The Celtics have agreed to a five-year, $304 million supermax extension with star wing Jaylen Brown, according to a report from The Athletic‘s Shams Charania.
The contract is the richest deal in league history and is fully guaranteed with a trade kicker. There is no player option on the deal, Charania reports.
Brown enjoyed the most productive season of his career with the Celtics last year, earning Second-Team All-NBA honors that made him eligible for the supermax extension this summer. Brown averaged a career-high 26.6 points per game on 49.1% shooting from the floor as he played cohesively alongside Jayson Tatum.
The glaring weakness in Brown’s game remains the turnover issues that he’s dealt with for the past couple of seasons. The issue with Brown’s turnovers came to a head in Boston’s Game 7 blowout loss at the hands of the Heat in the Eastern Conference finals, where he turned it over eight times.
Brown is an elite shotmaker, and his ability to defend at a high level makes him one of the game’s best two-way players. However, as long as his turnovers remain an issue, it will limit his ceiling, and in turn, Boston’s ceiling as a team when the lights are brightest.
However, signing Brown to a supermax extension, with a trade kicker, made the most sense for both the Celtics and Brown, whose skillset overall is one that is longed for across the league. Elite wing play is a staple of today’s NBA game, and Boston has two outstanding young wings entering their prime at the same time, making the Celtics a dangerous team in the East for years to come.
