Will the Boston Celtics trade or offer Jaylen Brown a supermax extension?
There is no way to sugarcoat the idea that the 2023 playoffs ended in disappointment for the Celtics. That being said, they don’t seem to be phased.
When the expectation is that you win and you don’t, the tendency is to make changes, however, it would appear that Boston Celtics don’t believe the proverbial wheel is broken and as such, they don’t intend to fix it.
Celtics set to extend Jaylen Brown rather than trade him
The manner in which the Boston Celtics saw their season come to an end definitely hurt. An Eastern Conference Finals loss - their second consecutive appearance - to the Miami Heat left many wondering whether or not there would be some restructuring afoot. After all, this is the same Celtics team that lost the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors last year. Surely a second year of disappointment would have been enough to warrant changes. Yet, according to reports, the Celtics have no intention of breaking up the team they’ve built, chief among which is forward, Jaylen Brown. Indeed, it’s now understood that the franchise is in fact set to grant Brown a five-year, $295 million supermax contract to remain in Boston.
To be clear, speculation about Brown’s future has been writhe since the regular season, a period during which Brown was not actually eligible for an extension at the maximum due to the low price of his last contract - under the Central Bargaining Agreement. That all changed, however, when Brown was named to the All-NBA team, an achievement that automatically afforded him eligibility for supermax status. Though there was some chatter about him being traded due to the new CBA’s tough stance on teams paying multiple stars, it now appears that Brown will be staying put. To be fair, this is not entirely surprising when considering just how good Brown has been alongside Jayson Tatum. If you think about it, the duo has been to the Eastern Conference Finals in four of the last six seasons and the NBA Finals - last year - once.
Ok, but the Celtics still need work
That’s pretty clear and if there’s one aspect of the team for which it has suffered, it’s the size or rather the lack thereof. Now that Grant Williams is about to become a restricted free agent, there’s the opportunity to address that problem. Williams will undoubtedly garner some tasty offers and with that, the Celtics can who don’t have a problem on offense, can focus on fixing what really matters: their presence in the paint. In truth, this is a sound move by Boston. That Joe Mazzulla was able to guide the team to the Conference Finals after the controversial departure of former coach Ime Udoka midseason, should tell you that this team is legit. That’s clearly something the front office acknowledges, which is probably why they’re in no hurry to tamper.