Player 2010-2011
Kevin Garnett $21,200,000
Paul Pierce $21,515,521
Kendrick Perkins $4,390,208
Rajon Rondo $3,018,783
J.R. Giddens* $917,200
Team options are in red and qualifying offers are in green. Player options are listed in blue.
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I believe I have 'cracked the code', i.e. why Ainge allegedly only offered Posey 2 years.
1)Players cannot, like the NFL, restructure their contract.
2)But, players can opt out of their option years.
3)Pierce wants to win. He has tasted winning, he is righfully gloating in his victory. And he is smart enough to understand legacy, and to understand history, and to understand how winning here, with the Celtics, is different than winning almost anywhere else.
4)I believe, if one carefully looks at things, especially Anige's alleged hesitancy with even a three year contract with Posey, there may be something to this. A prior post locked onto this and asked, is Anige gearing up for 2010?
5)In that post, it was concluded by some that the math didn't add up. Just b/w Peirce and Garnett and Perkins, the three commited contracts, at best with a nice raise in salary cap to 65mil, we maybe have 11 mil cap space free. That is without ANYONE ELSE signed.
6)But, there is a way out of this, if Bird rights are renounced for any free agents - then for example, we would only be able to sign Ray Allen back at the veteran minimum (if I understand it correctly); in renouncing all bird rights, we have only two players who are under contract: Garnett and Perkins. We have 1 qualifying (Rondo) and 1 team option (Giddens), that are both reasonable (4 mil and 1 mil respectively).
7)That's right, only two people under contract (Garnett, Perkins), and two more with reasonable cap figures (Rondo, Giddens [if he pans out])
That's right - Pierce is not under contract, if he opts out!!!
8)Thus, best case scenario, and my purpose for this post: I speculate that Pierce and Ainge have a verbal agreement, that if Ainge and ownership continue to proove to Pierce that they want to win, and are willing to spend responsibly towards that goal, including luxury tax cash - then based on my understanding of Paul Pierce's desire to win, and how they lived up to Pierce's plea this year, and will continue over the next two years, then Pierce has a gentleman's agreement with Danny Ainge to opt out of his contract and take a much lower salary, so that Ainge can go after one of the BIG TYME free agents on the market in 2010. Part of this 'verbal agreement' might include ownerships willingness to pay some luxury tax to make this happen (so that Pierce isn't the only one 'giving back' for the good of the team), and Wyck is smart enought to know - God can only imagine how off the charts a team would be if they ponied up the money to have a Lebron James along with a Pierce and a Garnett - and how LUCRATIVE that would be.
9)The bestest best case scenario has Ray Allen also agreeing to return to the team for the veteran minimum. Though I'm not suggesting Ainge has the Ray Allen returning for veteran minimum worked out with Ray now, I could forsee it happening IF something as amazing as the Celtics pulling Lebron James happens and Ray felt in the 'spirit' of Pierce's money sacrifice in the name of Ubuntu.
So in summary, my thesis is: Paul Pierce and Danny Ainge have a gentleman's agreement that as long as both sides remain happy over the next few years (barring injury or team ownership loosing it's willingness to pay to earn), then Pierce will opt out of his contract and resign at a price that will allow the Celtics to score a BIG TYME free agent in 2010.
There ya have it! Case solved.