According To Brian Windhorst Jaylen Brown's Extension Is A "Fragile Deal"

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As of the writing of this blog, there has been no official word on the Jaylen Brown extension. Supermax, not a supermax, no extension at all and a trade instead, everything and anything is still on the table. Seeing as how we're all on the outside with no idea what the hell is going on, all we can do is go off of "reports". I'm sure there's a side of any Celts fan reading this blog that is maybe a little nervous because it felt like heading into free agency this was going to be a done deal and one of the first things announced once we got to 12:01am on 7/1.

Well here we are on 7/3 and there's nothing. Maybe that's all normal and there's an order of operations to what Brad and the Celts front office are doing. Remember, teams and players can officially sign contracts starting on July 6th when the moratorium period ends, so it's not like both sides don't have time to hash everything out.

With that said, Windy touched on this topic today and we're at the point now with him where you have to listen to what he says. You know, finger pointing memes and all that

For all we know there are maybe opt outs and other details being ironed out in a supermax deal. Maybe it's not a supermax at all. Maybe there's other deals out there that might require salary that's currently on the books and that needs to be taken care of before they figure out Jaylen's price. Now that all the UFAs have mostly signed, we're going to start hearing about the RFA group which incudes Grant, so I imagine that's a legit factor as well. If you remember, Jaylen didn't sign his rookie extension until October 21st, 2019. That was the first rookie extension since Rondo in 2009, and obviously took some time to hash out with Ainge

Well, this is also potentially the first supermax in Celtics history, so I would bet things are pretty complicated there as well.

While Windy certainly didn't make it sound like an extension wasn't going to happen and the overall chatter from people who actually know shit are talking like this will inevitably get done, that doesn't mean the opposite end of the spectrum isn't technically a possibility as well.

Because make no mistake, if there is not going to be an agreement between Jaylen and the Celtics on an extension this summer, they have to trade him. You cannot go into next season with Jaylen on an expiring deal and then risk him leaving for nothing. Not only that, you probably aren't going to flip him at the deadline, and even if you tried to you're probably getting 20 cents on the dollar given that he might just be a rental. There's even a risk of getting an ample return this summer given the fact that wherever he might end up cannot extend him either. So in that regard, he's basically an expiring contract to the market right now because there's no guarantee he stays.

Given what we've seen with stars in the league and are now seeing with Dame, I also think it's possible that we could see Jaylen sign for less than a supermax and then still be traded anyways after that 1 year was up. I'm not sure if you noticed, but guaranteed contracts don't mean dick anymore. Is it crazy to think there could be a situation where Jaylen signs for under the max but still tells the Celts he wants to be traded? Then, at least they have a player locked into a multiyear deal that will certainly help his market value.

My gut says we'll get the Woj/Shams extension bomb at some point, unless the team knows that Jaylen isn't signing anything other than a supermax and they aren't willing to give it to him. It would be nice to be able to exhale knowing that the extension is done and we can all turn the page, but who knows when that news is coming. The longer the Dame stuff drags on, the same might be true with Jaylen as well.