Atlanta Hawks among favorites to land Celtics’ star Jaylen Brown

Many Atlanta Hawks fans have been thinking out loud about bringing Atlanta native and current Boston Celtic Jaylen Brown home for a while now, and recently, there has been some added validity to those rumors.

According to some outlets, the Hawks are among the favorite potential landing spots for the Celtics’ 26-year-old swingman.

This would seem to indicate that most people feel that Brown will likely still be a Celtic after all is said and done, particularly considering that he is now eligible for a supermax extension that would make him the highest-paid player in NBA history due to his recently being named as a member of the All-NBA second team. The Celtics are the only team that will be able to offer him that extension.

But there would seem to be some validity to the growing notion that indicates Brown’s potential interest in joining the Hawks.

Recently, Brown followed Hawks point guard Trae Young on Instagram, which could, of course, means nothing. But it could also hint at a continued dialogue between the two guards, one that started on the State Farm Arena hardwood after Boston eliminated Atlanta about a month ago.

Brown, as previously mentioned, is also an Atlanta-area native, having spent his high school days at Wheeler High School in Marietta, turning himself into one of the best young players in the country during his time there.

The Celtics’ all-star has made a habit out of wearing Atlanta Braves gear to his postgame press conferences this postseason and recently gave a vivid, heartwarming account of attending his first NBA game at Philips Arena as a seven-year-old.

Another question that must now be asked is just how much Atlanta should be willing to give up for the enigmatic Brown, who can at times look like the best player on a championship team when he has it going. But he also has the propensity to become a turnover machine when pressured by the wrong defense.

In this year’s conference finals, Brown was thoroughly outplayed by Miami’s undrafted wing Caleb Martin. In Boston’s Game 7 loss last night, he recorded eight painful turnovers and was unable to step up when his running mate Jayson Tatum was injured on the first play of the game.

These same ball-handling flaws were exposed in last year’s NBA Finals loss to the Golden State Warriors when Brown was consistently forced into double teams and unorthodox pressure schemes and responded by racking up the turnovers and giving Golden State some easy transition opportunities.

It’s certainly fair to assume that Atlanta fans may not be as high on Brown in the present moment as they were last month when they watched him eviscerate their team for six straight games.

Even so, if Brown truly doesn’t want to be in Boston and would rather rekindle his career in the friendly confines of his hometown, there are plenty of basketball-related reasons why it would make sense for Atlanta.

The Hawks’ biggest flaw in the Boston series was their perimeter defense, and while Brown isn’t a terrific point-of-attack defender, it’s hard to imagine he could be worse than the turnstiles that the Hawks turned into when trying to guard the Celtics.

He is also an electric scorer, averaging north of 26 points per game on 49% shooting from the field, and would, in theory, be the ideal player to pair with Young, who needs an elite scoring presence by his side in order to be the best version of himself.

So what could a potential Brown-to-Atlanta trade look like? One would have to assume that it would take a whole lot to get him, including potentially shooting guard Dejounte Murray, who was underwhelming at best in his first season in a Hawks uniform.

Although it’s hard to imagine that there’s much of a market for John Collins right now, he may be a necessary addition to make the salaries match, in addition to potentially draft capital, De’Andre Hunter, or perhaps one or two of Atlanta’s young guns.

Either way, these Jaylen Brown to Atlanta rumors are gaining smoke by the day, and where there’s smoke, there’s usually you know what.