In a not at all surprising move, the Boston Celtics have picked up the team options on the contracts of forward Jaylen Brown and guard Terry Rozier.
With their options picked up, Brown and Rozier will earn about $5.2 million and $3.1 million respectively during the 2018-2019 season. It’s a no-brainer move as both players serve large roles for Boston that will likely only grow as the pair mature in the league. The combined just over $8.3 million is a relatively small portion of cash to devote to two of the team’s important youngsters.
At 15.4 points per game, Brown is currently second on the Celtics in scoring, while also adding 5.9 rebounds and 1.0 steal per game. He’s started all of Boston’s first seven contests of the year and is knocking down 42.9% of his attempts from field goal range. The second-year forward out of Cal is seeing nearly twice as many minutes in 2017-2018 than he did during his rookie campaign, up to 33.3 minutes per game from 17.2 per game a year ago.
Meanwhile, Rozier has flourished so far in his first season of seeing consistent back up minutes. The third-year point guard is seeing a career high 24.6 minutes per game and has appeared in all of the C’s contests so far. During that time he has put together a stat line of 9.4 points, 2.3 assists, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.9 steals per game, all of which are also career highs. Despite the increase in stats and playing time, Rozier hasn’t lost anything in the way of efficiency either. His shooting clips of 37.3 percent from the field and 34.5 percent from beyond the arc are the top marks Rozier has produced during his young NBA tenure.
Boston has one more option year they can pick up Brown, keeping him under team control until 2020. However, the Celtics will have some tougher decisions to make on Rozier’s future with the organization as he is set to hit restricted free agency in 2019.
