Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics have completed a five-year supermax contract extension worth up to $304 million. The deal is fully guaranteed, which means there are no incentives, and it does not include a fifth-year player option, but does include a trade kicker.
This is the richest deal in NBA history … for now.
Karalis’ analysis:
Let me start by just noting the amazing timing here for Brown. He’s cracking the seal on the $300 million contract. He stands to make more than $60 million per year on average.
There is a trade kicker in the deal, so if Brown is moved, he stands to make more, which is where the $304 number is coming in. The full five-year supermax deal is about $290 but with the trade kicker, Brown could cross the $300 million mark.
Brown did not ultimately get a fifth-year player option, which was probably appealing to him since he knows there's a good chance he might not finish his career in Boston. The ability to get out of the deal a year earlier might have appealed to Brown in that situation.
Because Brown signed a supermax (technically, it’s called the designated veteran extension), he now can't be traded for one year after he signs the deal. That gives Brown a little bit of leverage because that restriction will carry him to the end of next July.
Of course, if a team is trying to trade for Brown and he agrees to go, he can waive that. But if Boston were to decide Brown was moving next offseason, it would be tougher to trade him because of that restriction. It’s not a full no-trade clause (he wasn’t eligible for that), so a team can just wait out the restriction and bring him on, but Brown has an opportunity to prolong things at a busy time of the year. Teams want to dot i’s and cross t’s right away, so Brown maintains at least some leverage there.
His first-year salary, which begins in the 2024-25 season, should be around $50 million. That means next year’s roster will have Brown, Jayson Tatum at $35 million, and Kristaps Porzingis at $29 million. Carrying $114 million for three players will be a lot, and adding three more eight-figure players (Malcolm Brogdon at $22.5 million, Derrick White at $19.5 million, and Robert Williams at $12.5 million) will make Boston very expensive.
So get ready for more cost-cutting moves. Boston is below the second apron this season, so they can still tinker, but this current roster will be over that line next year.
Brown still needs to address shortcomings in his game. I think he knows that too. He left last season with the horrible taste of turning the ball over half the time in a Game 7 loss at home to Miami. He should know by now what he needs to fix.
What I hope is that the money doesn’t put so much pressure on Brown that he feels like he needs to do everything. I hope he understands that he should actually try to do a little less on the floor and get more efficient with his offense. This is a lot of money, and while some people might think that could lead to complacency, I think it could go the opposite direction and make Brown think he has to be everywhere on the floor to earn that money. There is a possibility here that the money gets in his head and Brown feels the need to justify the deal. He needs to understand what makes him great and stick to that.
The bottom line is that Brown, as expected, has the potential to remain with the Celtics for six more years (this season plus five more in his extension). This is the richest deal in NBA history, but that will be eclipsed by every supermax deal signed from here on out. While I think Brown has earned his money, I don’t think he’s good enough to be the richest NBA player ever.
But hey, congrats again to him for being on the leading edge of big new money. In a few years, his salary will settle into a tier below the megastars, which is where it should be. The NBA is thriving financially, so I’m not going to begrudge a player getting his share of the revenue split. The numbers sound outrageous (he’ll make at least $65 million in the final year of his deal), but that's how much money is pouring into the league right now.
I think he’s going to do some good things with that money, including supporting some important charitable causes around Boston. This is something that could help kids in the city, and I don’t want any basketball analysis to overlook Brown’s community work and stated goals. He’s going to make a lot of money every year he’s in Boston, and I think he’ll use some of that to try to make the city better.