Getty Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics
The beauty of having a young core in place is that it allows you to continually build towards the future, provided that young core is tied down for the long term.
Brad Stevens inherited a stable roster when he took the job of President of Basketball Operation, in the sense that both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum were tied down for multiple years. However, Brown will be entering the third year of his current four-year contract next season, and as such, the Boston Celtics will need to begin testing the waters on how happy he is with the current trajectory of the team, and more importantly, if he intends to re-sign in Boston.
Brown will become extension eligible in October, and according to Masslive’s Brian Robb, the team will move quickly to offer an extension, even if only to show they want to keep him in Boston.
Jayson Tatum is 24
Marcus Smart is 28
Jaylen Brown is 25
Robert Williams is 24
And the core four is locked up until 2023-24. The future is bright for the Celtics
“I absolutely think the Celtics will be looking to sign Jaylen Brown to a contract extension this summer when he’s first eligible for it (he technically can’t sign anything until October per CBA rules). The problem for Boston will be the fact that they are limited in what they can offer Brown based on his current contract, the same issue they ran into with Kyrie Irving when those two sides talked extension back in 2018,” Robb noted in a recent article.
Brown Will Likely Hold Out For More Money
NBA careers are short-lived, so it’s only fair to expect players to make decisions based on maximizing their earning potential. Sure, there’s always the possibility of a home-town discount, but that’s usually towards the end of a player’s career. The fact of the matter is that Brown’s next contract will likely be his last big payday.
By the time he enters the first year of his next deal, Brown will be in his age-28 season, and assuming his contract is over four years, will be 32 by the time he hits free agency again. It’s fair to assume that any contract offered to him in his thirties will be lower than the one he’s inevitably about to sign, and that’s why the Celtics’ hands may be tied in the short-term.
Seeing these young players sign their huge extensions just reminds me how much of a steal Jaylen Brown’s contract is.
“The Celtics can offer 120 percent of Brown’s 2023-24 salary, which is about $34.2 million dollars as the starting salary for an extension, and offer eight percent annual raises for each year of the deal. That’s a sizable pay jump but is still expected to be plenty short of what a max deal is for a player with 7-9 years of experience in the summer of 2024. Cap estimates are a bit murky that far into the future but a safe guess here is that the max starting salary that summer for a player with Brown’s experience will be around $40 million.
Whether or not Brown prefers the added financial security in an extension over the potential higher pay remains to be seen but it would be entirely understandable if he elects for the latter. In that case, the Celtics would have to wait it out until free agency with him in hopes he would re-sign with them when the team can offer the most money without extension restrictions,” Robb wrote.
Brown is a Potential All-Star Every Season
It’s easy to look at Brown’s recent injury struggles and topsy-turvy performances and assume that he’s not going to get a max contract offer should he choose to enter free agency. Two-way wings are in short supply around the league, especially ones that are legitimate three-level scorers.
Brown is a borderline All-Star when – even when playing at 80% capacity like he has this season, and is still another year or two away from entering his prime. Teams will see the upside he brings, along with his playoff experience, and happily extend handsome pay offers in an attempt to weaken the Celtics and remove Boston’s star duo.
Jaylen Brown was SNUBBED massively from the 2022 All-Star Game
Jaylen Brown (didn’t make it)
24.2 PPG
6.6 RPG
3.1 APG
45.9 FG%
39 games played
Khris Middleton (did make it)
19.1 PPG
5.6 RPG
5.2 APG
44.1 FG%
41 games played
Luckily, the Celtics are currently playing like contenders, and if they continue to do so for the remainder of Brown’s deal, it would make little sense for him to go elsewhere. While money certainly talks, you play in the NBA to compete for championships, and if Boston can prove that’s viable with them, then that should be enough to convince Brown into extending his stay with the team – and the Celtics will need to do just that if they want to keep their star wing out of the clutches of teams like the Los Angeles Lakers or Atlanta Hawks.
Despite having what is being considered a down year, Brown is averaging some impressive numbers, scoring 23 points per game along with 6.1 rebounds and 3.3 assists on 46% shooting from the field, 34.2% shooting from deep, and 75.7% from the free-throw line. Celtics fans won’t need to worry about their star wing any time soon, as he still has two years left on his current $103 million deal.