The Garden Report took to the airwaves LIVE, offering in-depth analysis and reactions to the noteworthy absence of Jaylen Brown's contract extension with the Boston Celtics. Is this a typical occurrence? Speculations are rife as to when the Celtics will secure him for the long term – could a Supermax deal be on the horizon? Tune in to hear the insights and predictions from our hosts on The Garden Report!
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 We're gonna start with Daly, who is somewhere in Europe?
00:09 - Yeah, I believe so.
00:10 You don't know where?
00:13 - I haven't seen him posting out there,
00:15 so I don't know if he's there yet,
00:16 but I didn't hear the exact country.
00:17 I mean, Europe's pretty, is he in Serbia
00:21 or is he in England?
00:22 I don't know.
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00:44 But let's get into Jalen Brown and like, you know,
00:47 you know me, I like to work.
00:48 - All right, John, let me set you up here.
00:49 - I wanna work my way into it.
00:51 I don't wanna go nuclear right off the top.
00:52 - No, I just, you asked me, I think you asked me actually,
00:57 is this just gonna be open and close, boom, July 1st, done?
01:01 I said, yeah.
01:04 I said, this is, it's 300.
01:07 What's there to talk about?
01:08 What's there to discuss?
01:09 What's there to quibble over?
01:11 And we are 18 days later and not even close to a resolution.
01:16 There's been reassurance that every turn,
01:19 every week it feels like it's like, it's gonna get done.
01:22 Summer league was supposed to be once they were there,
01:24 they were gonna sit down and wrap it up.
01:26 And now it's on pause.
01:27 I tweeted a couple of days ago
01:30 and of course I got massive blowback.
01:33 This just keeps, this is officially weird
01:35 and it's been weird.
01:36 And I don't know how you can't agree with that.
01:40 So what was your reaction, John,
01:42 when you saw that it didn't go through
01:44 and then it just never did?
01:45 - So again, the second it didn't go through right away,
01:49 you knew that there was something.
01:51 It doesn't mean what's happening.
01:53 This is the problem with how this is gonna go.
01:55 You're gonna have the everything is all right crowd
01:57 in one bucket.
02:00 Then anybody who says anything else
02:02 is gonna be viewed as a doomer.
02:04 This isn't a doomer take.
02:06 This should have been turnkey.
02:08 These things are easy.
02:09 We've seen how many other people
02:11 have signed these extensions already.
02:13 It's here's what I can pay you.
02:14 I love it, thank you, done.
02:17 And you sign and you're done.
02:19 All the deals are the same.
02:20 Five years with a player option in the last one.
02:22 There's really no hang up here
02:24 unless there's something that doesn't make sense.
02:28 And either the Celtics are trying to convince Jalen
02:30 to not take the max, max, max, max,
02:32 instead of 35% of the cap, 30, 31%, whatever that is.
02:36 We've seen that happen in some instances before.
02:38 I think Clay, there's a couple others.
02:41 And then there's,
02:42 then there's,
02:44 the only other thing is Jalen's willingness.
02:49 So you wonder which of the things is holding it up
02:51 because these are,
02:53 you don't even need an agent to get the NBA.
02:56 - Jimmy's fooling around with something down there.
02:58 - Jimmy, are you twisting things?
03:00 Stop.
03:01 - I didn't realize it.
03:03 I didn't know you could hear.
03:04 I didn't even know my audio was working.
03:06 I got people telling me that my audio
03:07 is not matching up to my mouth.
03:09 - If we had Timmy Bottlecaps here producing,
03:12 he'd be all over your shit right now.
03:14 So come on.
03:15 - Yeah, I know.
03:16 All right, all right, back on here, Trinidad, go.
03:18 - Nothing, I mean, so it's obviously,
03:22 it's weird, right?
03:23 We don't know why it's weird and it's weird.
03:25 And it still might end up getting done.
03:27 And all of the nothing to see here crowd will be like, see?
03:30 But it doesn't mean it was fine all along.
03:33 It just means-
03:34 - He can't go to Europe?
03:35 What?
03:36 Oh, he can't take a trip to Europe?
