I actually had hoped we would hang on to Nenad Krstic, but it just didnt happen. I think the whole deal was part of an attempted salary dump. For some reason he went to Russia and never came back. Was he waiting for a Danny Ainge phone call that never came?
He left mainly because of the uncertainty of the lockout. He has stayed because he gets to be close to home as one of the highest-paid players in Europe. When you add in that he gets things like car, housing, and other amenities on top of his salary, you might have to offer him as much as $10 million/year for it to make sense from a purely financial perspective for him to go back to the NBA.
Agreed, but we also could have resigned him out of the lockout because of owning his Bird rights. We chose not to and used that 10 million or so you mentioned to spread around between other players like Bass, Lee and Jason Terry over the past couple years.
I just happen to think we needed a big like Krstic more than them.
Krstic signed with a Russian team in June 2011 in anticipation of the lockout, with no NBA out clause, so was unavailable when the lockout ended.
Yes, but I dont believe he left with the feeling he had a contract waiting here. I think Danny was already looking in another direction or thinking he would be cheap.
Who could blame him for signing if he had no indication from the Celtics at the end of the previous season that there was a place for him with the team? He has stated since that he would like to return to the NBA either Brooklin, Milwaukee or Boston were his preferred destinations.
It's water under the bridge now and no one but Danny and his agent know the truth or intent of what was going on contractually with them. We can continue to speculate I guess.
