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Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics probably did the right thing to pull out of the Jaylen Brown–Giannis Antetokounmpo trade sweepstakes once the Bucks raised the price of the deal from something like a one-to-one Brown-for Giannis swap to a deal that would require draft picks and young players. The Celtics were willing to add pot sweeteners but as the Bucks asked for more than Boston was willing to give up, the bid for Antetokounmpo failed and he was sent to Miami.

Now, the Celtics must decide what to do with Brown. He has given no indication about how he feels having been shopped yet again by the Celtics–it’s been a pattern throughout his NBA career–as the team searches for a star shake-up. But the Celtics now must decide whether to keep Brown on the trade market or attempt to bring him back into the Celtics’ fold.

The Celtics are threading the needle between pushing Brown out the door and being willing to keep him in place by not actively shopping him. It’s a matter of semantics, though–sure, the Celtics are not picking up the phone and actively soliciting offers on Brown, but they’re answering the phone to hear teams out on what they’d offer. And a slew of teams are calling.

Celtics Can Pay Jaylen Brown $142 Million Extension

But what’s interesting for the Celtics on the Brown front is that there is an opportunity for the team to smooth things over with their star pretty easily. That would be to tack on a two-year extension to his current supermax deal, which would add a whopping $142 million over two seasons.

Now, Brown is still relatively early in his supermax contract, which paid him a then-record $304 million over five years, back in 2023. He is still owed $183 million over the next three seasons. Adding more than $70 million per year at the end of that would mean Boston is paying Brown top dollar into his age 33 (2029-30) and age 34 (2030-31) seasons.

That’s not ideal. But if the Celtics have a goal of bringing Brown back and affirming their commitment to him, it would be something of an olive branch. There is time for that to unfold–Brown is eligible for the deal on the anniversary of the signing of his last contract, which was on July 25.

Jaylen Brown and Derrick White on the Trade Market?

It is fair to say, though, that the Celtics will now recalibrate and assess the state of the roster. Brown is the most obvious trade chip. But there have been reports of interest in guard Derrick White, too, and he has $97 million over three years left on his contract, too. The Celtics have Sam Hauser, at three years and $35 million, on the books. He has been on the trade market, too, for the better part of a year.

Brown will be 30 when next season starts, and White will be 32. The Celtics could seek to move both White and Brown, and try to re-infuse the talent level on the roster with younger players to support Jayson Tatum, who turned 28 in March. Hauser would not need to be part of that overhaul, but his contract could come in handy as a trade chip.

Celtics Could Target Young Stars

The Celtics are known to have interest in the Pelicans’ Trey Murphy, and could seek to pluck young pieces from the Rockets, the Nuggets or the Blazers if they were to put both Brown and White on the market.

In addition to getting younger and adding a wider base of talent, the Celtics are keeping an eye on the luxury tax–they’d like to stay below it for another year to get out of “repeater” tax territory. That would free up more tools to use in roster-building.

That’s if the Celtics seek to make blockbusters, of course. Keeping Brown–and paying him–is still a viable (if tricky) option.