Haven't seen this disucssed but, as many have heard it sounds more and more likely (though definitely not certain) that the NBA Owners are moving towards locking out the players in the summer of 2011.
in one of the recent articles about the owners' contract proposal (where the owners will try to radically restructure player contracts -- i.e. reduce years, make partially guaranteed, get rid of exemptions, etc), the author (Bucher?) said the proposal and the strengthening possiblity of a lockout meant that it was almost certain that ALL major stars (Lebron, Amare, etc) would opt out of their contracts --- so they could sign new ones before the lockout (implying they hoped to be grandfathered in like before).
Would this include Pierce?
On the one hand Pierce has made more than younger players so may not feel the need to; on the other hand, he may decide he doesn't want to leave some $20M (in future earnings) on the table by having to sign a new deal under the new (owner-friendlier?) CBA...
Before anyone goes crazy with "Sign Lebron" fantasies... even if (a) Pierce opted out (50-50 at best) and (b) we didn't sign him (very unlikely IMO) we'd only have ~$11M in cap room and 7 players under contract...
(Note: a recent story said the owners were also looking to gain the ability to get out of bad contracts and/or not grandfather old deals in, further complicating this post)
Topic: Could Paul Pierce opt out this summer? (Read 930 times)