BOSTON — With the Celtics season ending before the NBA Finals, all attention will now be focused on a critical offseason. It’s also a critical offseason for Jaylen Brown’s future as well.
Brown is eligible to sign a supermax extension after earning Second Team All-NBA honors this season, but it’s undetermined if the Celtics will shell out the type of money Brown can demand now.
Brown isn’t sure how he’ll approach the situation, either. In the immediate aftermath of a crushing 103-84 loss in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat at TD Garden on Monday night, Brown struggled addressing how he will handle his contract situation this summer.
“You asked what’s my thought process?” Brown said before taking a long pause. “I don’t even really know how to answer that question right now, to be honest. My thought process is take it one day at a time, focus on getting better, focus on what the future holds and see where we are from there. I guess. I don’t know really know how to answer that.”
While Brown turned in the best season of his seven-year NBA career, he failed to rise to the bar he set in the playoffs, especially in Boston’s final game of the season. With Jayson Tatum turning his ankle on the first possession of the game, it was on Brown to step up and he didn’t. He scored just 19 points on 8-of-23 shooting, including a repulsive 1-for-9 mark from beyond the arc, while turning the ball over an eye-popping eight times. Heat breakout star Caleb Marin outplayed him again as well.
But as the Celtics begin the process of moving on from the deflating defeat, Tatum wants Brown in the Celtics’ future plans.
“It’s extremely important,” Tatum said. “He’s one of the best players in this league. He plays both ends of the ball and still is relatively young. And he’s accomplished a lot so far in his career.”
