Report: Paul Pierce Opting Out of Contract

Plan on both sides could be for a new contract at terms already discussed.

Of course, there is the alternative(s).

-Pierce knows Doc/Ray may not be back and wants to test the market.
-Pierce doesn’t care if Doc/Ray will be back and wants to test the market.

Either way – we have our first domino. Doc’s next.

I’m confident that he’s doing this so that he can sign for a couple more years (at roughly the same $$) and give the Celtics some financial flexibility.

If not, well…that stinks.

this is part of the celtc plan to have some more money to get someone like sayy rudy gay? or be able to re sign nate and TA to trade for a very talented wing? lets see

I’m not suprised. He eeded to opt out so he can sign a muli-year deal. He could plauy out this season then go into the lock out with out a contrct. I’m guessing he reups with the C’s for 4 years at a cap friendlier price.

I really don’t care if Pierce comes back or not, but I hope the Celtics don’t pay him long for 4 more years. With Perk out til December, KG and Ray Allen another year older, and lots of re-tooling around the league, This next year is going to be a long one, officially closing the big 3 window. Time to plan on re-loading, not living in denial.

If I’m not mistaken, with Pierce opting out we currently have five guys under contract (Garnett, Rondo, Perkins, Sheed and Big Baby) at roughly $42MM in total. If Sheed officially retires, that cuts another six or so. My question is, with this newfound cap room, are the Celtics able to a FA from another team for big $$$ (say $18MM per, I think max would still put us over) and then, subsequent to that signing, sign Pierce or Allen using the Bird Rule to circumvent the cap restriction?

ITS ON!

If the Celtics renounced Pierce and Allen and all the other FAs and Sheed retires, wouldn’t the team be something like $15-20M under the cap? With Garnett, Rondo, Perkins, and Davis under contract and a proven organization. Isn’t that at least as appealing as what the Nets and Knicks are offering? If Dallas is a dark horse, wouldn’t Boston be as well. If we added, say, James and Haywood wouldn’t that be a solid core around which to stick minimum guys and veterans?

Plus, Ray Allen with the bird rights. Does this work??

First Sheed, then PP, then Ray Ray, then Doc… Wow!
Everybodies gonna be jumping ship.

all of this talk about him opting out for less money is and always has been ridiculous and niave. This is 2010, not 1960, these players think they deserve to be paid fair market value and the team needs to just find a way to put pieces around them to compete for the title. He deserves it in his opionion, he’s earned. He proclaimed himself the best player in the league in 2008 guys, get a grip. Not happening.

I love PP, I’m not bashing him. I wouldn’t take a hometown discount at my company when I could get paid quadruple elsewhere… would you?

is our roster next yr

ummmmmmmmm
ummmmmm

im not jynxing anything

I love Paul Pierce too, but not enought to give him 4/$96. I think Ainge has a little Belichick in him and he’ll balance the the desperation of today with the promise of tomorrow.

trickle down is in effect, sky is falling.

No big deal guys. ST all of them. Get me Rudy Gay and Al Jefferson. I doubted Danny for many years, never again.

Rebuild around Rondo. Rondo is better than most people think. He has been relenting to his hall of fame teamates. Remember the Chicago series last year in the playoffs? No KG, kid said the heck with it and went nuts.

We’re in good hands with Rondo. Freakishly long alian-esque hands.

The way Pierce was quoted on TV tonight, it was almost as if this whole process has been discussed, negotiated and planned with the Celtics. I would not be surprised to see this opt-out being done with a wink and a nod.

sign him and ray LAST on offseason moves since we have the bird right on them

restructures his contract or leaves all together one thing is for sure, which is the Celtics will have some cap relief finally one way or another to go out and sign some new blood.

$20m up our sleeve. Say Pierce wants to sign a 4 year contract which starts $10m in the 1st year. We would still be left with around $10m to spend on a fa (Rudy Gay??). Then renounce Ray Ray and sign him at the MLE? Maybe thats one way around it.

kind of pleased that he opted out and think I don’t want him back. Paul’s a great player but I don’t think he’s worth the money or years it would take to sign him. It’s time to get more athletic around Rondo. Its his team now. I really thought his legs showed his age this post season. It’s time to move on.

Just theoretically, he would make $21.5m next season then turn 33. He lost a step or 2 last season and that’s likely to continue so (even if there is no lockout) he would most likely get signed to only a 2 year deal (with any team) for about $7-$8m per year. By the end of that he would be 35 and perhaps looking at retirement or receiving a 1 year $3m contract which would equal out to be about $40.5m over the course of the next 4 years. My bet is he knows this and is preparing himself for it, so lets just say he decides to resign with the C’s for $10m next season (tiered at 8%) he would receive $10m, $10.8m, $11.6m, $12.4m over his last 4 seasons which equates to $44.8m. This way he gives the Celtics flexibility to bring another good player on board, makes himself immune to a potential lockout (which would really stuff him up) and secures his future.

but this is MUCH more important to me than anything that’s happening with LeBron. I know some people are speculating about whether there’s any way the C’s could possibly contend for LeBron. I hope not! I don’t want him! Give me Paul Pierce any day!

it’s obviously a bluff to get doc back.