03:38 - You've got-
03:40 - Works for the NBA.
03:42 - On the other side of the, you can't go to Europe,
03:44 is the crowd that's saying like,
03:46 why isn't he just sitting at home learning how to dribble?
03:50 You know, like-
03:51 - Less swimming at the bottom of the ocean
03:54 and more dribbling.
03:54 - He's dribbling his way through Prague right now.
03:57 Yeah.
03:57 - Yeah, that's fine.
03:58 If he's going to go to Europe, fine.
03:59 But I want to see him dribbling the entire time.
04:01 I'm on my airport.
04:02 - Unlike cobblestones too.
04:04 With the ball taking weird bounces
04:05 and you got to learn to control it.
04:06 - European dribbling is a whole different panel.
04:08 - Yeah, that's a good place to do that out there.
04:11 - Yeah.
04:12 - I found it weird from the start.
04:15 There isn't much to hang over here.
04:17 The latest you're hearing is-
04:18 - These are easy.
04:19 - The latest you're hearing is player option,
04:21 which I understand.
04:22 If the Celtics want to have some flexibility-
04:24 - I don't understand that.
04:25 - Well, I'm about to explain it.
04:28 If the Celtics want to have some flexibility
04:30 to trade him down the line,
04:32 or they think we're giving you 300 million,
04:34 which is dozens of what you could earn over elsewhere.
04:39 We want to have that 50 year of team control undisputed,
04:43 which increases his value to them
04:45 and to other teams potentially down the line.
04:47 And I think from Brown's perspective,
04:49 he's trying to block against their being value
04:53 and him being traded, which includes a trade kicker,
04:55 which isn't a huge deal,
04:57 but might be something that gives him
04:58 something closer to a no trade down the line.
05:01 Or the 50 year player option,
05:04 which say the Celtics trade him a year or two
05:06 into the deal, really gives that new team
05:09 one, two years of control.
05:10 So I think that's probably the most likely answer here,
05:14 John, right?
05:14 Is that Brown's trying to protect against being traded
05:17 in this deal,
05:18 and the Celtics are trying to maintain flexibility
05:21 to do so.
05:21 - What can he do though?
05:23 We've learned now that some of the reports out there
05:25 about what Brown could be asking for, he can't ask for.
05:28 - Right.
05:29 So the no trade clause can't be done now.
05:31 - He can't get an option in the middle of a deal.
05:33 All he can get is what everyone gets on these deals,
05:35 which is that 50 year player option.
05:37 And that's very standard.
05:39 Like that's not a big thing.
05:41 Unless the Celtics are fighting like hell to say like,
05:44 nah man, if I'm going to 295,
05:47 like we get that option.
05:48 Like I don't, maybe, I mean, I don't know.
05:51 - That's what I'm hearing right now.
05:53 - So if that's the thing and the Celtics want that option
05:56 that normally goes to the player,
05:57 the players are accustomed to getting,
05:59 or the players really want, fine.
06:01 That would be fine as a sticking point.
06:04 Because ultimately,
06:06 you still assume it gets done, right?
06:10 Because not getting done makes no sense for either side.
06:13 And that's why I think all of the reporting
06:15 is the way it is, is, you know, Jalen Brown,
06:18 you know, it's like I joked on Twitter,
06:20 has flown to Mars, but you know,
06:22 he'll be back in a few years,
06:24 but we still think the deal's getting done.
06:25 Like everyone still thinks the deal's getting done
06:27 is because it should get done.
06:29 Like it's dumb for both sides not to get done.
06:32 Yet, here we are.
06:35 - So that's like the part of the reporting
06:36 that I wish we got more of.
06:37 Like, even though, sure,
06:39 they might come to terms in an agreement at some point,
06:43 what's the real hangup?
06:44 You know, and what are both sides feeling
06:46 about negotiations?
06:48 Is there a little tension?
06:50 You know, what's the real hangup here?
06:52 I don't think the fifth year option is that big a deal.
06:54 Everybody gets it.
06:55 He can't get a no trade clause,
06:57 so I highly doubt he's gonna come off of a player option
07:00 on top of that.
