The Celtics offseason has been full of twists and turns already but they achieved their top priority on Sunday when reaching a five-year max extension with Jayson Tatum that could be worth up to $195 million depending on the incentives reached, according to multiple league sources. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com was first to the extension.
Tatum, 22, averaged career-highs of 23.4 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.4 steals last season for Boston while being selected as an All-Star for the first time in his career. The extension will kick in for the 2021-22 season, ensuring that Tatum remains in Boston through 2024-25.
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Tatum getting a max deal has been a mere formality since the beginning of this year amid his breakout performance but the Celtics did take a slight hit on this max deal when Tatum opted for a player option in his fifth year rather than being locked into Boston for all five years of the deal.
The baseline numbers for the contract. Tatum is guaranteed $163 million over five years with the following base salaries starting in 2021.
Standard five-year max for Jayson Tatum worth $163 million (25 percent of cap)
2021-22: $28 million
2022-23: $30.4 million
2023-24: $32.6 million
2024-25: $34.8 million
2025-26: $37.1 million
Those totals will go up to a higher max of $195 million over five years (30 percent of the cap) if Tatum makes any of the All-NBA teams during the 2020-21 season based on Celtics using the Rose Rule to provides Tatum with additional incentives. Here are those figures
2021-22: $33.4 million
2022-23: $36.1 million
2023-24: $39 million
2024-25: $42.1 million
2025-26: $45.5 million
Tatum becomes the third rookie in the 2017 draft class to land a max deal this offseason along with De'Aaron Fox in Sacramento and Donovan Mitchell in Utah. Fox had his five-year deal fully guaranteed with no options but Mitchell also opted for a player option after year four. The Celtics didn't really have much margin for negotiation when it comes to giving Tatum an option for an early opt-out. Several All-Stars around the league have opted for five-year rookie extensions with fifth-year opt-outs (Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, etc.) so it's not a surprise that Tatum is pushing that flexibility to allow him to get a higher max salary and big new contract sooner by opting out a year early.
While it's nice for Boston to have Tatum officially locked in for the next five seasons (including the final year of his rookie deal), the clock starts now on Ainge. With player movement around the league more prolific than ever, it's on Ainge to put together a winning core around his 22-year-old franchise star for the next decade to ensure he has no reason to leave Boston a few years down the line. Whether that means just continuing to grow with this current core of Jaylen Brown, Kemba Walker and Marcus Smart or trading for another superstar along the way, the clock is officially ticking now especially after Boston lost a top-tier player in Gordon Hayward over the weekend for no meaningful compensation.