Jaylen Brown reportedly turned down $80 million extension offer from Celtics

Jaylen Brown and the Celtics have been talking rookie extension negotiations for weeks as we first reported here at BSJ earlier this month. Now, we have a better idea of what the starting range has been for the C's offer thus far after Yahoo! Sports’ Chris Haynes reported on Wednesday that the swingman has turned down a four-year, $80 million offer from Boston.

Brown's new agent Jason Glushon and the front office have until Monday evening to hash out a deal ahead of the start of the season. Otherwise, Brown is likely to head into restricted free agency next summer, assuming he's not traded before then.

“To be honest, I haven’t put too much thought into it,” Brown said of the talks earlier this month. “I’m not losing any sleep over it. I think stuff like that will end up working itself out in the end or however. So I’m just focused on this season and playing basketball. I think that’s my number one emphasis, and let the chips fall where they may.”

BSJ Analysis

Brown has looked sharp in the preseason, showing some improved passing vision and better shot selection throughout these contests while playing more of his minutes at power forward than in previous seasons, following a trend that started in Team USA. With most of his younger wing competition (i.e. Romeo Langford) failing to make much of an impact, Brown's value appears to be primed to only grow this season as he sees more opportunity in the starting five with a more consistent share of the scoring load.

The Celtics have until opening night to come to terms on an extension with Brown, but Ainge's 15-year tenure as president of the Celtics, he has not signed players on rookie contracts to extensions very often. In fact, only Kendrick Perkins (2006) and Rajon Rondo (2009) have agreed to an extension on their rookie deals with Boston ahead of the opening night deadline for former first-round picks.

Ainge’s strategy on this front makes a lot of sense over recent years. The Celtics were set on maintaining cap room for much of this decade, but they also haven’t had any “elite” prospects that have proven themselves worthy of big money (Avery Bradley, Tyler Zeller, Jared Sullinger, Kelly Olynyk, etc.) by their fourth NBA season. Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier both had negotiations go down to the wire in the past two years, with each of them opting for the open market in free agency. The gamble paid off for Rozier, who landed a three-year, $58-million deal with Charlotte, while Smart opted for a similar deal to what was offered in negotiations last summer.

The Celtics aren't necessarily in the business of protecting future cap room with Brown, although the door is open for some significant room in 2021 if Brown and Hayward are no longer around. The bigger issue in the present is simply the fact that other teams have already overpaid some of their players on rookie extensions, particularly a guy like Jamal Murray (five years, $168 million). There is a limited pool of teams expected to have max cap room this summer but Brown seems like a safe bet to get an offer sheet of at least $20 million per year barring some sort of disastrous year. He's young at 23 and has a mix of shooting/driving ability that should make him a promising piece to a wide array of franchises over the long-term.

For now, the Celtics would be wise to push up their offer a little more as Ryan Bernardoni suggested earlier this month. Getting into the four-year/$90-million range is a total that should give Brown some pause for consideration, even if he's unlikely to settle for it. The C's want to make him feel respected with their numbers but they can't worry about leaving themselves vulnerable to a max offer next summer at this point either. Brown needs to prove his value on the court this season and it's possible his price tag won't get much higher than these current offers anyway, especially if the salary cap drops due to the China situation (due to lost revenue). The bottom line? The sides look to be too far apart to make a deal a reality by Monday.