07:02 And I think the Celtics, if the money is right,
07:05 they'll say, yeah, fine, take the player option.
07:09 You know, Bobby, I think the trade kicker
07:11 might be a little bit of a big deal,
07:13 because if there is a situation someday
07:15 where Jaylen Brown does wanna be traded
07:18 and does ask to be traded,
07:19 the trade kicker's gonna prevent the Celtics
07:21 from trading him to a lot of teams
07:23 with this new salary cap situation.
07:25 - Yeah, it's in effect like a no trade clause.
07:27 So you really can't-- - Right.
07:28 - You can't-- - Right, it's a no trade clause
07:29 that he can't waive because there's actually--
07:32 - Well, isn't that interesting, though?
07:33 - You can waive it, but-- - Oh, you can.
07:36 - There's one world in which, you know,
07:40 some people believe Brown doesn't love Boston
07:42 and doesn't necessarily wanna be here,
07:43 but the money's gonna be too good to pass up.
07:46 And then there's another where we're sitting here
07:47 talking about how he wants security
07:50 to ensure that he doesn't get traded.
07:53 Those two things run a little bit counter to each other.
07:55 - Well, part of it's-- - Sort of.
07:57 - Part of it's control. - Not wanting to get traded
07:58 is controlling your destination.
08:00 Right, so what you don't wanna do is sign.
08:03 So, I mean, and Brown's a smart man.
08:06 - You can just pull a Damien Lillard.
08:08 - Brown's a smart guy. - Pits and moans
08:09 are getting away. - He knows that signing
08:10 this deal vastly increases the likelihood he gets traded,
08:14 rather than decreases, you know?
08:16 Like, I think-- - Well, I don't know
08:18 about that, John.
08:19 If he doesn't sign a deal,
08:20 don't you think he's getting traded?
08:22 - I'm saying signing a deal kind of means
08:25 you probably don't get to pick where you play,
08:29 because the Celtics, I think, are very likely
08:31 gonna look to shop him in a year.
08:32 - Oh, I see, at some point. - You know?
08:33 - Oh, in a year, okay. - In a year, two years,
08:35 and things don't work, that's immediately where you turn.
08:38 Let me see what I can get for this guy,
08:39 and let's reload and start over.
08:41 He knows it, which means he's gonna have to spend
08:43 the last three years or two years of a deal
08:45 wherever the hell the Celtics send him,
08:47 without any protection.
08:48 I get that, not getting to pick your choice.
08:50 That's what I think it has to be.
08:52 - But that's the price you pay for 50 million a year.
08:57 - Yeah, and I think that's the Celtics' perspective,
08:59 is you're buying into this contract
09:02 with the potential to possibly be moved down the line.
09:05 Now, I don't think the Celtics, right now,
09:07 are looking at this and saying,
09:08 "Let's set ourselves up to move Brown down the line."
09:11 But they did build themselves some leverage here
09:13 by trading for Porzingis, by signing him
09:16 to a relatively team-friendly deal
09:19 over the next two years here,
09:20 having two stars in position in case Brown
09:23 did need to move down the line.
09:25 So I think that's what this all stems back to.
09:28 This, to me, John, reeks of distrust on both sides.
09:32 And we've heard from Brown's side, the distrust
09:35 and the hangover from last summer
09:38 and what happened there.
09:39 But I also think the Celtics are setting themselves up
09:42 right here to potentially have flexibility to move him
09:46 if they need to.
09:47 And you almost look at both sides right now and just say,
09:52 "Just get it done. It's not that hard."
09:55 Like, "Whatever needs to be done, get it done
09:58 and move past this."
09:59 Because that would be-
10:01 - It might be hard, Bobby.
10:02 They're obviously, it's probably coming down to money.
10:04 - But Jimmy, if Brown looks like-
10:07 - They don't want to give him the max.
10:08 - If Brown looked at it and said,
10:09 "This is where I want to be long-term. Love it here."
10:13 Boom, he gets a player option and he gets the super max deal
10:16 that everybody gets and it's all great.
