New Abilities Week: will including a tighter deal with be well worth the $300+ million for Jaylen Brown?

Jaylen Brown, Capturing Guard

Related Particulars: 6’6”, wears #7. Proprietor of the costliest piece of paper in NBA historical past.

Excessive-end prediction: Armed with 300 million {dollars}, Brown takes one other leap, shoring up his deal with and cementing himself as one of many ten most dominant gamers within the league. He joins Jayson Tatum on the All-NBA First Workforce, changing into the primary teammates to try this since Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

Affordable prediction: Due to his sturdiness, he simply clears the 65-game threshold for All-NBA honors and earns one other Second Workforce nod. Nobody actually thinks he’s a bona fide prime ten man, however he continues to be the premier second choice within the NBA. A cleaner dribble assures Celtics followers of the value the workforce paid for his companies, however nothing actually revolutionary occurs.

Low-end prediction: Historical past repeats itself, and Jaylen winds up the trilogy of turnover-happy postseasons. Gone are the times when Celtics followers have been fearful Brown wouldn’t re-sign. Now, they’re left questioning if the workforce ought to have re-signed him in any respect.

Photograph by Megan Briggs/Getty Photographs

Brown’s 2023-2024 season will likely be outlined by three phrases: “are we positive?”

Are we positive he’s adequate to be the second-best participant on a title workforce? Are we positive he was value all $300+ million of assured cash the Celtics shelled out for him? Are we positive he even likes it in Boston?

My reply to all three of these questions is… most likely sure.

However most likely is a tough phrase to abdomen, particularly for a workforce perennially knocking on the door of an NBA title. However, Jaylen Brown is an important participant on the Celtics.

(audible gasp)

He’s not one of the best participant, neither is he going to be taking the final shot with a playoff recreation on the road—that may be Marcus Sm…I imply Jayson Tatum.

However with Good gone, Brown is now the straw that stirs the drink, which for the previous couple of years has tasted like an artificially sweetened Coke Zero that somebody left open on the window sill all day. For a second, you don’t even notice it’s not actual sugar. However then the aftertaste comes, and over time the bubbles go flat. The solar torches the chilly, crisp style and turns it right into a syrupy, lukewarm mess.

The Celtics have come inside seven complete video games of a championship within the two years mixed. Inevitably, one begins asking questions as to the best way to win mentioned video games.

These questions have typically caught Jaylen straight within the crosshairs. Can he dribble left? Is he actually value all that cash?

That every one sounds very destructive, however don’t mistake questions for an identifiable challenge. Jaylen isn’t the Celtics’ largest downside, however slightly their largest query mark. As a result of he’s so critically necessary—however not fairly non-negotiable like Tatum—the questions swirling about Brown really feel like they’ve world-ending penalties.

In fact, they don’t have world-ending penalties. That is basketball, not a world conflict, and it’s actually value questioning if the scrutiny levied on Jaylen is definitely all that proportional. So for now, I’m achieved asking questions. Let’s see it.