BOSTON — The Boston Celtics signed forward Jaylen Brown to a contract extension, beating a Monday deadline to extend the player who has emerged as a key part of the team’s future.

The four-year deal could pay Brown as much as $115 million, a person familiar with the negotiations said. The total includes incentives.

“Jaylen has made tremendous strides over the last three years and has become a fantastic player for us on both ends of the court,” said Danny Ainge, the team’s president of basketball operations.

“He’s a great person and hard worker who, at 22 years old, can score and defend against the best players in the NBA. Jaylen is a true professional who did a great job accepting his role last season, and he is a major part of our championship goals.”

Brown, the third overall pick in the 2016 draft, averaged 14.5 points and almost five rebounds in his second year, when he was 21 and the Celtics finished second in the East and took the LeBron James-led Cavaliers to seven games in the conference finals.

But last year Brown averaged 13 points and closer to four rebounds as the Celtics were eliminated in the second round by the Milwaukee Bucks. Since then Al Horford and Kyrie Irving opted out of their contracts, and Kemba Walker was signed as Ainge tries to rebuild without a further dropoff.

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JAVONTE GREEN, a 26-year-old rookie, obviously is happy to have made the Celtics, a fact that pretty much was settled when Max Strus was waived. But Green isn’t stopping now that this goal has been reached.

“This is just the beginning, just to get in the door,” he said after practice Monday. “My job is to maintain my position here, and just get better each and every day, and bring to the team what the coaches want and just do that.”

Green learned he was good to go over the weekend.

“Danny (Ainge) actually told me to my face on Saturday after practice,” he said. “He told me not to put nothing on social media or anything and keep it between us, so that’s what I did.”

Green spent the last four years playing in Europe after emerging from Radford. (He is the first player from that school ever to make an NBA regular-season roster.)

“I’ve been telling everybody, you know, it’s been a tough journey,” he said. “I started where I started from. To get here, make my dream come true, I mean, it’s a dream come true. The feeling was amazing, all tears of joy since Saturday. But it still hasn’t hit me yet. When it hits me, I’ll get back with y’all.”

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The first person he called after getting the news?

“My mom for sure,” Green said. “She’s going through a little thing right now so it put a smile on her face. But she said she didn’t have no doubt that I was going to get the spot. That’s what moms have to say.”

While Green is still working on his outside shot, he showed in summer league and the preseason that even at 6-foot-5 he’s able to get to the basket on pretty much anyone. His strength, leaping ability and defense are calling cards.

“(Ainge) just said he loved my energy,” Green said. “He always compared me to Tony Allen since summer league, so I guess he gets flashbacks to Tony Allen when he sees me. I guess that’s a good thing so I’ll just bring my energy to the team.”

According to Coach Brad Stevens, the competition for the last spot with Green and Strus “was as hard of a decision as we’ve had. We’ve had some hard ones over the years but (Strus is) just a total worker, brought great energy every day, worked hard, is clearly a good player. The hardest thing about that is when you lose guys that add that mindset to your environment, but Javonte is the same.

“Javonte works every day. He’s a great worker. He’s a great person. We’re thrilled that he’s on our team. The hard part is having to waive a guy like Max. The good news for Max is he’ll have plenty of opportunities. I’m a big believer in Max. I think he’ll be on an NBA roster at some point here in the very near future.”

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THE EASTERN Conference race appears to be fairly well open. Said Stevens, “I think every year, we’re probably all a couple of injuries or whatever the case may be away from having a chance.

“I think our goal here, from the time I got here with talking to Danny and our ownership group, was to try to be sustainable, so that even in a down year you’re in the conversation. We’ve been lucky to be that for the last couple of years, even if two and three years ago maybe we weren’t thought that we were going to win the thing – and then last year where we didn’t quite do what we wanted to do. But we’ve been in the conversation, which is a good thing. It gives you a chance.

“I think there’s a lot of teams in the conversation. I think Milwaukee deserves all the praise they’re getting. They had an amazing year last year. I think that Philly is as talented as anybody in the league and deserves that. I think Toronto is being under-discussed, because I think they’ve looked really good in the preseason from what I’ve seen. There’s a lot of opportunity for a lot of teams, and we just hope to be the best we can be. We’ll see. ”

INJURY UPDATES: The Celts were without Gordon Hayward (illness) on Monday.

“He may come in later and see the docs,” said Stevens after the practice in preparation for Wednesday night’s opener in Philadelphia, “but he started feeling under the weather Saturday night. (He) thought he was better Sunday morning, but it got worse last night and we told him to stay away.”

Meanwhile, Robert Williams is working his way through the concussion protocol after sustaining a hit to the head in the final preseason game last Tuesday in Cleveland.

“Rob did all the non-contact portion of practice,” Stevens said. “Assuming that went well, he’ll be cleared for contact (Tuesday). We won’t do much contact as a team so it will be more one-on-one, two-on-two type stuff. And then if he clears that, he’ll be cleared for Wednesday.

“Romeo (Langford, sprained knee) did not go full but did some of the non-contact stuff. Tacko (Fall, concussion protocol) is not cleared, so he did not practice today.”

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