10:19 And if the Celtics looked at it and said,
10:22 "We're committed to this guy. There's no chance we move him.
10:26 Give him that reassurance."
10:28 I don't think he needs to look at it
10:29 from that perspective either.
10:30 But right now, Brown's still looking at last summer
10:33 and saying, "I almost got traded on a win."
10:35 - Why should they say that, Bobby?
10:36 - The protections aren't gonna-
10:37 - How many players get that?
10:39 - Yeah.
10:39 - The protections aren't gonna happen.
10:40 - He thinks he should be traded like that.
10:42 You don't think Tatum will be traded like that
10:43 when the time comes?
10:44 - What's he get?
10:45 What's he get?
10:46 What's like, you have to look at it from his perspective.
10:49 He's right to think all those things,
10:51 but what's his alternative?
10:53 Not sign and then ride it into free agency.
10:55 - And that's a leverage for Celtic right now.
10:56 - And take less.
10:58 - And so, I mean, that's leverage.
11:00 Saying no is leverage,
11:03 but it's also a $60 million choice.
11:05 - And we've said this all along, right?
11:06 The Celtics have a lot more leverage here
11:08 than they were given credit for at the beginning.
11:10 And I think that's a big reason the deal isn't done.
11:12 They can sit here and say, "No player option."
11:14 And I don't really know what Brown's gonna do
11:16 besides go to Europe and do whatever,
11:18 and string this along.
11:20 'Cause I guess that's the pressure
11:22 that's leaning against the Celtics right now,
11:24 is everybody like us sitting here and saying,
11:26 "What the hell is going on every day?"
11:28 Because we got nothing else to talk about, really,
11:30 at this juncture of the summer.
11:33 But money-wise, he's got nowhere else to go.
11:36 Like, all he can really do is string this to a point
11:39 where, like you said, John, he ends up getting traded.
11:41 I don't think that's gonna happen.
11:43 - So that's one.
11:44 - If he wants to control his own destiny,
11:45 then he wouldn't sign a contract this year,
11:48 because he's not gonna get a note.
11:50 - And that's where it really would get tricky, Jimmy, right?
11:52 Going into the season with no deal.
11:53 - But let me tell you this, Bobby.
11:54 Let me tell you this.
11:55 What do agents tell their clients to do all the time?
11:58 Take the bag and then demand a trade.
12:00 So we can sit here and say, "Oh, we can't have it both ways,"
12:03 but we've seen players have it both ways.
12:05 I'm not saying that that's his plan,
12:07 but we've seen it happen.
12:08 We're seeing it happen right now with Damian Henderson.
12:11 - There's no reason for either side to trust the other.
12:15 The Celtics have no idea what Jalen's true intentions are.
12:17 They have no idea what he would do
12:19 if he went to free agency and whether he would return,
12:21 'cause he likes it here,
12:22 even if they could give him the most amount of money.
12:24 And Jalen has no reason to believe, none whatsoever,
12:28 that the Celtics would be,
12:30 that Brad, when he gets out there
12:32 and throws these flowery bouquets his way,
12:36 like, "We love Jalen. We want him to be here,"
12:39 he knows it's proven to be bullshit.
12:42 He knows that he's been dangled multiple times,
12:46 and he knows that Tatum's the golden child
12:49 and he's gonna be the first person named
12:50 anytime something goes sideways
12:52 and they're like, "Oh, things aren't right.
12:55 They can't play together. Let's get rid of Jalen."
12:57 So he's right, but I don't know what he gets.
13:00 The only other option is it's a money thing.
13:02 And if it's a money thing,
13:04 if you're starting to mess with his money,
13:06 then yes, is he going to pass up?
13:10 And again, what are the hard figures?
13:12 What does he get in free agency signing
13:14 with someone else max next year
13:15 if he doesn't take the Supermax this year, Bobby?
13:18 Is it 230 or something? - 184.
13:20 - Huh? - Like 184.
13:21 - 184 for four or something? - Yeah.
13:24 - Is that what it comes down to?
13:25 - So he's leaving a big chunk of change on the table.
13:29 - That's not a month.
