Boston Celtics: What Will Jaylen Brown’s Market Look Like Next Summer

After being drafted in 2016, Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown is now eligible for a contract extension. The only problem is, Brown and the Celtics are not yet on the same page.

Brown told Brian Robb of the Boston Sports Journal, “I haven’t heard from them. The ball is in their court.” That doesn’t sound exactly sound the most promising for the Boston Celtics.

Making things even murkier is that other players from Brown’s draft class, Jamal Murray and Ben Simmons both recently received max contract extensions with somewhere in the ballpark of $170M over five years.

The thing is that other than his breakout playoff performance in 2018 where he averaged 18 points per game, Brown hasn’t shown that he’s worth an extension of that magnitude.

It’s unlikely that an agreement will be reached this summer for multiple reasons if not to just let the market decide Brown’s worth.

Seeing his fellow colleagues get that much money, Brown likely won’t budge from the $170M price. The Celtics, smartly, will tell Brown to prove himself in this last season before hitting restricted free agency.

What happens with Brown next summer will depend on a bevy of different things, some of which he cannot control. One of those being how Gordon Hayward performs in what could be the last year of his deal.

Hayward signed a three year deal, plus a fourth year player option in the offseason of 2017, and will hit free agency in 2020 if he chooses to not opt into the final year of the contract.

If Hayward does not come close to his previous All-Star form we saw in Utah, it’s a strong possibility Hayward opts into his player option. That will tie up over $30 million to a guy who is getting paid to be an All-Star but isn’t delivering as such.

In that scenario the Boston Celtics have to endure the cap gymnastics of trying to keep Brown, Hayward, and Walker on max deals for one season.

There’s also the possibility that Hayward does bounce back, and Brown has a breakout year with the opportunity to now get more touches.

Boston could look to trade Brown when his value is high and add an All-Star big man, all while returning Hayward on a new deal that will take him through the rest of his prime alongside Kemba Walker and Jayson Tatum.

However, it may make more sense to let Hayward walk and re-up Brown to let him and Tatum grow together through the 2020’s.

If Brown can take even a small step forward in his development, some desperate team out there will throw a lot of money at him in a free agent class that looks to be one of the weaker ones in recent memory.

Teams would kill to lock up a 23 year old forward with all-star potential for the next five years. The Boston Celtics will likely have no other choice than the full five year max to keep Brown next summer.