There are 304 million reasons this contract is going to get done.
Before summer is over, Jaylen Brown will sign the richest contract in NBA history, a five-year supermax worth $304 million (Brown is supermax eligible after making second team All-NBA team last season). It’s raised eyebrows for some that the sides have talked and the deal isn’t finalized, but every source that I mentioned it to during Summer League shrugged it off as just part of the negotiations, saying it will happen.
Those talks started in early July but were never finalized before Brown went to Spain on players’ union business. Now he’s back and talks will start up again this week, reports Gary Washburn at the Boston Globe.
With Jaylen Brown now back in Boston from his NBPA retreat in Spain, contract talks will resume next week, according to a league source. #Celtics.
— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) July 21, 2023
Brown averaged 26.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists a game last season, in addition to being a plus wing defender (his rough series against the Heat is not going to reduce this contract). The Celtics are trying to build a championship team around Brown and Jayson Tatum, a roster they’ve tweaked this year sending out Marcus Smart and bringing in Kristaps Porzingis. Not having Smart will put more locker-room leadership on Brown and Tatum if this team is going to live up to expectations.
That bet on the roster means this deal will get done. The sides are likely debating whether Brown gets a player option on the final year, a 15% trade kicker and other side parts of the deal.
But it will get done. Brown is not walking away from that much money and the Celtics want to win it all and need Brown to do it. There is no Jaylen Brown trade coming (now, anyway, whether Brown finishes this contract a Celtic is up for discussion). Expect the announcement to come down in the next week or two, but it will happen even if it’s not that fast.