13:30 Yeah, that's not an option.
13:31 He can't go to free agency.
13:32 - So, but if the Celtics start to say,
13:34 "Well, not 295, but how about 245?"
13:37 And then you do the math on that over five
13:39 versus 184 over four, and he thinks,
13:41 "Nah, I'm gonna bet on myself," you know?
13:44 So like there is a number--
13:44 - Go to Florida, go to Texas, don't pay a tax.
13:47 - Go to a place that doesn't have income tax.
13:49 Go somewhere where you're comfortable
13:51 that they're building around you where you're the guy.
13:53 There is a number that it just goes low enough
13:57 for Jalen to say, "I can leave that on the table."
13:59 And to get, "Oh, I can still,
14:01 "I'll still come back here if I want,
14:02 "but I wanna be able to control my own destiny."
14:05 So they are playing with fire attack.
14:07 - Yeah, but do you really want Brown more
14:10 this interested in the situation than he already is?
14:13 - You don't want it, but ultimately,
14:16 like the reality is this, you know,
14:19 and we joked about it, and I caught a lot of crap
14:21 for saying like where I rank Jalen among the players.
14:24 There's a strong amount of people here
14:25 that don't necessarily believe he's a super max guy.
14:28 It's a weird oddity of the CBA that says,
14:32 "If you make one of these teams, you're a super max guy."
14:35 And I don't think anybody believes Jalen Brown
14:37 is truly a super max guy.
14:40 I think they think he's just a hair below that, you know?
14:44 And so if you wanna pay him what you think he's worth
14:47 and be able to build a team, that's less than the max.
14:50 And if the Celtics are trying to convince him of that,
14:53 I don't know how that conversation's gonna go.
14:55 And if that's what's happening right now,
14:57 then the holdup makes sense.
14:59 It makes sense why Brown wouldn't go nuclear
15:01 and blow the whole thing up publicly.
15:04 But if it drags much longer,
15:06 I am waiting for that report of like, talks are off.
15:09 You know what I mean?
15:10 It's like, but we don't know if it's there.
15:12 - It kind of reminds me of, yeah.
15:14 It kind of reminds me of arbitration,
15:16 like in baseball, John.
15:18 It's like, the players in the team,
15:21 they rarely ever wanna go to arbitration
15:23 'cause what that becomes is just,
15:25 here's everything you suck at
15:26 and why we are trying to pay you this number.
15:29 - This is why you don't deserve the money.
15:31 - Right, right, right.
15:33 And like the longer this thing goes,
15:35 and again, we're speculating in a way
15:37 because there's just not enough reports out there
15:39 to tell us otherwise.
15:40 But the longer this thing goes,
15:42 the more I think that they're just not as close
15:46 as maybe we think that they were or that they should be.
15:49 Maybe there is money involved
15:50 and maybe this others are saying,
15:51 here's why we don't wanna pay you the max
15:54 or why we can't pay you the max, right?
15:56 And maybe they have a whole explanation lined up.
15:57 - I don't think it's the money.
15:59 We debated this last time, Jimmy.
16:00 - It's always the money, Bobby.
16:02 - They can sell off some money potentially.
16:04 - Bobby, you really think it's because,
16:06 oh, we wanna hold onto your fifth year player option
16:09 and they're gonna screw with Jaylen Brown
16:10 and make him pissed off 'cause of that?
16:12 The guy could ask for a trade in two years.
16:14 Who cares about his fifth year player option?
16:15 - Well, at that point, it'd be ownership.
16:16 And is ownership really threatening a star player here
16:20 over some luxury tax?
16:21 Because this is the guy you wanna pay luxury tax to keep.
16:23 You can trade Bryden
16:24 if you really wanna cut your luxury tax.
16:26 That's not where you should be cutting corners on
16:28 is one of the stars you wanna keep here.
16:30 So you have to ask, do you really wanna keep him?
16:33 Because you're not gonna do this with Tatum.
16:36 - Here's the thing.
16:37 There are examples of other players having,
16:40 you might try to sell somebody on a vision, right?
16:43 Like, this is what I mean.
