Bears in the pros: Jaylen Brown's Supermax
The next round is on Jaylen
On Tuesday, another former Golden Bear got the brinks trunk backed up for them. Jaylen Brown has just signed the richest contract in NBA history to return to the Boston Celtics, on a 5 year, 304 million dollar deal according to Marc Spears. It’s a fully guaranteed deal with a trade kicker and no player option. In today’s NBA, you have to pay your stars regardless otherwise you obviously assume the risk of losing them (even with Boston being the only team that could offer Brown the supermax).
This breakdown from ESPN Front Office Insider Bobby Marks sets the contract into perspective.
Brown will be the first NBA player to eclipse the 60 million dollar per year mark in the league, one that will likely get matched with players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the near future. The value of the richest contract in the NBA has doubled in the last seven years, with Mike Conley signing for 153 million dollars back in 2016.
In seven NBA seasons, Brown has averaged 18 points per game along with 5 rebounds per game on 47.7% shooting from the field and 36.5% from three. He has stepped up his game over the course of the last three seasons, peaking as the Celtics most consistent player in the 2022 NBA Finals. Boston fans will look for Brown to improve his handles, as he averaged his biggest amount of turnovers this season at 2.9 TPG. In the playoffs, weaknesses like that get amplified and have contributed to some costly miscues against the Warriors and this year against the Miami Heat. Despite that, it’s not hard to justify why Boston gave him this contract in the pursuit of their 18th championship alongside Jayson Tatum.
Good for him. He's a good guy who is also doing a lot of work within the union. I don't know if this is good for the Celtics or not, but I don't exactly worry about that as a Laker fan.
As someone living in Boston for the last 15 years, I've become more loyal to the Celtics than I have any one guy who happened to play at my alma mater for a year... So, I must admit I was one who wanted Brown out (along with the interim-->new coach Mazzulla) at the end of their post season crash, and just don't think he is worth the super max and tax apron limitations they're going to have down the road with the new cba when Tatum gets his. Granted this money stuff speaks more about the league than the players.