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Jeff Teague: Stephen Curry Would Have Led Celtics Further Than Jaylen Brown In 2026 Playoffs

Fadeaway World · Chaitanya Dadhwal · 2026-08-26T02:54:39+00:00 · nguồn gốc

Jeff Teague, who formerly played for the Celtics with Jaylen Brown, recently appeared on his show, ‘The Club 520 podcast’, and shared his opinion on The Ringer’s list of the NBA’s Top 50 players. While discussing Jaylen Brown and the generational bias around Stephen Curry, Teague claimed that Curry would have taken the Celtics further in the 2025-26 playoffs without Jayson Tatum on the roster if he were in Brown’s place. “I’m going off the current Stephen Curry, pull up his stats, Lou,” said Teague when his co-host brought up how people have a generational bias about Curry. “If you put Steph Curry on the Boston Celtics and trade Jaylen Brown, they would have gone to the Conference Finals [in 2025-26],” Teague further added. “I’m not saying Jaylen Brown didn’t hoop, but it don’t have the same effect as Steph… If you put Steph Curry around a team that’s really trying to win, bro. With some people that are actually 28, his whole team is 37. I’m just saying. Podz is my small forward, cuz.” Let’s first look at how these players performed in 2025-26 to determine whether Teague’s claims have any substance. Jaylen Brown finished the regular season averaging 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists while shooting 47.7% from the field and 34.7% from the three-point line in 71 games played. Meanwhile, Stephen Curry averaged 26.6 points, 4.7 assists, and 3.6 rebounds while shooting 46.8% from the field and 39.3% from behind the three-point line in 43 games. Curry missed a significant portion of last season due to suffering from patellofemoral pain syndrome (also known as runner’s knee). To some extent, both players were in similar situations last year (co-star injured for most of the season), but keeping the age factor aside, there were no role players on the Warriors that gave Curry the same offensive support as the likes of Derrick White and Payton Pritchard did when Jayson Tatum was absent for the Celtics. The Warriors also lost Moses Moody to a knee injury for the rest of the season. Therefore, beyond Curry’s own health and in terms of roster strength, the Warriors faced bigger hurdles than the Celtics did last season. However, the 30-year-old Brown is in the prime of his career, while Curry is in the backend of his career. So you can’t say for certain whether Curry would have outperformed Brown in the playoffs in this situation. Brown is still on the upward trajectory of his career graph, where he was in the MVP voting for last season. He single-handedly led the Celtics to the second seed in the East. But I think Teague meant that Stephen Curry may have been better positioned to lead a young team in the postseason because of his experience and willingness to exceed expectations. Curry, who has once previously lost a playoff series from a 3-1 lead, would not have let a repeat of that happen in the first round against the 76ers. Moreover, at this stage in his career, Curry would be hungrier for a championship than Brown was. A healthy Stephen Curry in the postseason is a wildcard whose impact goes beyond words on the court. Do you think a 38-year-old Stephen Curry is still better than a 30-year-old Jaylen Brown in his prime? Let us know what you think in the comments section.