16:45 The vision might be like,
16:46 Jaylen, we could totally give you 295.
16:49 But if we do, here's what it means.
16:51 Not gonna be able to do this.
16:53 I'm not gonna be able to do that.
16:54 We wanna be able to add.
16:55 We're up against it a little bit.
16:56 We can't do all of these things.
16:58 If we do that, what we'd like to do
17:00 is try to convince you to take blank
17:02 because we think overall it's going to be better
17:04 for the team and it's still a shit ton of money
17:06 and more than you can make in the open market.
17:08 It's very possible that conversation's going on.
17:11 It's very possible.
17:12 And it's very possible.
17:13 Jaylen's like, yeah, call me when that number hits 295.
17:16 And that's it.
17:17 Like, right now, I mean, Bobby,
17:20 again, all the reports have been working close,
17:23 sides are confident, Celtics are confident
17:26 a deal will get done.
17:26 They might button it up in Vegas.
17:28 Was there any inkling they even like,
17:31 texted each other once in Vegas?
17:32 Like, there was no--
17:34 - He didn't attend any of the games.
17:36 - So there was, and again, he doesn't have to
17:39 in order for them to talk. - Typically players do.
17:41 - Yeah.
17:43 But I don't get the vibe-- - That's a little interesting.
17:46 That's a little interesting. - I don't get the vibe
17:47 that there's like, I think they're stuck somewhere.
17:50 I don't, you know, and just kind of hoping like,
17:52 eventually they'll get through it.
17:53 - They're stuck somewhere because both sides
17:56 want something here.
17:56 Both sides want everything, I'd imagine.
17:59 And again, I don't think the Celtics are trying
18:01 to make him take a haircut.
18:03 I think they knew what they were getting into
18:04 with the Supermax thing and that they're prepared
18:06 to pay that.
18:07 They could potentially add some incentives here
18:09 that give them some like escalators down,
18:11 luxury tax wise, if they really wanna do that.
18:13 He has those in his current deal.
18:15 But again, is that gonna make or break a deal here?
18:18 I wonder if the compromise ultimately ends up being, John,
18:21 like a few percentage points below 35%
18:25 in exchange for that player option.
18:27 Like, would that make ownership happy enough in turn
18:29 with Brown also being happy to have that protection?
18:32 And then you throw the trade kicker in there
18:34 and say you're gonna make extra money if traded.
18:37 I don't know. - That's the worst part.
18:37 - There's a few trade-offs like those,
18:39 and that's why, Jimmy, I think it is close.
18:42 Like, it's not like they're sitting at 240
18:44 and he's at 290.
18:45 I don't think that's the reality of this.
18:47 - But here's the thing.
18:49 - What if they're at 270, Pat?
18:50 - We don't know, though.
18:51 - Where does that gain you?
18:52 - I don't know.
18:55 I'm just throwing it out there.
18:56 - It's lower, I don't know, less.
18:57 - It's lower, yeah, but it doesn't gain you much.
19:00 - 20 million bucks.
19:01 - $5 million less a year.
19:02 - So, look, again, it sucks having this conversation
19:08 without having details what the sticking points are.
19:10 So you're forced to speculate.
19:12 And all of this could be so off-base
19:14 and it could be like he's trying to negotiate
19:19 an extra five tickets for his family.
19:22 Like, it could be so minor and basically done
19:26 that there's no concern on their end.
19:28 That's absolutely within the realm of possibility.
19:31 But it still is weird 'cause this should have been easy
19:35 and it's not, which means, again,
19:38 we don't know if it's a problem yet, but it's not normal.
19:41 It's not a normal thing.
19:43 - It's something.
19:44 - The longer it drags on, the longer you wonder.
19:46 And again, like I said, if and when it gets struck,
19:48 everyone will be like, "I told you so," and whatever.
19:51 And that's that.
19:52 And that's how these things work.
19:54 - "Garden Report" is brought to you by AG1.
19:56 Go to drinkag1.com/garden for five free travel packs
20:02 as well as a year's supply of vitamin D.
20:05 That's drinkag1.com/garden.
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