Stephen A. Smith Tears Into Jayson Tatum for Allowing Jaylen Brown Trade

Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics struggled against the Detroit Pistons in their season -opener away from home.

Stephen A. Smith Tears Into Jayson Tatum for Allowing Jaylen Brown Trade

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown (Image via Basket Infos/X)

The NBA’s 2026-27 opening night gave Boston Celtics fans a glimpse of where their retooled team, led by Jayson Tatum, stands against the competition. They could also see how former star Jaylen Brown performed for his new team.

The trade to the Philadelphia 76ers was not lacking drama. Well before it happened, rumors from Boston suggested that all was not well with Brown’s relationship with the organization.

Much was made about his ‘intelligence’ as if it was becoming a problem for the team and its image. Soon, that divulged into trade rumors, and many felt that the Celtics were just throwing out feelers.

In the midst of this, Brown hit back at critics, even though that did nothing to stop the conversations happening around the NBA. Eventually, when he was traded to the Sixers, a conference rival, many felt that the franchise had acted in favor of Tatum.

There is no way in hell that Jaylen brown is gone, let alone traded to the 76ers, if Jayson Tatum cares for that not to happen. If Tatum stands up, ‘I don’t want to lose him. What do you mean you traded him? I want my man here!’ Jaylen Brown is still a Boston Celtic! The fact he is gone is they wanted to make clear it’s Tatum’s team, and Jayson Tatum clearly did not mind!

Stephen A. Smith said

The longtime analyst made it clear on First Take that the decision to let go of Jaylen Brown had Jayson Tatum’s fingerprints on it. It is disappointing that they let go of a player who led them to 56 wins last season. However, Smith is not sure this season-opening loss would have happened had Brown been there.

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Jeff Teague points out how Celtics struggled without Jaylen Brown

Stephen A. Smith was not the only one who felt that had Jaylen Brown stayed, the Boston Celtics may not have lost their season-opener against the Detroit Pistons in the manner they did.

Jayson Tatum shooting against the Pistons
Jayson Tatum shooting against the Pistons (Image via Sleeper Celtics/X)

They can’t get any type of paint touches, and it’s kinda frustrating to watch because they shoot so many threes.

Jeff Teague said on Club 520 Podcast

The former champion added that without Brown’s paint attack, the offense became one-dimensional. That was how the Pistons managed to stage that epic comeback and win the game.

Jeff Teague started off the segment by talking about how he noticed Jayson Tatum struggle to put pressure on his right leg, and that impacted his shooting and movement.

Teague is talking about Tatum’s surgically repaired right Achilles tendon. The 28-year-old was supposed to take a full year to recover. But it seems that by speeding up his return, he may have stopped it from recovering completely. In fact, Stephen A. Smith also said something along those lines earlier.

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DeMarcus Cousins does not believe Jayson Tatum’s Achilles recovery is an excuse

Even though Jeff Teague and Stephen A. Smith pointed to the Achilles tendon tear and sped-up recovery as possible problems for Jayson Tatum, a certain DeMarcus Cousins was not willing to buy that excuse.

He’s too far removed from the injury for it to still be an excuse.

Cousins said on Run It Back

The former All-Star believes that the time for those excuses has passed, since Tatum has already returned and played enough games to not use it as a narrative. Instead, Cousins believes that this was the Duke alum playing as badly as he could.

Either he should improve his game going forward, or he should find a way to be more effective. Otherwise, this will turn out to be a long season for both the 2024 champion and his team.

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