California freshman Jaylen Brown – No. 4 in The Vertical’s 2016 NBA mock draft – will pass on hiring an agent and consult with the National Basketball Players Association on his rookie contract, league sources told The Vertical.

Brown will use a traditional agent to negotiate his shoe endorsement contract, league sources said.

NBA Hall of Famer and New York Liberty general manager Isiah Thomas has been a close adviser and mentor to Brown, league sources said.

NBPA attorney Ron Klempner is expected to work closely with Brown on his representation needs, sources said.

There’s little, if any, room for negotiation in rookie contracts, and Brown wants to take time to learn the industry before eventually committing to an agent, sources said. The NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement has slotted salaries for first-round draft picks, although many agents don’t take commissions on those first deals for high-level players.

But some agents do, and Brown could save between $300,000 as the No. 3 overall pick to $150,000 at No. 8 on commission fees over the four years of the contract.

Brown is an intelligent and unconventional thinker, an unsurprising candidate to buck the conventional system framework.

“He wants to get to know the business, have a better understanding of the industry, before he enters into an agreement with [an agent],” a source involved in the process told The Vertical.

Brown had been aggressively pursued by all the major agencies, but recently told them that he would use the union, sources said. Near the end of his NBA career, Stephon Marbury utilized the NBPA do negotiate his contracts. Although rare, the union does offer the service to players, and the compensation for the work falls within the annual dues that every player pays.

Brown, a 6-foot-7 forward from Georgia, averaged 14.6 points and 5.4 rebounds for Cal as a freshman.

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