Getty Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics
The Kevin Durant saga officially ended when he rescinded his trade request from the Brooklyn Nets. With him staying put with the Nets for the time being, that means Jaylen Brown will be doing the same with the Boston Celtics until further notice. Shortly after Durant took back his trade request, Celtics’ President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens gave fans an update on where the team sees Brown long-term in Boston in an interview with the radio show “Merloni, Fauria, and Mego.”
“He is a huge core piece of what we’re doing and has been for six years now. We’re excited to hopefully put our best foot forward to have him here for a long time.”
Brad on potential to offer Jaylen extension in October: “He is a huge core piece of what we’re doing and has been for six years now. We’re excited to hopefully put our best foot forward to have him here for a long time.”
Brown has two years left on the four-year, $106 million contract he signed with the Celtics back in 2019.
Brian Robb of MassLive outlined that the Celtics can offer Brown an extension that will start at up to 120 percent of his 2023-24 salary, which in his case, would start at $34.2 million. However, if he enters free agency, he could potentially line himself up to make more than that. Brown could potentially make upwards of $40 million as a starting salary.
Stevens talked about other Celtics-related topics besides Brown’s long-term future.
Stevens Said It’s Been Quiet on the Trade Front
After the initial report came out from Adrian Wojnarowski that the Celtics had contacted the Nets about potentially trading Brown for Durant, there was endless speculation regarding if a deal would get done or not.
Stevens, however, refuted on “Merloni, Fauria, and Mego” that there had been many trade talks following the Malcolm Brogdon trade because Stevens likes where the team is now.
”We’re excited to move forward with our team, and that’s really been our focus for a while. You say it’s been busy, and there’s been a lot of talk but it hasn’t been from me. Hopefully, it gave everyone something to talk about. It’s been pretty quiet on our front for a while now.”
If what Stevens says is true, that means discussions were never serious between the Nets and the Celtics. While acquiring Durant would give the Celtics one of the best scorers in the NBA, making that trade would drastically alter a team that was two wins away from a championship and would shorten the Celtics’ window because of Durant’s age (34).
Stevens Comments on ‘The Noise’
While talking about the trade rumors that have been circulating, Stevens revealed that Brown has dealt with situations like these before and how he’s dealt with them.
“Jaylen’s been through this from the standpoint of listening, and the noise has been around him for a long time, big names over the years. I think one of the things you have to be able to do is ignore the noise and know what’s important.”
Stevens then added that the Celtics have been in open communication with Brown ever since the rumors with Durant surfaced.
“Also, be able to reach out and have candid and transparent communications with the people involved. We’ve had those and been very open from the get-go as all of this has been going on for any of our guys. I sat down with Jaylen last week in LA. He looked great, and he will be back to Boston soon.”
With all the trade rumors that came out from July onward involving Brown, there’s also been speculation that the Celtics may have fractured their relationship with him. While Stevens has made it clear that they want Brown on the team long-term, the only way they’ll know if these rumors didn’t hurt their relationship with him is if that desire for him to stay is mutual between both sides.