What the Jaylen Brown contract means for the Pistons

On the same day that the Boston Celtics gave Jaylen Brown the biggest contract in NBA history, the Detroit Pistons signed Zavier Simpson, a guy who hasn’t been in the league in two years. Only time will tell which signing will have the bigger impact.

I kid.

Brown’s deal, which is worth up to $308 million over five years, was really a no brainer for Boston, as they risked having to trade him with little leverage or potentially lose him for nothing in free agency, so signing him was the prudent move, regardless of how they see his future with the team.

The Boston Celtics are locked in….or are they?

It would now appear that the Celtics are locked into their roster for the foreseeable future and are getting ready to pay a heavy price for it. Superstar Jayson Tatum is up for contract extension next offseason and can make even more money than Brown.

So once the new Porzingis extension kicks in, the Celtics are going to have nearly $150 million tied up in three players and still have a large portion of their roster to fill out, which won’t be easy.

The new CBA has made it far more punitive to cross the second salary apron, so teams with three max guys are either going to be paying huge amounts in tax, sacrificing their MLE or filling out their rosters with minimum players.

So in some ways these super max deals are good for small-market teams, as it makes it easier to keep their own guys, but it will make it much more difficult to keep a good team around them. This being the first deal this big will have some ripple effects on the league, including the Detroit Pistons.