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Even with their title chances hanging precariously thanks to a Game 5 NBA Eastern Conference semifinal loss to the Sixers, it has turned out to be a pretty good week for the Celtics. That’s because star guard Jaylen Brown was named to the second-team All-NBA squad on Wednesday, making him eligible for an astronomical contract extension that could—should, really—put to rest months of grinding speculation about his future in Boston.
Because of his selection to the All-NBA squad, Brown gets bumped up by a whole a max-contract bracket under NBA rules (he can be paid 35% of the cap rather than 30%) and can sign a five-year extension worth an estimated $290 million this summer. Brown is slated to be a free agent in 2024, and has sent out signals that he might like to exercise his free agency and see what else other franchises have to offer.
An extension would not kick in until the 2024-25 season.
“Well, he would be crazy to pass on what Boston can give him,” one Eastern Conference GM told Heavy Sports. “They will have to go all in and he is going to have to take it. You can’t turn down what is going to wind up being $60 million a year. Maybe he’s happy in Boston, maybe not, but if you’re Jaylen Brown and you have the opportunity to be the highest-paid player in the league, you’re damn right you take it.”
Brown Is Option 2 With Celtics
Chatter about Brown’s relative happiness in Boston has been bubbling for the past two years, or even a bit longer, as it has become clear that fellow star Jayson Tatum is the top option for the Celtics. Still, Brown was just voted among the Top 10 players in the league, having averaged 26.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 49.1% shooting, all career bests, this season.
He is no doubt behind Tatum in the pecking order, though. That does not mean Brown does not get his chances– Tatum averaged 20.9 shots per game over the last three seasons, to 19.4 for Brown. Brown averaged 25.0 points in that span, and Tatum averaged 27.9 points, but it is Tatum who is slotted as the team’s top star on the court and off, where he is one of the most endorsement-friendly Celtics players in franchise history.
Around the league, whether Brown is happy playing the No. 2 role is up for debate. In the final two months of the season, Brown made on-the-record comments about whether he’d finish his career in Boston and how he felt about racism in the city. He also was forthcoming about his distaste for being included in trade talks Kevin Durant las summer. (“I wasn’t sure what the energy was. I wasn’t sure what the direction of the organization was,” he told The Ringer.)
But it’s been suggested that Brown was merely positioning himself with those comments, making sure that the Celtics would know and be prepared to offer him the full $290 million in an extension this summer.
“He probably does not need leverage because the Celtics have always planned to pay him if he wants to stay, but the only leverage he has in all this is to make the Celtics—and the rest of the NBA—think he is really interested in leaving,” one Western Conference executive told Heavy Sports. “I mean, he started saying this stuff about Boston and the Celtics in March. That’s weird timing, right? Well, no it is not weird timing if you want to make sure the Celtics know you’re prepared to leave. It’s not weird timing if you are doing it two months before you’re eligible for the supermax and you want to make sure you get it.
“All the stuff Jaylen said, maybe a lot of it is true, but you don’t say things like that, things you know are going to be published and are going t draw a lot of attention, unless you are playing an angle. And his angle was to say to the Celtics, ‘You’re giving the max-max this time.’”
Brown Was on a Bargain Contract
Brown’s last contract, signed before his final year on his rookie scale contract in the fall of 2019, was worth $106 million over four years. That was well below the max, and Brown has been something of a bargain in the past three seasons.
He won’t be a bargain anymore—not if the Celtics offer the supermax, and if Brown accepts it. If he is sincere about his unhappiness in Boston, Brown might sacrifice the big money only the Celtics can give him and instead accept a lesser offer and a bigger role elsewhere. That is a longshot.
“It is possible he just won’t take the Celtics’ money, I mean if he was THAT unhappy with Brad (Stevens) and those guys, I guess,” the executive said. “But he’d cost himself nine figures doing that, so I don’t think that will be his direction. It’s too much money. So you sign the contract, collect the money and then see if they want to trade you later.
“And there is another angle here you’ve got to consider—Jaylen is big in the players union, and they are always preaching to guys, get every dime you having coming to you because it is coming from the owners. If the Celtics offer him $300 million for the four years and he turns it down because held rather play in Atlanta or something, that is a bad look for a union rep (Brown has been an NBPA vice president since 2019). He is going to personally have some heat on him to be a supermax guy.”
A total of $300 million worth of heat. The Celtics are facing a massive disappointment should they lose here in the second round of playoffs, but it was still not a bad week for Boston, and an especially good week for Brown.
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