When a lottery-level (or any first round pick) player signs with an agent, it needs to be a decision based on comfort level, and potentially ability to help bring in shoe and sponsorship dollars down the line. It’s not about negotiating the first contract, there is a set rookie scale, and while a team can offer (and most do ) up to 120 percent of that scale, the number is the number. It’s not until the second (and sometimes third) contract where a skilled negotiator helps.
Seeing that, Cal’s Jaylen Brown is going without an agent. Except for shoe deals. Adrian Wojnarowski and Bobby Marks of The Vertical at Yahoo Sports have the details:California freshman Jaylen Brown – No. 4 in The Vertical’s 2016 NBA mock draft – will pass on hiring an agent and consult with the National Basketball Players Association on his rookie contract, league sources told The Vertical...
There’s little, if any, room for negotiation in rookie contracts, and Brown wants to take time to learn the industry before eventually committing to an agent, sources said. The NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement has slotted salaries for first-round draft picks, although many agents don’t take commissions on those first deals for high-level players.
But some agents do, and Brown could save between $300,000 as the No. 3 overall pick to $150,000 at No. 8 on commission fees over the four years of the contract.
Brown is an athletic but raw 6'7" wing player — he has all the tools to be a quality rotation player on an NBA team, but it’s going to take time to get there. Right now he relies on that athleticism and strong build to get to the rim, but he’s going to need to develop more skill to thrive at the NBA level. He can get there, but it will not be immediate.
Brown also is an outside-the-box thinker (clearly), and if he’s comfortable with this it seems a wise move. That should attract teams, not make them shy away, but in a risk-averse NBA, who knows.