The next Jaylen Brown? Three high-paid NBA players whose contracts could eventually make them trade candidates
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Breaking: Donovan Mitchell agrees to $273M extension with Cavs
From practically the moment Jayson Tatum was drafted, Jaylen Brown was a fixture in the rumor mill. The question they were perpetually bombarded with was whether or not the Celtics could win a championship with the two of them as their best players. That question was theoretically answered in 2024, when the Celtics won their 18th title with Tatum as the team's best player and Brown as both the Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals MVP. It just turns out we were asking the wrong question.
But at his press conference Monday following his stunning decision to trade Brown to Philadelphia, Celtics president Brad Stevens raised an important difference between the 2024 Celtics and their 2027 counterparts. When the Celtics won the championship, Tatum and Brown combined to account for roughly 47% of the salary cap. In 2027 and beyond, they are set to account for roughly 70%, a figure that will likely tick slightly upward with cap growth lagging behind the 8% annual raises baked into their supermax contracts.
The question was never "can you win it all with Tatum and Brown as your two best players?" It was "how much can you afford to pay Tatum and Brown to be your two best players if you hope to win a championship? The Celtics have seemingly determined that the answer is somewhere between 47 and 70%, and recent league history supports the idea that paying them that much was ultimately untenable. Let's take a look at what percentage of the cap the last 15 NBA champions paid their two most expensive players:
Breaking: Donovan Mitchell agrees to $273M extension with CavsYear Team Two most expensive players % of cap spent on top two players
2025-26
New York Knicks
Karl-Anthony Towns & OG Anunoby
59.95%
2024-25
Oklahoma City Thunder
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander & Isaiah Hartenstein
46.85%
2023-24
Boston Celtics
Jrue Holiday & Kristaps Porziņģis
54.14%
2022-23
Denver Nuggets
Nikola Jokić & Jamal Murray
52.79%
2021-22
Golden State Warriors
Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson
74.52%
2020-21
Milwaukee Bucks
Khris Middleton & Giannis Antetokounmpo
55.50%
2019-20
Los Angeles Lakers
LeBron James & Anthony Davis
59.12%
2018-19
Toronto Raptors
Kyle Lowry & Marc Gasol
55.78%
2017-18
Golden State Warriors
Stephen Curry & Kevin Durant
60.23%
2016-17
Golden State Warriors
Kevin Durant & Klay Thompson
45.89%
2015-16
Cleveland Cavaliers
LeBron James & Kevin Love
60.95%
2014-15
Golden State Warriors
David Lee & Andrew Bogut
44.37%
2013-14
San Antonio Spurs
Tony Parker & Tim Duncan
38.96%
2012-13
Miami Heat
LeBron James & Chris Bosh
60.56%
2011-12
Miami Heat
LeBron James & Chris Bosh
55.2%
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