Report: Why Jaylen Brown, Celtics are pausing extension talks

Report: Why Jaylen Brown, Celtics are pausing extension talks originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Jaylen Brown is eligible to sign a five-year, $295 million supermax contract extension that would temporarily make him the NBA's highest-earning player.

But he also has summer plans.

There is expected to be a "temporary pause" in extension negotiations between Brown and the Celtics while Brown travels overseas for an "organizational event," The Boston Globe's Adam Himmelsbach reported Friday.

It's unclear how long Brown will be gone, but Himmelsbach reports that Brown's camp plans to meet with the Celtics when he returns and that Brown's trip is "not related to any setback with the Celtics; he is simply honoring a previously scheduled commitment."

The Celtics technically have until October to work out an extension with Brown, and previous reporting has suggested the two sides will reach an agreement that will keep the 26-year-old All-Star in Boston. Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens even said he was "optimistic" about a deal getting done soon.

"It’s been all good discussion," Stevens said Wednesday night. "We want Jaylen to be here for a long, long time and we’ve made that clear. We’re looking forward to all sitting down, and we’ve got time here."

Brown has been extension-eligible since July 1, however, and it's at least somewhat curious why a deal hasn't gone through in the past two weeks.

Brown and the Celtics reportedly had discussions in Las Vegas this past week at the NBA Summer League, and Himmelsbach reports the C's plan to offer him a full max contract worth 35 percent of the salary cap. But the two sides could be negotiating over the incentives in the deal, or whether his deal would include a fifth-year player option that would give him the flexibility to test free agency one year sooner. (Fellow Celtics star Jayson Tatum has a fifth-year option on his current deal, signed in 2020.)

Brown clearly is in no rush to get things done now, though, and it sounds like any progress will have to wait until he returns stateside.