Jaylen Brown on Future With Celtics: 'I Will Stay Where I'm Needed'

Celtics guard/forward Jaylen Brown was twice mentioned in trade rumors surrounding Suns forward Kevin Durant when Durant was still with the Nets — both before the season and again at the February trade deadline.

Boston opted to keep Brown, who will eventually have a choice to make of his own. That’s because Brown is eligible to become a free agent after next season.

“I don’t know. As long as I’m needed. It’s not up to me,” Brown told Logan Murdock of The Ringer. “We’ll see how they feel about me over time and I feel about them over time. Hopefully, whatever it is, it makes sense. But I will stay where I’m wanted. I will stay where I’m needed and treated correct.”

Much of what happens with Brown and the Celtics is likely to be determined by what they do this season, as well as at least part of next. Expiring contracts can be valuable trade chips, and Brown presumably will be on one. That’s especially true of expiring contracts that belong to a notable talent such as Brown.

He may not be the No. 1 option on a championship team, but he’s certainly a 1-A. At some point, though, the Celtics will have to decide if Brown and fellow wing Jayson Tatum are the long-term solutions toward a title.

But like the Celtics, it appears that Brown isn’t looking too far ahead and is focused instead on the present.

“I just enjoy the time that you have now,” he said. “If it’s your whole career, it’s your whole career. If it’s not, it’s not. Some of the greatest players of all time haven’t finished with their organization. Michael Jordan retired a Wizard. As much as we like it here and enjoy being here, you see where life takes you. You see how the process goes.

“All you do is really focus on what’s in front of you right now, to be honest. But I don’t really know or want to answer that question because that type of stuff makes Celtics fans speculate and go crazy. Especially right now, I’ll just say we’ll get there when we get there.”