Pierce restructures deal to 15m a year and ray gets 8m a year which gives us some room for a rebounder like david lee!

if we renounce ray .,how much r we over da cap by? if any i dont know how it workss

let him walk. denounce all the free agents.

it makes sense for pierce to opt out. after this up coming season there will most likely be a lock out. so he wants to make sure he’ll get paid during and after the lock out. with the current barganing agreement. if not he will make less money probably.

it also helps the celtics! if they can restructure his contract (4 years 45-50 mil) and ray’s contract (3 years 30-35 mil) then trade sheeds contract that will go off the books due to him retiring. saves them alot of money! and the chances of them getting a valuable player with the mle goes up. cause the owners wont be basically paying double, which is the reason they let posey walk. due to the luxury tax’s they would pay..

i think its safe to say pierce will come back to boston or at the very least do a sign and trade with a team… clippers- home town team, proven winner, they have a sf need. the suns- have some holes to fill also have some young trade chips in dudley, lopez and he gets to play with nash. dallas- cap space with dampier, good player to offer in butler, haywood. spurs- i think this wouldnt be easy but they could offer hill or anderson along with cap space fillers.

they could do the same with ray to utah. nate to atlanta, daniels to memphis. get a pick for all of them!! have 4 new draft picks going into next years draft. 6 draft picks to let danny work his magic!

…. you should think about C’s, about team, and let them make more space in salary cap and try to do another finals run by buying another star, but he cares about salary, not team, that’s sad

he’s got to think again. Mr. Ainge is not afraid to play hardball in the long term interest of the team. He’s shown this in the past. One hopes they’ve come to a mutual understanding but if this is a hardball move on Pierce’s part I would just say that Ainge is equally prepared to move in a different direction and he wouldn’t think twice. If this wasn’t agreed upon before Pierce’s announcement then this might very well be what Ainge was hoping for. He could finesse this into making Pierce look like the one who wanted to go elsewhere whereas indeed it could be Ainge with those feelings. Pierce ends up looking like the bad guy. Then again, everybody could have already made nice and we don’t know.

He could sign a deal for three years that would give him almost the same as the one year deal he opt-out from…. but dont forget that he would win more with nike, reebok or wathever if he is playing than if he is not.

So, he could win much more money signing for 25 mills/3 years than 21 mills/1 year.

I believe in The Switch

“What should the Celtics do?” It is “What could the Celtics do?” Our hands are pretty much tied. Our options are not many.

At present, there are teams with 11 maximum wage slots chasing after 9 top unrestricted free agents, including Pierce (and Nowitzki, who is re-signing with the Mavericks). So, several teams are going to lose the Le Bron-Wade-Bosh sweepstakes. In all likelihood, one of them is going to offer Pierce 60 million over three years, if not 80 million over 4 years.

From us, Pierce would be requesting at least 50 million over three years. Otherwise, why would Pierce opt out of a contract that would pay him 21 million next season?

However, I do not see Ainge, and quite rightly so, offering any package of more than 40 million over 2 years. To commit more than two years to Pierce (or any of our other free agents like Ray Allen) would impede our efforts to recruit a top five player once Garnett’s deal expires.

This may turn out to be a replay of the James Posey saga.

Many suggest we start saving or re-working contracts to save cap space for 2011 and 2012. But will there be players that are worth spending on after this year?

DA and PP reading this and saying “what’s wrong with these people?”

Disclaimer: I’m a Laker fan.

An aging Pierce opting out of his contract free’s up a lot of cap space. The Celtics could use that money to sign a younger, talented free agent or, dare i say, upgrade to Lebron. Think about it. Lebron playing with an aging Garnett, Rondo and Allen (if he re-signs) would be a huge upgrade for both himself and the Celtics as he is 100 times better than PP. If the Celtics can come within 1 game of the title this year as they are currently constructed, imagine how much better replacing Pierce with Lebron would be.

Just sayin…

that I can’t keep up. Writing on one thread while the answer is already in another…This is going to be a very busy couple of days!

walk away from making 21 million in one year? how selfish of an act is this? so he can be assured more years with a little more money? boo hoo.
Honestly one more year wouldve been great, but this is kind of a nail in the coffin for me, Paul doesnt even get along or play that well alongside rondo, hes not fast in transition and he loves the ball in his hands to go 1 on 1. time to build around rondo, bye Paul

—I’m sure the owners would rather have it be this year, under the old agreement and before the possible lockout.

