Report: Celtics extend Jaylen Brown for 4 years, $115 million

According to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Boston Celtics have signed Jaylen Brown to a four-year, $115 million rookie scale extension:

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1186368729061441536

Yahoo! Sports Chris Haynes reports that there are no options in Brown’s new contract:

https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/1186372592866742272

This works out to an average annual value of $28.75 million per season for Brown. Exact terms are not yet known. It’s common for details such as bonuses, non-guaranteed years and exact contract structures (increasing year-to-year vs declining vs flat) to come out after the initial deal is reported.

The overall deal is just shy of $15 million short of a full max deal over four season, or one year and $53 million short of a full five-year max extension.

Had Brown and Boston not reached a deal on an extension, Brown would have been a restricted free agent in July.

In recent years, the Celtics had preferred to let their players reach restricted free agency and to let the market determine their value. With teams like Brown’s hometown Atlanta Hawks, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Memphis Grizzlies all looming with potential max offer sheets, Danny Ainge deviated from the norm and locked up his first rookie scale extension since Rajon Rondo in 2009.

One additional motivating factor in Brown and Boston inking an extension now is uncertainty over where the salary cap will land next season due to the uncertainty between the NBA’s relationship with China. That situation has some teams preparing for the salary cap to come in considerably lower than it is currently projected. There have been suggestions that this has led to there being more rookie scale extensions signed than is the norm.

Over his first three seasons, Brown has steadily improved. As a full-time starter in his second season, Brown scored 14.5 points per game on 46.5% shooting overall and 39.5% from behind the arc. Last season, Brown was caught up in the roster crunch as much as any player and started just 25 games, while seeing his minutes drop from 30.7 to 25.9 per game.

This past summer Brown was a part of Team USA at the FIBA World Cup and scored 7.9 points per game over his eight appearances. Brown was one of the better defenders on Team USA, as he was regularly asked to guard anyone from point guards to centers.

With Brown signed, the Boston Celtics have their main core locked up for at least the next two seasons. Kemba Walker and Marcus Smart were already under contract, and Boston recently picked up their team option for the fourth year of Jayson Tatum’s rookie scale contract. Gordon Hayward has a $34.2 million player option for next season that he is likely to exercise as well.