If we want to get technical about it, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens straight-up isn’t allowed to talk about Jaylen Brown and his potential supermax extension with the Celtics.

But speaking with the media for the first time since the Celtics dropped their Game 7 showdown with the Heat — and in some seriously ugly fashion — Stevens made it clear what the Celtics would like to see happen with the organization and Brown sometime in the not-so-distant future.

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• “Well, I’ve got nothing but great [and] had nothing but great conversations with Jaylen, but we can’t talk about all that stuff,” Stevens, set to begin his third offseason in this role, began. “As I said earlier with Grant [Williams], like, I’m not allowed to talk about the contract details, let alone the extension, because it’s not of that time yet. Right now, [Brown’s] window is between July 1 and October whatever it is.

  “But I can say, without a doubt, we want Jaylen to be here, and he’s a big part of us and we believe in him and I’m thankful for him. And I said this earlier: I’m really thankful for when those guys have success, they come back to work, and when they get beat, they own it and they come back to work. And so, I know that that’s what they’re about, and that’s hard to find. Kind of like what I talked about with leadership earlier. Those qualities, they aren’t for everybody. Jaylen had a great year, All-NBA year. He’s a big part of us moving forward, in our eyes.”

  For someone who can’t talk about it, that’s about as ringing an endorsement as Stevens can provide.

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  MIAMI, FLORIDA – MAY 19: Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens looks on prior to Game 2 of the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals against the Heat at FTX Arena on May 19, 2022. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

• Of course, it’s likely not as simple as, “We like and want Brown, so we’re going to keep him.”

  Especially with Brown’s accomplishments this past season and what it means for the Celtics with the changes to the NBA’s latest collective bargaining agreement with its players.

  An All-NBA player this past season, the 26-year-old Brown enters the summer eligible for that aforementioned $295 million supermax contract with the Celtics. Now, the good news within that is that the Celtics are the only team that can offer Brown that contract. That’s a strong negotiating chip for any player who may or may not be on the fence when it comes to re-signing with his current team.

  But that also forces the Celtics to ask whether or not Brown is worth that kind of financial commitment (they’re going to have to commit a secondary supermax contract to Jayson Tatum when he’s eligible for an extension) given what it’ll do to the rest of the roster. Among notable issues upon such a commitment: The Celtics would be unable to add players using a mid-level exception, and they would not be able to add players on the buyout market. Both are noteworthy when it comes to building complete rosters, and would be even more important with Tatum and Brown eating up a solid 70 percent of the team’s cap space.

  Given the often mercurial nature of the NBA in regards to player movement, maybe that’s something that the Celtics worry about when it’s time to worry about it and simply sign Brown to a supermax contract that locks him into another five years with the Celtics no questions asked. What Stevens said about Brown on Thursday afternoon almost implies that they’re indeed thinking this way.

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  BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – MAY 25: Jayson Tatum #0 talks with Jaylen Brown #7 of the Celtics against the Heat during the fourth quarter in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals at TD Garden. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

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• What Brown is thinking on the matter is still anybody’s guess, too.

  Speaking in the immediate aftermath of this past Monday’s Game 7 failure, Brown did not want to touch any questions about his future and the upcoming extension. Not with a 10-foot poll, really. That’s to be expected. The raw feelings of the loss were on display, and Brown’s night was especially brutal.

  But the Celtics are going to need to find out just how Brown feels about the current structure in Boston and operate accordingly. Earlier this year, Brown talked about the ‘sacrifice’ that’s required to make things work in Boston as part of a tandem with Tatum. But Brown has also talked about how it’s seemed as if everybody has been eager to break Boston’s all-world one-two punch up, and how they’ve enjoyed trying to disrupt that narrative by forming a successful duo that’s made the Celtics one of the league’s top threats.

  For Brown, a long-term fit in Boston could simply be about what he prioritizes at the negotiating table: Winning and being one of the best 1B’s in the league and embracing the reality that Tatum will be the true 1A so long as he’s upright and in Boston, or being ‘The Guy’ and leading his own team. Brown’s paper trail of exclusive interviews and soundbites can lead you in either direction, to be honest.

  But based on what Stevens said, there’s no doubting which direction the C’s will want to go with Brown.

  When they’re actually allowed to, anyway.

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  BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – MAY 19: Jaylen Brown #7 of the Celtics looks on against the Heat during the first quarter in game two of the Eastern Conference Finals at TD Garden on May 19, 2023. (Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)

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