Last week, the Boston Celtics extended All-NBA player Jaylen Brown with the richest contract in NBA history. The contract, which is for five years, $304 million, goes through the 2028-29 season. At first glance, some might think the contract isn’t one of the smartest in the league and will come back to bite them, but I am here to tell you that this is good for both the short-term, and long-term, goals of the team.
Short-Term
For the short-term, the obvious one is that the Celtics will not have to worry about Brown playing on an expiring contract. Had the Celtics not extended him this summer, this would have been Brown’s last year on his current deal. The last time the Celtics had a star playing on an expiring deal was Kyrie Irving in 2019, during which the team was wondering whether he would be back the year after for the entire season. This caused a ton of tension in the locker room, for them to grossly underachieve only being the fourth seed and losing to the Bucks in the second round after making the Eastern Conference Finals the year before. Now that Brown is extended, they will not have to worry about losing him for nothing after this season.
Long-Term
Brown will be turning 27 at the beginning of the season, meaning his best days are ahead of him. Brown is a two-time All-Star, made the All-NBA Second Team last season, and has made the Eastern Conference Finals every year he has been healthy, minus 2019. Though he has not been the best player on any of those teams, he has been a top-two scoring option on four of them. A player like that is someone you want long-term.
In addition to this, Jayson Tatum will be eligible for an extension next year. Almost everyone believes Tatum is a top-10 player currently (I believe he is top-five), and you cannot afford to lose him, at any cost. There are simply no trade options in which you can get close to an equal return unless you land a player like Steph Curry, Nikola Jokic, or Giannis Antetokounmpo. Tatum and Brown are close-knit and are both on record stating they want to play together for a long time. After the Celtics traded their good friend Marcus Smart, they need to do everything they can to keep their remaining two stars long-term. Extending Brown means Tatum will almost definitely agree to an extension as well, and these are certainly two players worth building around for the next half-decade.
Addressing Concerns
Many people are against this deal in the long run because “you cannot sign a non-top-25 player for one of the richest contracts of all time.” There are two points to refute that. Firstly, Jaylen Brown has become underrated again. Most people had him top 20 to 25 before the season began, and he played well this season. However, he had the worst seven-game stretch of his career against the Miami Heat and played awful in Game 7. This led to people thinking he is a worse player than he is.
In addition to people thinking Brown is overrated, the fact that he has one of “the richest contracts of all time” lacks context. Players like Antetokounmpo, Jokic, and others are going to have far richer contracts very soon. The way the market works is that contracts get bigger and bigger throughout the league as time goes on. By the time Brown is at the end of his contract in 2029, he will not be a top-10 or maybe even top-15 highest-paid player in the league.
Conclusion
Jaylen Brown is someone who has proven to be an All-NBA caliber player, and his game translates in the playoffs. Not only did the Celtics make the right decision extending Brown, there was no alternative.
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