiously analyzed. But Giannis Antetokounmpo is just that big of a deal. Even if the rumors about him joining the Miami Heat are louder than ever, how it happens could shift the balance among multiple teams. A lot of predictions surprisingly don’t work without moving Jaylen Brown from the Boston Celtics, even in a three-team blockbuster with Miami and the Milwaukee Bucks. In another straightforward trade scenario, Brown and Giannis swap places. How that would look was re-imagined by Celtics legend and JB fan, Cedrick Maxwell.

Appearing on FanDuel’s Run It Back, the 2x Boston Celtics champion gave a remarkably candid take on the hottest rumor of the Giannis sweepstakes when Lou Williams asked him his thoughts.

“Boy, that kind of hurts. I’m a huge Jaylen Brown fan. Huge,” Maxwell admitted frankly with a heavy heart. “What I understand is that Jaylen right now is up for a, I think extension, and it would be $70 million a year. If he doesn’t sign that extension, now the Celtics have to do what they have to do. They’ll probably just try to move him. And if it was to get Giannis, I would hate to see, but I understand the business of it.”

Maxwell went on to emphasize that replacing Brown isn’t a simple plug-and-play scenario on the court, pointing to the star’s profound locker-room presence and deep-rooted community ties in Boston. The 1981 Finals MVP revealed that in his own personal encounter with Brown.

“When I used to see him, I’d say, ‘What’s happened to MVP?’ And he’d look at me, and he said, ‘Takes one to know one.’ And I was like, ‘Damn, that was cool as hell.'”

He lauded Brown’s unique off-court ambitions, specifically referencing Brown’s famous declaration to turn Boston into “the Black Wall Street” after signing his previous historic contract.

“That’s one thing that young players normally don’t think about,” Maxwell observed. “They think about themselves, but they don’t think about the community, and he does that.”

The former Celtics player made it clear that while Giannis Antetokounmpo’s resume speaks for itself, it would be a cultural loss to trade away Jaylen Brown.

While Brown would indeed leave a permanent void in the city of Boston as the one who got banner #18, as Maxwell said, the NBA business would favor the Greek Freak.

Cedric Maxwell shuts down the negative narrative about Jaylen Brown

Since Maxwell brought up Jaylen Brown’s outspoken ways, DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins asked whether that could be a reason the Celtics would want to trade him. He specifically referred to the controversial statements Brown made following a disappointing first-round exit to the 76ers.

“They clearly had an agenda… I actually spoke to some refs, and they said it was an agenda going into each game,” he said on a Twitch stream. Boogie wondered aloud if the Celtics want to distance the organization from that narrative.

Maxwell, however, fiercely defended the Celtics star, insisting the public outrage was entirely manufactured.

“I would hope they didn’t because he had already said that before, that Jaylen had said, ‘This is one of my favorite seasons,'” Maxwell clarified. “Nobody thought the Celtics were going even, you know, were going to battle to be in the play-in, and to see the way that they played this year… Jaylen Brown was a MVP candidate legitimately.”

He expressed profound frustration over the swift backlash directed at Brown, noting, “That was his opinion, and why people got so pissed off about his opinion, it kind of sparks me… I think the statement was kind of taken out of context.”

This brewing saga matches the reality of these blockbuster trade projections. NBA insiders like Marc Stein have corroborated that Boston is looking for ways to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo.

But almost no trade prediction works without Brown. Even though the Miami Heat is widely rumored to be the landing spot for Giannis, many predictions involve the Celtics and Brown to make it mathematically possible.

For his part, Brown recently broke his silence on all the rumors on a live stream.

“You have not seen the best version of Jaylen Brown. I look forward to the next season; we’ll see where the chips fall, and I’m excited about that.”

As he said, we’d just have to see whether the chips fall in Milwaukee or stay in Boston.