Jaylen Brown thinks NBA will go straight to playoffs when it restarts

Currently, the Celtics are set to face off with the sixth-seeded Philadelphia 76ers in the first round if the NBA postseason started right away without more regular-season games. That’s a scenario Jaylen Brown is currently expecting to unfold as the NBA begins to take baby steps towards a return with teams opening up their practice facilities across the country this month.

The Celtics swingman spoke with CNN late Wednesday in a wide-ranging interview about his expectations for the league upon a return to play in a high-level playoff atmosphere out of the gate.

“I think that is kind of, like, understood already, in a sense,” Brown said. “I don’t want to jump the gun. But I think the playoffs is what makes the league most of its money, and I think if we all agree to come back and play in the playoffs, I think it can regenerate [the income] so that we’ll be able to have a pretty solid salary cap going into next year. So the playoffs are what’s important.”

Brown was elected as a Vice President to the NBPA last year and was on the call earlier this week with top stars around the league such as LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo as those top players agreed to present a united front about returning to action when its deemed safe.

“The most influential players that were on that call that we speak of,” Brown said. “A lot of those guys want to continue the season and that’s very important to us, but we’ve also got to get with some of the guys that also make up this league and see how they feel. Everything is moving in the right [direction]. We just don’t want to come back too early and make people feel like things are OK if things are not [and are] potentially dangerous.”

The collective mindset of players and their attitudes about playing will be fascinating to watch in the coming weeks as the NBA takes bigger steps towards a return to play. The understanding around the league right now is that the league will need to see a significant uptick in publicly available testing in order for games to be held even in a singular location like Las Vegas or Orlando for all teams.

“Those resources have to pick up for the NBA to be able to come back,” Brown said.

The NBA’s labor situation may also make it a smoother road back for both sides from a business standpoint compared to the NBA. While MLB ownership is trying to introduce a revenue-sharing model for only this season as a way to minimize huge financial losses, that type of system is already in place for the NBA with a 50/50 revenue sharing split. That type of understanding will allow for easier negotiations to adjust for revenue shortfalls spread out among owners and players.

The other bigger question that remains beyond just the safety logistics is what happens if there is a strong minority of players that don’t want to return even with improved protocols. One source told ESPN that it was a 70/30 early split among players that want to come back at this point. Better safety regulations and standards may increase that number close to 100 percent of players but there will presumably be a percentage of the league that doesn’t want to come back without a vaccine or more effective treatment available. Some players may have close family members in the higher-risk population group and could be prepared to sit out no matter the circumstances with not wanting to put those individuals at risk while refusing to isolate from them. Will those players be pressured by others to participate anyway? Will those who choose to sit out be fined or have their pay withheld despite the understandable concerns they have? The NBA will need to have a gameplan for how they want to deal with these types of circumstances.

For now, Brown seems confident that the majority of his league is on the same page in how they want to proceed.

“All NBA players, this is what we’re born to do, this is what we love to do,” Brown said. “Of course we want to play. We just don’t want to play at the expense of other people’s health, at the expense of starting things up too early, and it not being a good situation.”

The next step? Adam Silver wants to make a call by early June on whether there is a workable plan for the resumption of the season. Based on comments from Brown and others, the NBA is going to try to position themselves to take a crack at this.