How a three-team Jaylen Brown trade could help Chicago Bulls blow it up

Laying out a Jaylen Brown 3-team trade

The Houston Rockets have draft capital and young players to balance out a trade for Jaylen Brown, but those assets aren’t valuable to the Boston Celtics. The Chicago Bulls have a star in Zach LaVine who would be valued by winning teams, but those teams don’t always have the young talent the Bulls want to build around. Cue a three-team trade:

The Houston Rockets have a large amount of cap space this summer, which allows them to jump into this trade without sending out matching salary in return. They spend three first-round picks, two decent young players in Kevin Porter Jr. and Usman Garuba, and last year’s No. 3 overall pick Jabari Smith Jr. to land Jaylen Brown.

It’s expensive, but it lands the Rockets the bigtime star they want to build around. They can pair Brown with Jalen Green and this year’s top pick; Brown’s positional versatility means they can draft anyone from Victor Wembanyama to Scoot Henderson to Brandon Miller.

For the Celtics, they do lose Brown but they get back a slightly cheaper player in LaVine who is under contract for multiple years. They also get an extra first-round pick and a player in Kenyon Martin Jr. who can step into their forward rotation and add back some of the size lost by moving Brown. It’s not ideal for the Celtics, but it’s a package that lets them stay competitive at the top of the East and avoids losing him for nothing the following summer.

What about Chicago?