Is Green Next? And Is He Signing For 4 Years, $40 Million?!

I want Jeff Green back, but man, I hope the numbers being thrown around here are exaggerated. 4 years, $40 million for an unproven bench player coming off of heart surgery? It seems a bit heavy to me. Anyway, here's Sam Amick:

On the Celtics front, agent David Falk continues to say he thinks a deal gets done with Boston for free agent forward Jeff Green. One source with knowledge of the talks says it may be in the four years, $40 million neighborhood, but it is not done.

"I’m confident it’ll get done," Falk told SI.com. "I guess they got (Brandon) Bass' (contract) done, which is great. Jeff is trying to get a sense of what the team looks like first before he makes a commitment, but I expect he’ll be there and I expect it’ll be done by the 11th (when the free agency moratorium ends). We’ve gotten a lot of interest from other teams. But as far as Boston, we’re very confident we’ll get it done.
"He wants to be in Boston. He’s excited about the moves they’ve made. He’s hoping Ray Allen comes back as well, because he feels very close to Ray Allen." Allen is visiting Miami today and appears to be down to Boston and the Heat for his considerations.

Let assume that the reported (speculated) contract is roughly accurate. In a world where Nic Batum is getting offered somewhere between $11 million to $12.5 million per year, $10 million is arguably fair for Green. Still, I don't think it makes a lot of sense to guarantee all four years, and $10 million carries a lot of risk with it, especially as we enter the era of the more punitive luxury tax. I'm anxious to see how the contract terms ultimately break down. Also, I'm curious to see how all of our various contracts break down, in terms of the "hard cap" / luxury tax "apron". We have to keep our payroll below around $74 million, and I can only hope that Green's contract doesn't take us out of the running for Ray Allen.

Update: Sam Amick tries to make us feel better:

Re: the Jeff Green situation and Boston, bear in mind that some neighborhoods tend to be vast. I'm curious to see a final number myself.

— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) July 6, 2012