We've known for a while that the Celtics were talking to free agents, but other than Maggette and the Birdman, we didn't get too many names. Marc Spears solves that today.
First of all, there's news that Doc Rivers called Corey.
A day after talking with Celtics coach Doc Rivers, a longtime family friend, Clippers free agent forward Corey Maggette said he is seriously considering an offer to join the NBA champions.
Maggette said he is still in awe about being contacted by the Celtics and has been mulling over their contract offer as well as interest from several other teams.
An NBA source said the Celtics offered Magette the full midlevel exception, expected to be worth $5.8 million.
"I don't want to hold the Celtics up or [general manager] Danny Ainge," said Maggette in a telephone interview. "I talked to Doc . . . I'm not going to hold them up. I know they are still looking at James Posey. But I'm still weighing my options."
The Herald has a source denying that an offer was made to Magette, so there's conflicting reports here. Notice that Corey doesn't talk about an offer himself. It might just be the semantics of not having something in writing till the free agency quiet period lifts. Anyway, what makes this interesting is the report of what was offered Posey.
An NBA source said the Celtics offered Posey a three-year, $12 million contract, but a team official denied it.
If true, that's a pretty low offer, in particular in comparison to Maggette's. Do the Celtics really value Posey that much less than Corey? I figured they would offer the full MLE for 3 years. I can understand maybe giving Maggette an extra year because of his age, but I didn't realize the Celtics first offer to Posey would be so low. On the other hand, we can't be sure of any of this, especially with the team denying either offer was made. So take with a grain of salt. A lot of stuff happens behind closed doors that we don't know about till way after the fact, if then.
Mark Murphy in the Herald has some quotes from Posey's agent:
"James has been through free agency before, and he knows that it’s never easy," said his agent, Mark Bartelstein. "The one thing about James is that he has great faith in himself. James just believes that wherever he goes, he’s going to have an impact."
And right now the price for those services is a 4- to 5-year contract that starts at a midlevel salary of approximately $5.8 million. Thus far, the Celtics are reluctant to give their entire midlevel exception to one player. Bartelstein, however, doesn’t believe negotiations have broken down or reached an impasse.
"I wouldn’t say they have broken down, but of course you always hope that something gets done quickly," he said. "I don’t know what is going into their thinking right now. James just wants to know where he is in all of this. But everything still has to progress."
In other news, the team has brought the following free agents for a look:
- Darius Miles - Yup, you read that right. Spears even says that he had an "impressive workout." I've always thought of Darius as a chief knucklehead, but Danny isn't shy about taking a shot on those kinds of guys (especailly at cheap money) and he is that kind of "big 3" that Danny is rumored to love.
- Chris Andersen - You already knew about this, but did you know he was here for 2 days? Don't know if that means anything, but it sounds serious enough to me.
- David Harrison - You may remember David from such films as "Meltdown In San Antonio" and "Palace Brawl - Where Fans Get Attacked." I'll pass.
- Kirk Snyder - Is he still in the league?
- Patrick O'Bryant - He was the 9th pick in the 2006 draft and he's already a free agent? That can't be good.
- Also, the Herald reports "the team has taken a prolonged look at former Knicks center Randolph Morris and former Bulls guard Eddie Basden during this week’s rookie/free agent minicamp in Waltham."
- Sounds like Eddie House hasn't gotten much from the Celtics but has been contacted by the Knicks.
- In the pat we've seen names like Alonzo, Mutumbo, Ty Lue, Jason Williams, and others.