Jaylen Brown and the Celtics finally reach an agreement to bring back the star guard. It was first reported by Shams Charania of the Athletic that Brown agreed to a five-year, $304 million extension to return back to Boston.
Details of the Deal
Brown was eligible to sign an extension on July 1 but the two sides had a hard time agreeing on details. The fully guaranteed deal is the richest contract in NBA history that includes a trade kicker and no player option for the final year.
The Celtics drafted Brown with the third overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft. The 26-year-old is a two-time All-Star, made second team NBA All-Rookie in 2017, and was an all-NBA second team selection last season, which was his first all-NBA selection in his career.
He made his biggest jump in the 2019-20 NBA season when he went from averaging 13.0 points per game the season before to 20 points per game. Brown has averaged at least 20 ppg for the last four seasons, with last year being his highest scoring average( 26.6 ppg) in his career.
No More Money
Jayson Tatum and Brown have experienced a tremendous amount of success in their early years playing alongside each other. Together, the two have one NBA Finals appearance and four Eastern Conference Finals appearances in the last six years.
Despite the success, the two still have yet to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy, which led to speculation that the Celtics should consider blowing up the dynamic duo. Brown’s name constantly came up in potential trade rumors throughout the season, and at one point he was linked to come back home to play for the Atlanta Hawks.
The Celtics lockdown their star but now face an ugly cap situation moving forward. Brown, Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis, and Malcolm Brogdon will take up approximately $119.63 million in cap space of $181.28 million for players under contract next season. Brown deal doesn’t kick in until the 2024-25 season, but his base salary will be an average of $60,746,978.20 per year.
Tatum‘S contract expires at the end of the 2025-26 season and he is expected to sign a $300 million extension as well. Both players could potentially be the first teammates in league history to sign supermax extensions.
