BOSTON — With Jaylen Brown’s mindset becoming a major talking point throughout the NBA over the past 24 hours, Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens said he met multiple times with the team’s five-time All-Star before his name popped up in trade rumors, and he tried to be as upfront as possible.“Obviously, with all the rumor mill and all that stuff and his name being splashed all over the place, that’s not easy,” Stevens said Tuesday night. “But we certainly wanted to be as proactive and upfront as possible. I thought we had really good, candid conversations.”Though Stevens preferred to keep private the content of those discussions, he stressed that he was honest with Brown before word leaked that the Celtics front office included him in a trade offer for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Before the Milwaukee Bucks agreed to send Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat in a blockbuster deal, the Celtics put forth a serious pursuit of the two-time MVP with a package headlined by Brown.How the Heat pulled off a heist for GiannisEsfandiar BaraheniBased on Stevens’ timeline, he and Brown spoke with each other well before the Antetokounmpo sweepstakes heated up over the past week. Stevens said he and Brown met late in May and also chatted again more recently before Brown left for a trip overseas.“Spent a lot of time, just the two of us, sitting down together,” Stevens said. “Like every offseason, been in regular touch with his agent all the way through the last couple of days.”Stevens said he was “empathetic” of Brown’s situation, adding that “it’s not fun” to see your name in trade talks. Outside of Boston, people around the league wondered how personally Brown would take it that the Celtics front office included him in an offer for Antetokounmpo. It’s not clear yet how much fallout Boston will face from the decision, which proved fruitless when the Bucks settled on Miami’s offer instead.“I would say you would have to ask him,” Stevens said when asked whether he believes the trade rumors impacted the Celtics’ relationship with Brown.