The Origins of Jeff Green's Mythical Contract

[JudsonMerrill]

I believe the Celtics will sign Jeff Green to a multi-year contract. I also believe that contract will bear little relation to the 4-year, $40M behemoth that Sam Amick alluded to a few days ago and which is now being passed around as fact.

In December the Celtics signed Green to a one-year, $9M deal. One year deals of this sort almost always have a higher annual salary than long term deals because the player is giving up a bit of security. The team pays for the flexibility of short contracts with salary bumps.

Since December, Jeff Green has played in zero games, had heart surgery, and basically announced to the league that he is returning to Boston. He has done nothing to increase his value.

A few days ago, while reporting that Jeff Green's agent was asking for a $9M starting salary, Mark Murphy wrote,

One league source said agent David Falk’s starting point for next season is $9 million — the figure Green agreed to for the first year of a four-year deal with the Celtics last December, before the contract was voided by his physical.

The emphasis is mine. The facts belong to Murphy's imagination alone, because they are not from this universe. Green never had a four-year deal. But this planted the idea that Boston had once signed Green to a 4-year, $40M deal.

And a few days later that idea popped up in Amick's reporting. And then Amick himself backed off it shortly thereafter in a follow-up tweet.

I propose that we all quietly ignore this 4-year, $40M number until another source confirms that the Celtics think Green's value lurched up while he spent the year recovering from heart surgery. (At which time, Wilcox should also be in for a big raise.)

[TripleOT]

Maybe Jeff Green should sign for the veteran minimum in Miami. 

[celticinorlando]

i believe miami leaked this to sam amick (who was first to retweet the heat owner and the one that broke the story last night) to help with ray allen picking miami

[Snakehead]

I didn't see that Amick follow up thanks for that.

I would bet the final number is 8 mill and it'll probably be for 3 years.  That's my guess.

[JSD]

TP. I've thought $40 million over 4 years was fantasy talk from the second I heard it because of the simple logic you put forth in this well written post.

[Lucky17]

Nicely done.

People on the ledge are going to believe the worst, of course, so it's unlikely any of them will bother to read this. Still, TP for the effort.

[snively]

Mark Murphy is terrible - regularly has ginormous mistakes in his articles.

[Margarita5]

Good point

[LarBrd33]

with Ray leaving for Miami, it actually might allow Jeff Green and his agent to pressure Ainge into giving more money.

How much salary do we need to have committed to be able to get the full MLE that we are offering Jason Terry?

[clover]

with Ray leaving for Miami, it actually might allow Jeff Green and his agent to pressure Ainge into giving more money.

How much salary do we need to have committed to be able to get the full MLE that we are offering Jason Terry?

Or, it could turn Danny to Krstic, who might need a tad more salary than what they were offering to Ray.

[Fafnir]

with Ray leaving for Miami, it actually might allow Jeff Green and his agent to pressure Ainge into giving more money.

How much salary do we need to have committed to be able to get the full MLE that we are offering Jason Terry?

You are allowed to either use cap space, or the MLE. Effectively you can renounce your cap space if the MLE is greater.

If the proposed Jeff Green deal + Terry's contract fits under the cap the C's would gain an additional 2.5 million dollar exception to use. That'd be a nice additional salary slot to round out the bench.

But I don't expect that to be the case.