While it’s possible the Celtics will eventually regret giving Jaylen Brown a five-year super-max extension that projects to be the richest deal in NBA history, it was the only real option available to them, says Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer.
As O’Connor outlines, Boston has title aspirations in 2023/24 and there was likely no viable trade involving Brown that would have raised the team’s ceiling in the short term. The Celtics could have tried to pay Brown less than his maximum, but would’ve risked alienating him and compromising their chemistry heading into an important season — not to mention potentially losing him in unrestricted free agency a year from now.
Executives around the league who spoke to Sean Deveney of Heavy.com agreed that giving Brown a super-max extension was the most logical path for the Celtics.
“It is a good deal because he is a star player and that is what they had to pay him,” an Eastern Conference executive said. “I love the people who say they should not have given him that contract. Like, OK, then what should they have done? Traded him? Let him go to free agency? The same people who are beating them up for signing him would be beating them up if they did not sign him. It’s crazy.”
With Jayson Tatum due for a super-max extension of his own in 2024, the Celtics may face financial challenges down the road, but having two young stars on big contracts is a “champagne problem,” O’Connor writes, suggesting that it’s not something the team needs to worry about right away. If Boston ultimately decides that it can’t win a title with a roster built around Tatum and Brown, the club is now better positioned to eventually make a trade rather than having to undergo a full reset.
Here’s more on Brown’s new deal:
- The extension signals that the Celtics intend to move forward with their plan to build around the trio of Brown, Tatum, and Kristaps Porzingis, all of whom are between 25 and 27 years old, writes Jay King of The Athletic. While they’ll likely miss Marcus Smart and Grant Williams, the C’s are optimistic that Porzingis’ presence will put them in a better position to attack certain defenses that have given them trouble in recent years, King explains.
- Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston takes a look at the short- and long-term implications of Brown’s new contract, observing that there may be a financial squeeze on the Celtics’ supporting cast in future seasons.
- While Brown’s extension is the new richest contract in NBA history, it won’t hold that title for long, notes Zach Kram of The Ringer. Given the rate at which the league’s salary cap is climbing, some massive contracts signed in the early 2020s already look like bargains, Kram writes. Brown’s deal may never qualify as team-friendly, but the super-max contracts being signed during the later years of his extension will be significantly more lucrative.
Still think this is a huge overpay. And yes they should have just traded him.
To who? For what?
If you listen to the fans, you’ll be sitting next to them. Prime example here.
I love the media is going with the narrative again that somehow the cap going up will make overpaid contracts not overpaid. I remember when they said the same thing the year before the cap spike. Turns out overpaid contracts for Ian Mahinmi, Allan Crabbe, Evan Turner, Al-Farouq Aminu stayed back contracts.
Don’t forget Mozgov
Chandler Parsons
Brown’s max extension and those deals couldn’t be more different from each other.
What were they gonna do, let Russell Westbrook walk?
Let Tobias Harris walk?
Let John Wall walk?
Let Jordan Poole walk?
Let Karl Anthony Towns walk?
Let Paul George walk?
Let Kyrie Irving walk?
The media does this over and over, then vanishes when the contracts predictably turn awful immediately. And then they blame the team for signing the contracts that were “no brainers” the prior year!
Knicks fan weighing in.
Not all those signings were bad.
The Westbrook extension turned out great for the Thunder. They got 2 first Rd picks, 2 swaps and CP3 for him. They also flipped CP3 for another 1st.
Paul George netted the Pacers Sabonis and Olidipo. They traded Sabonis for Haliburton and Olidipo for a 1st. Not bad at all.
I’m not sure how Irving is pertinent. The Nets never extended him nor were they faced with the prosect of letting him walk but they did get compensation in a trade. For what it’s worth they did get a 1st Rd pick, 2 seconds, Dinwiddie and Finney-Smith, certainly not a slam dunk but better than letting him walk.
So they should trade Tatum too and just start a rebuild? C’s are a high revenue team but not a marquee free agent destination. Have to keep your own stars to have a chance, and Brown is a star. Next year you extend Tatum and compete for titles for the next few years. No possible trade involving Brown makes them better the next few years. LOLz if you think Dame is better all around player.
Jaylen Brown is 1-4 in ECF and 0-1 in Finals.
He might be Russ 2
In other words Jaylen and the Celtics are right up there every year. Nice!
Yeah, poor Boston, they really are in trouble.
Teams seems to think that if you give someone a max contract that actually makes the player better. And the exec quote about letting him walk – where’s he gonna go? Nobody has that much cap space and if they do they’re like Washington. Why teams sign players for more than anyone else can breaks my brain. God forbid he gets hurt while eating up 40-something percent of your cap.
40% of the cap? Interesting since the supermax is 35% of the cap….
I guess that makes what I said entirely moot. Thanks for exposing me as the total fraud I am.
You give Brown significantly more than anyone else can give because that’s what it takes to keep him. If the Celtics decided to let him test fee agency there are 11 teams that would have the space to sign him next off season. Houston can free up about $55 million if they want and have shown they’re not afraid to spend money. With a trade into someone else’s space the Nets and Knicks could free up enough space and would jump at the chance to sign someone of Brown’s talent.
How? That’s not how the rules work. Boston is the only team that can pay him that much. If he wants to go to a worse team and leave the only city he’s ever lived in as an adult for a shorter contract for the same amount Boston could give him then yeah, I dare him to walk.
Boston just capped how good their team can be this roster is it unless they trade Tatum which would be significantly dumber than giving Brown this contract.
Signing Brown was the right move for the moment, but it can easily turn into an albatross for Boston if he doesn’t fix his problems with turnovers. And it is still an overpay, even given what he brings to the team. Guys who can score with his volume and operate comfortably off the ball aren’t common, but his lacking handles and mediocre defense haven’t really improved over time either.
On the other hand, it was pretty clear he wasn’t going to stay for less than the max, and Boston wasn’t going to get back fair or superior value in a trade for him, especially given that most teams with players that could improve or fit into Boston’s system are of more value to their current teams. And Boston made it clear that they’re out on Lillard (though whether he fits is another matter). The whole situation is kind of a Catch 22.
A catch-22 infers negative consequences are imminent. I find it amusing that people are presenting this as a negative for Boston.
They’re stacked.
And for this year there are no negative consequences. This year. We’ll see how it goes in future.
Fair take, C’s can’t improve by not signing Brown. Cap space doesn’t matter if you aren’t a destinatiom city. Brown sucked in game 7 this year. But was also the player in the playoffs last year when Tatum disappeared.
The max or bust attitude that is the direct result of this CBA is gonna produce the first serious labor animosity between owners and players in years. Teams becoming max-and-min rosters, with increasingly fewer max spots available. Guys like Brown are the problem: Very good, but nowhere near supermax-good. But the Celtics only choices were to sign it or trade him for a whole lotta meh.
I genetally agree with this take, except its been going on for several years already. Both players and owners are making so much money right now that it doesn’t matter. The most recent CBA agreement was the most contentious in a while and it still didn’t come close to a lockout or strike.