“You look around the league and see a lot of great players. You have some Hall of Famers that have been on multiple teams and you think at the end of the day, which team do they represent? And I can definitely say I am a Boston Celtic through and through. When people look back at my career they’re going to identify me with one team.Boston is definitely home.”

- The Truth

He’s crazy to think he’s going to get big money, and the Celts would be crazy to give it to him. He’s on the downside of his career. I’d let him go.

“May the Schwartz be with you”

Spaceballs

Just kidding…

   A FA going to Texas or Florida would no longer have to pay state income tax. How much does Mass, NY, Ill and Cal charge guys that are on a max contract? Enough to be a factor?

Have to wonder if this means Pierce knows Doc and Ray are leaving, as well as Perk’s being out until January. I hate to see him go, but then Ray might as well join him so we can rebuild this team around Rondo. At least we would have money to sign some quality players.

If Perk is going to be out until Janurary and probably not at full strength until 2011-2012, then Celtics are not making a run next year even with Pierce and Allen. So why resign him? Does anyone here really want to be paying a 36 year old Paul Pierce a cap killing 20 million a year in return for a run at maybe the second round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs next year?

I love Paul Pierce. Have since college (I am lifetime KU fan). But business is business. I would rather have the cap space to make a run at some free agents in 2012 and build around Rondo than see this team spiral in like it did in the early 1990s.

      We are talking about amounts of money, that except for ‘Crats’ and the Pentagon doesn’t really register to us common folk. I’d like to see a poll here that runs something like this:

      If we paid all your (reasonable) housing expenses and a salary of 50,000 per year, would you come to Boston and play in the NBA?

      Would you do it for 100,000?

      Would you do it for 20,000?

       Tuff one: Would you do it for 21,500,000.00?

Note: I’m one of those guys that played high school basketball but wasn’t good enough for college. We PAID OUR OWN money to have a place to play after high school in pick-up games.

Note 2: If you answered no to the above poll questions because of family, if you were single, would you do it?

I would say yes to all three. But I haven’t been playing basketball every day of my life since I was five. I could see where after a while it would become a business for these guys. For you and I right now it would be a dream. But would it still be the same dream after five or ten years of grinding it every night? In the imortal words of Kareen Abdul Jabar, “you tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court 48 minutes a night”.

whatever happens I’m ok. I don’t see us winning a title next year even if Pierce, Doc and Ray come back. we have no starting center and we’re losing our backup as well. Honestly we have too many holes. the other thing is that pierce and allen couldn’t deliver when we needed them to so why oh why would we break the bank for those guys? sure, we’re better off with them than without them ( unless we trade for carmelo) but IMO it really doens’t matter whether Pierce comes back or not. Had we won game 7 I suppose I might feel differently but that loss is still impacting how I view everything. It’s irrational I know but Pierce and Allen aren’t exactly at the top of my love fest chart so again, I’m not knocking myself out worrying about whether they get $60 M, 4 years etc. When we needed those guys they didn’t deliver.

This is why NBA GM is a high stress job. Danny’s got to work through this with the near and long term fate of a few hundred million dollar franchise hanging in the balance…and uncertainty/risk all around.

…if we can get Kevin McHale a job with the Heat then we could trade Big Baby, Scal, Nate, and Gerald Green for Dwyane Wade.

So, if we renounce Ray and Pierce, we’re down to ~42 million on the payroll? Hmmm…..

Pierce isn’t going anywhere. Let’s think back to that interview with Wyc earlier in the season where he discussed the 2k10 free agent class and how the Celtics had the ability to sign a max contract. This is Pierce re-working his contract to bring in more help, nothing more nothing less. He’s been all about winning Champions in Boston from day one and with so many pieces in place he decides to bag it in and sign a max contract with the Knicks? Nets? Clippers? Please

Pierce could have signed an extension without opting out and Danny is actually quite forthright and forthcoming when there’s not a strategic reason to be coy or misleading.

Rudy Gay???

:O

Not only will Paul stay but he will retire a Celtic and become GM of the Celtics

Listen if Danny Ainge himself says “No big deal if Pierce leaves” then there really is no reason to sweat it. I mean please, isn’t this the same guy who professed to be the best player in the league………..really? Let him go, nice knowing ya, now let me spend that money on some real talent that will give the C’s a half a** chance, and I mean half a**, at beating those Back to Back World Champion Lakers.

Got a call from Lebron apparently to join “dream team” I mean if winning is really his number one priority, then Celtics loyalty might not look as inticing. I doubt dream team will happen. But nonetheless a true contender next year could give him a long term deal if it can get them over the hump