The Celtics appear set to solidify Paul Pierce's future in Boston. While there may still be some details to be ironed out, expect an announcement in the next day or two that the captain has agreed to a three-year extension with the club. Pierce has two years remaining on his present deal and will thus forego his option to sever the contract next summer and become an unrestricted free agent. The issue of Pierce taking off for a team closer to a championship has been raised quite a bit lately, but apparently he was serious about wanting to stay with the Celtics and continue the building process. While it is likely to contain an early out clause, the new arrangement will cover him through the end of the 2010-11 season.
If true, this is a good deal for the Celtics. Unless he experiences some serious injuries and/or physical decline (always a risk) Pierce should still be an above-average player at the end of his contract. Even without seeing the details of his contract we can assume that he will be modestly overpaid by the end of this deal: that's one of the tradeoff's you make in the NBA world of relatively long-term, guarunteed deals. Today's news is good because, if true, the Celtics were able to keep this deal to a three-year extension, and not a full five- or six-year contract. Paying a 35-year old Pierce the back end of a such a max-dollar, escalating deal would almost certainly have gotten ugly.
Regardless of what Ainge thinks on the matter, ownership appears entirely committed to rebuilding while winning games around Pierce. We've been over the down-sides of this approach repeatedly. The good news if this extension goes through as reported is that we'll have dodged two potential bullets: first, that Pierce walks for nothing next summer; second, that we're stuck paying him Allen Iverson money until long past his prime.
No comments:
Post a Comment