Sam Hauser, Celtics agree to fully-guaranteed 4-year, $45 million extension: Sources

Sam Hauser and the Boston Celtics agreed to a fully-guaranteed four-year, $45 million contract extension, league sources said.

The Celtics signed Hauser as an undrafted rookie in 2021 and he has steadily grown into one of the league’s best shooters off the bench. Hauser shot 42.4 percent from 3 on 5.9 attempts last year, ninth-best in the NBA.

Hauser is entering the final season of his contract for the 2024-2025 season at the minimum and is now committed to the Celtics until the summer of 2029.

While Hauser will be making an average annual value of just over $11 million a year, his extension means the Celtics project to have a payroll of at least $225 million in the ‘25-‘26 season. That would come with a $210 million luxury tax penalty, the highest in NBA history.

The Celtics already gave max extensions to Jayson Tatum and Derrick White this offseason for a combined $440 million, after giving Jaylen Brown a supermax extension last July and Jrue Holiday a four-year max extension just before the playoffs. Kristaps Porzingis is now entering the first season of his two-year, $60 million extension he signed when he was traded to Boston last June. Boston also re-signed centers Xavier Tillman, Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta this month.

Boston will be over the second apron for the next two years, causing its 2032 and 2033 first-round picks to be frozen and therefore untradable.

Hauser’s future in Boston became uncertain when the team drafted 23-year-old Baylor Scheierman out of Creighton last month, who possesses a similar skill set. However, Boston was able to secure Hauser at a reasonable rate.

Though the Celtics have committed to the biggest payroll in history, most of the extensions they signed in the past year are for fair market value and are likely tradable if they need to shed salary to get out of the second apron in the near future.

That will matter to the next owner of the team, as co-owner Wyc Grousbeck put the team up for sale shortly after winning the championship in June.

The Hauser extension now completes the front office’s plan to lock in the Celtics’ core long-term, with 38-year-old Al Horford being the only rotation player entering the final year of his contract now.

Horford said last month that he does not know how much longer he will play, but left the door open for continuing his career beyond next season.

Brad Stevens and the Celtics front office agreed to re-sign Tillman to a two-year deal on July 4, maintaining center depth if Horford walks away a year from now.

With starting center Porzingis out until at least December following ankle surgery, Boston’s center depth will once again be its biggest focal point next season.

Hauser has been one of Boston’s best development projects in recent memory and an example of how a contending team can be sustainable long-term under the current CBA.

“One of my main objectives is to not have this be — and it goes back 10 years — not have this be anything but sustainable. Keep finding a way to be sustainable,” Stevens said after the NBA Draft in June. “Keep finding a way to sustainably put yourself in the mix for years and years and years. Doesn’t mean we’re not going to have a down year or a rough year, or maybe we don’t make the playoffs one year. But it’s just not big dips. That’s what we would like. It’s hard to do because the other teams are good, too.”

With Hauser now locked in through his prime, Boston has the pieces in place to keep competing for the foreseeable future.

But if the team needs to pivot for health or financial reasons, Hauser has a moveable deal that will make him attractive to the rest of the league.

Now that players are finding it hard to sign long-term deals for the mid-level exception, Hauser’s contract is increasingly becoming a rarity in this league.