Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum make All-NBA teams. Here's how that impacts their contract situations

Jaylen Brown made second team All-NBA tonight, with Jayson Tatum making the first team.

"I know our team is selfless and they want to win more than anything," Joe Mazzulla said of the awards during a Zoom call with reporters. “Getting individual awards along the way is good because I trust our team’s togetherness, and those two guys want to win as a team more than anybody else, and we’re grateful to have that.”

This makes Brown eligible for a Designated Veteran Extension, which you know as the “super-max.” 

That means he can sign a five-year, $295 million contract extension with the Celtics this summer that kicks for the ‘24-’25 season. That's one more year and a salary that starts $7 million higher in the first year than if he didn’t make All-NBA.

Tatum also gets Designated Veteran Extension status for his deal by virtue of making first team All-NBA, and he can sign that extension next summer. 

Karalis’ take:

No one talks about the Tatum one because he has been a lock to make All-NBA. Also, I don’t expect him to sign the extension based on his current salary. I think he’ll opt out of the final year of his deal (‘25-’26) and sign a new contract then because that's the first year of the new TV money and he’ll want to make a percentage based on that new salary cap instead of taking the $37 million in the player option year of that deal. 

So, if word gets out that Tatum isn’t planning on signing an extension next summer, just prepare yourself now. He won’t because he’ll be able to double that money with a new deal. 

I know, nice problem to have. 

The expectation is that Boston will offer Brown the full amount as soon as they can. I anticipate Brown will take the deal. 

Of course, there is a lot of chatter about Brown’s status with the team, how much he’s being used, and what he might want in the future. However, he also made an All-NBA team here in Boston and it’s a team that despite its recent issues, is still in the mix for an NBA championship.

The smart move for Brown is to take the super-max and spend the next couple of seasons in Boston trying to figure out if he can win it all. If I’m his agent, I’m impressing upon him that regardless of personal goals, winning a championship is an extremely valuable thing to have on a resume. Winning a championship opens up future opportunities after the playing career is over. 

And if Brown truly wants out, then he can ask out after year one of the deal. He’ll still be young enough that a young team looking for a star player could pony up some talent. His feelings might depend on where Boston is at the time. 

But that's another discussion for another time. The biggest part of this is that Brown can get his super-max extension, and that Boston can keep the Tatum/Brown duo intact. Even if there are people who don’t feel like that's something the Celtics should do, the bottom line is you don’t find players like this around the league, and you’re better off trying to make it work than trying to blow it up.