The Boston Celtics might have missed their deadline to sign Jaylen Brown to a new contract if not for Buddy Hield.
The contract extension the Sacramento Kings guard agreed to sign with his team Monday prompted Celtics officials to improve their offer to Brown just before the 6 p.m. ET deadline, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported Thursday on the “Lowe Post podcast.” Immediately after reports of Hield’s four-year, $106 million deal emerged, the Celtics concluded the market was shifting and pitched a new, four-year, $115 million offer to Brown, which he happily accepted.
“Boston may have had a number that was going to do it for Jaylen Brown all along, but from what I was hearing, Boston improved their offer significantly at the end of negotiations,” Windhorst said, per MassLive’s John Karalis. “One of the reasons I think they did that is because … They saw the way things were going. If Buddy Hield gets this, then our guy’s… So.”
The Celtics selected Brown with the third overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, and he’s averaged 11.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 24.4 minutes per game during his career.
Although those modest numbers suggest Boston might have overpaid for his services, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge confirmed Thursday on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Toucher and Rich” show the team is “betting on” the 23-year-old to improve in the future and for salaries around the NBA to continue growing.
Chances are that’s a bet the Celtics wouldn’t have made without first seeing Hield’s telling contract terms.
