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The Ticker
6 days ago

Painful Reminders (Part I): The Celtics Drafted JaJuan Johnson Instead of Jimmy Butler

On June 23rd, 2011, Brian Robb and I stood around a high top bar table in Tommy Doyle’s in Kendall Square.  Before us lay one of the biggest mounds of buffalo chicken wings I had ever endeavor to make disappear.  These 25 cent flappers- one of the few indulgences afforded to the participants of our [...]

18
6 days ago

Chris Wilcox: 2012-13 Final Grade

There are a number of contextually-appropriate ways to craft this post. One would be to forgo words entirely, and represent Chris Wilcox’s entire season with a series of videos. That would involve one part of this: For every eight parts of this: Note the headline on that second clip. Someone was so amused/enraged by Wilcox’s [...]

12
7 days ago

Rajon Rondo’s 2012-13 Final Grade

Here’s a sweeping general statement involving super specific statistics that may or may not mean anything: In the 1423 minutes Rajon Rondo played this season, the Boston Celtics were outscored by 1.3 points per 100 possessions. When he sat (including all contests after he tore his ACL), Boston was better than their opponents by 1.8 [...]

92
8 days ago

Avery Bradley Elected to NBA All-Defense Second Team

Avery Bradley has been a standout defender for the past couple seasons…in the regular season anyway. Now he has a trophy to prove it. The NBA announced this afternoon that the third-year guard has been elected by coaches around the league to the second-team all-NBA defensive team for the first time in his career. Bradley [...]

13
11 days ago

Paul Pierce’s Contract: Dispelling The Myths and Stating The Facts

The first domino to fall this offseason is Paul Pierce’s contract. Until Danny Ainge figures out what he’s doing there, little else matters. As we wait for this decision, we also must face the rest of the offseason, which means it is also rumor season. With that time of year, comes plenty of information floating [...]

42
11 days ago

Final Grade: Avery Bradley (C+)

In his third year in the league, in which promising players often make brash leaps from benchwarmer to starter, from starter to star, Avery Bradley took a big step back. But his regression might be deceptive. When he returned to the Celtics’ lineup on January the 2nd after two in-season months recovering from offseason shoulder [...]

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Celtics “Close” To Signing Jeff Green


Both NBA.com’s David Aldridge and SI’s Sam Amick have sources indicating the Celtics are making ground in their attempts to sign Jeff Green.

Aldridge:

Meanwhile, the Celtics believe they’re “close,” as one source put it, to reaching agreement on a new deal with Green, who missed all of last season after undergoing open-heart surgery in December to repair an aortic aneurysm.

Amick:

But a source close to 25-year-old forward Jeff Green said the odds of him also returning to Beantown as well are high, thanks in large part to his affinity for coach Doc Rivers and the Celtics’ stance that he’s an important part of their future going forward.

CH Says: We burned through a lot of bandwidth last season trying to make sense of the poor play of Green after he was acquired from Oklahoma City. That’s why the one-year contract he signed in December made a lot of sense for both sides: Green was to make $9M and re-establish his market value and the Celtics were to avoid a multi-year burden for an unproven player. Both sides stood to benefit from Green turning in a standout season.

It appears Green’s heart problems may have just pushed the timing on that make-good contract back seven months. Which is the tricky bit. Given the offer sheet Minnesota dangled in front of Nicolas Batum (reportedly 4 years/$44M) and the $40M contract Brooklyn lavished on Gerald Wallace, there’s no reason to think Green has to settle for a single year, even if there are both literal and metaphorical questions about his heart.

If Danny Ainge manages to cut a deal for two years or less, it’s almost certainly a win. If Green performs to his potential, the Celtics benefit. If he repeats the spring of 2011, well, Green’s still young enough and promising enough that he can be moved for other assets. If it takes three or four years to get Green locked down or dollars approaching $10 million per annum, the Celtics are tying their fortunes and long term cap flexibility to a player who, at least so far, has performed right around the median level in this league. If not a bit below it.

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