Cleveland Cavaliers: Top three RFA targets in 2020 free agency

#2 RFA target – Jaylen Brown

According to Heavy.com’s Sean Deveney, the Boston Celtics and Jaylen Brown are unlikely to agree to a contract extension before the season starts.

Brown thinks he is worth a five-year $170 million max contract extension and the Celtics think he’s worth more what Brooklyn Nets’ wing Caris LeVert received, three-years and $51 million.

It was a bit of a head-scratcher when the Boston Celtics selected Brown with the number three overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. However, it has proved to be a wise decision by Celtics general manager Danny Ainge.

Brown struggled a bit as a rookie, a season in which he only started 20 out of 78 games he appeared in, in 2016-17 according to Bleacher Report. He also only averaged 6.6 points and 2.8 rebounds.

It was in Brown’s second season that he showed that he had the potential to be a top-level player for a winning team when he helped lead the Celtics to a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals (where they lost to the Cavs).

The Celtics two best players heading into that season, Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving, were both out with injuries for the entirety of the playoffs and Brown took a leading role on a team that fell 48 minutes short of the NBA finals.

Brown disappointed last season, as did the Celtics as a team. A lot of the blame was placed upon Irving, so it will be interesting to see if Brown bounces back to being close to his sophomore NBA season with Kemba Walker, who appears to be much better for an NBA locker room than Irving.

With the Cavaliers, Brown would immediately step in as the number one option (if Love is indeed moved) and could easily be a 20 point-per-game scorer. He also would be far and away the best wing defender on the roster.

Now, whether the Celtics would match a giant offer sheet, perhaps a max offer sheet from the Cavs is the question because they would be able to afford it. But the Cavaliers should shoot their shot with Brown.