PHILADELPHIA — Teammates and the organization campaigned. A round of interviews drew attention to the importance of his candidacy from a financial perspective. Pundits debated whether he played guard or forward, and in the end, voters rallied following Jaylen Brown’s best season of his career to award him All-NBA Second Team status. Brown earned 45 second-team votes, beating out Julius Randle (30) and LeBron James (16).
“Because I know our team is selfless, and I know they want to win more than anything,” Joe Mazzulla said on Wednesday before the voting came out. “Getting individual awards along the way is good, because I trust our teams togetherness, and those two guys want to win as a team more than anything else and we’re grateful to have that and so I think that’s a testament to our locker room and what I expect (from them in Game 5) is just what they’ve done their whole careers. It’s an opportunity for us to stick together and go out there and battle.”
The recognition allowed the Celtics to offer Brown a five-year, $295-million extension this summer that would keep him under contract through at least 2028, with a player option likely for 2028-29. It’d pay Brown over $50-million per year for the length of the contract, reach over $60-million for the final two seasons and combined with Jayson Tatum’s 2024 extension worth $315-million, place most of the Celtics’ cap commitment between two players. That’s life when you draft two of the top-15 players in the sport — though a difficult one to navigate.
Fortunately for Boston, if it does intend to offer the deal, it far exceeds the four-year, $197.3-million extension he could sign elsewhere under the new CBA. The Celtics hold negotiation power, but that 35% of the cap figure ($50-million) for his 2024-25 base salary will likely be what Brown’s camp stands on one year before his free agency.
Brown’s distinction came on the eve of Boston’s potential elimination at the hands of the 76ers in a series they entered as overwhelming favorites. He averaged 10.0 points per game on 69% shooting in the first quarters of Games 1-5, before fading in Games 1, taking only 10 shots all game, then three in the fourth quarter and overtime of Game 4. Joe Mazzulla and Jayson Tatum largely shrugged, emphasizing the offense’s desire to create the best shot regardless who takes it and turning it on Brown to play more aggressively. He shot 16 times in Game 5.
“I guess I gotta demand the ball a little bit more,” Brown said after Game 5. “I thought good things happened when I had it in my hands.”
While Tatum passed to Brown eight times in Game 4 and 10 in Game 5, well above the average 6.3 times per game that Tatum found Brown in the regular season, their inability to excel in tandem during the series returns seemingly settled questions about how well the pair plays off each other. Brown stashed in the corner during key crunch time possessions during the series, found himself running alone in transition during Game 1 and watched the team’s offense grind to a halt with the ball in Tatum’s hands. It’s now Philadelphia’s series to lose.
That’s not to absolve Brown from blame, who needs to find ways to involve himself in the offense and communicate with ball-handling teammates to put himself in position to receive passes. His double-team on Joel Embiid away from James Harden cost the Celtics Game 4 and his back-to-back charges in Game 5 landed him on the bench in foul trouble. Still, he’s posting a two-to-one assist to turnover ratio in first quarters while Tatum struggles — the latter shooting 33.3% from the field and 18.2% from three in first quarters in this series driving against Embiid.
“When (Tatum) gets off to a good start, we’re a better team,” Mazzulla said. “Also understanding it doesn’t necessarily have to come from points. When he’s at his best, he’s navigating offensively and defensively, and we have switched coverages throughout the series to where he wasn’t catching it that low and we’ve made some adjustments and gone back to it — and so I think it’s more about not giving him the same look throughout a game or throughout a series … I thought (Brown) did a good job of that yesterday. I thought he did a good job of his early offense reads, creating cross-matches and driving the ball. I thought he got some good looks coming off screens. When we play our system, just reads and screening, he does a great job … he’s just gotta continue to be aggressive.”
One of the team’s largest shifts into the postseason became Tatum’s return to the team’s primary ball-handler after Marcus Smart effectively split on-ball time with Brown through the team’s 21-5 start. Tatum held the ball 4.8 minutes per game compared to Brown’s 3.8 through the team’s first 10 playoff games. Without guards involving both players in actions routinely, like Smart and Malcolm Brogdon did during the regular season, and with far more minutes overlapping (29.5 minutes per game compared to 26.7), some degree of my-turn, your-turn returned. Game 2 saw Brown manage the offense with 25 points, four assists and one turnover while Tatum largely sat in foul trouble, later calling it effectively an off day, while Brown thought Boston generated the same looks repeatedly in Game 5. Strangely enough, they haven’t screened for each other in this series.
While we know the pair can play together, rocketing up the list of 30-point games by teammates this year and practically undefeated (23-1) when those games happen. They could use one more to extend the season to a Game 7 on Sunday, but regardless of when it happens, this year falling well short of a championship would raise questions about this core’s future together — Brown included. When Brown and Tatum’s next contracts kick in, they’d account for over $100-million alone of the roughly $144.7-million salary cap and $175-million luxury tax, with the 2024-25 season likely to serve as the team’s third in a row in the tax, triggering repeater penalties more strenuous under the new collective bargaining agreement.
The new second apron, reportedly $17.5-million over the luxury tax, will enact additional penalties starting next season, including losing the taxpayer mid-level exception, the ability to sign buyout players during the season and taking back more money than they send out in trades. This season, Boston finished $25.2-million over the tax line, and begin next year $4.1-million over before re-signing Grant Williams and/or a taxpayer mid-level player (worth $5-million).
That gives the Celtics well under $13-million in wiggle room to retain Williams, and likely preventing the team from adding any new players this summer. If they do cross the second apron line, they’d reportedly also forfeit the ability their 2031 first-round pick and see it move to the end of the first-round if they remain in the second apron for two of the following four years. That immediately becomes a consideration for the Celtics this summer, since they’re almost inevitably becoming a double apron team with Brown and Tatum retained for 2024-25.
If the Celtics view Brown and Tatum as players who can grow into championship drivers, they’ll offer the super max to both without flinching. If the core of this roster falls short again, the tradeoff between centralizing the roster’s money around two stars, or one with an array of emerging young players with varied skill sets becomes a real conversation.
Finding that return would become an enormously risky proposition though, and only one worth pursuing if Boston maintains any concern about Brown’s commitment even while signed long-term. Signing the super max makes Brown trade-ineligible for one year. He could request a no trade clause. Nonetheless, Wednesday marked a massive win for both sides in their pursuit of eventually winning a championship, and hope remains for this year.
“All I do is come out every night and try to help my team win, and be the best version of myself,” Brown said, addressing his All-NBA candidacy earlier this spring. “I don’t try to step on any toes. I just come out and be Jaylen Brown and do what I’m asked, and I have fun doing it. I have fun winning.”
