Avery Bradley & Celtics Agree to 4-year, $32 million contract

[LEHGOCELTICS]

What will Bradley add to his game that will eventually make him worth $8 mil? Hes a very good defender and a solid shooter, undersized for his position and cant play point because he has suspected ball handling. Thats not $8 no, even if he learns to dribble.

But it actually is worth 8 million.  Look at the market.

And if he could add passing and ball handling?  It'd be a steal.  He would be a stud.

Just because some imprudent teams are making dumb moves does not mean that we should be doing the same. And we don't know if he's worth 8 million, which is why Danny should have waited to see what other teams would offer Bradley before contemplating whether he'd match or let him walk. And worth is also relative, I don't think Bradley is as valuable to us as he was a couple of weeks ago considering our rookies and the need to develop them.

I like Bradley, but his skillset is too redundant considering we already have defensive savants in Rondo and Smart.

[bdm860]

So the deal will end up looking like

1st year $7.2 million
2nd year $7.75 million
3rd year $8.3 million
4th year $8.85 million

That seems fairly reasonable if he stays healthy and continues to develop some.

Yep, that's basically what I came up with (some minor rounding differences).  Hopefully, though, the Celtics structured it to de-escalate over time, meaning it could potentially look like:

$9.01 million -> $8.33 million -> $7.66 million -> $6.98 million

The C's never do that.

no one will ever do that...don't you want a steady pay raise every year, and not a, you know...pay cut?

Lots of teams -- and thus, lots of players -- have structured contracts that way.  The team pays a premium up front, but gets the benefit of decreasing annual salaries.

The escalating salaries are what get a lot of teams in trouble, because as soon as the cap doesn't go up as much as anticipated, the team is stuck in a bad cap situation.

It's not a league-wide trend yet, but it should be a tactic employed more and more by cap-savvy teams.

Nick Collison signed a contract with OKC in ‘10 that paid him 13.3m. 3.3m, 2.9m, 2.6m, 2.2m.

Kirk Hinrich signed a contract with the Bulls in ’08 that paid him 11.3m, 10m, 9.5m, 9m, 8.1m

Ben Wallace signed a contract with the Bulls in ’07 that paid him 16m, 15.5m, 14.5m,

Ronnie Brewer signed a contract with the Bulls in ’10 that was for 4.8m, 4.7m, 3m

Carlos Boozer signed a weird contract with the Bulls in ’10 that was for14.4m, 13.5m, 15m, 15.3m, 16.8m

Joahkim Noah signed a weird contract with the Bulls in ’10 that was for 12m, 11.3m, 11.1m, 12.2m, 13.4m

Noticing a trend here with which team tends to do this?

As for wanting raises, who really cares?  If I was going to give you $32m, why on earth wouldn’t you want most of it right away if you could get it?  The reason salaries usually increase is to get them to fit under the cap and for max money deals (because the max a team can pay this year will be less than the max they can pay next year, etc.).

[JSD]

I am beside myself with anger and disappointment. This is the type of player that you hope to bring back for the qualifying offer and if not then move on. I would love this signing if the team already had Rondo, Love, and Melo, but we don't! I'm disgusted, utterly disgusted, right now.

[saltlover]

What will Bradley add to his game that will eventually make him worth $8 mil? Hes a very good defender and a solid shooter, undersized for his position and cant play point because he has suspected ball handling. Thats not $8 no, even if he learns to dribble.

But it actually is worth 8 million.  Look at the market.

And if he could add passing and ball handling?  It'd be a steal.  He would be a stud.

Just because some imprudent teams are making dumb moves does not mean that we should be doing the same. And we don't know if he's worth 8 million, which is why Danny should have waited to see what other teams would offer Bradley before contemplating whether he'd match or let him walk. And worth is also relative, I don't think Bradley is as valuable to us as he was a couple of weeks ago considering our rookies and the need to develop them.

I like Bradley, but his skillset is too redundant considering we already have defensive savants in Rondo and Smart.

Call other teams imprudent if you like, but the market is the market.  If you're going to offer players less money than everyone else, you're not going to have much of a team.  The vast majority of players sign for the most money they can get.

[crownontherocks]

#Celtics officials - citing moratorium - not willing to discuss reported Avery Bradley contact. Ainge, Stevens unavailable today.

Scott souza

[Chief Macho]

I have no idea what they're are doing.

[MBunge]

What will Bradley add to his game that will eventually make him worth $8 mil? Hes a very good defender and a solid shooter, undersized for his position and cant play point because he has suspected ball handling. Thats not $8 no, even if he learns to dribble.

But it actually is worth 8 million.  Look at the market.

And if he could add passing and ball handling?  It'd be a steal.  He would be a stud.

Just because some imprudent teams are making dumb moves does not mean that we should be doing the same.

1.  I think it's been pretty well established that $8 mil a year is not at all an outrageous salary for someone of Bradley's talent at his position.

2.  James Young won't turn 19 until August.  Unless you want Boston to tank again and even harder this time, you need someone to man that spot.

And I think people are overlooking the fact that this is only a 4 year deal.  That's huge.  Gortat got a 5 year deal.  Lance Stephenson is reported to be unhappy with a 5 year offer from Indy at slightly more per year than Bradley.  Given the new salary rules, a lot of FAs are going to be demanding that 5th year to resign with their teams.

Mike

[LooseCannon]

LC's gotta be popping champagne.

8 million a year is more than I would have paid him, but with the cap rising and the fact that we're probably not going to bring in any blockbuster free agents, its ok. The Meeks deal basically ensured this one, at least to my eye.

 

The Meeks contract made me certain that anyone who was talking about signing Bradley for $4m/year was crazy.  The purpose of allegedly contacting 30 players on day one may partly have been to gauge the market for what Bradley wants compared to what other players want.  I think other players around the league respect Bradley and it would harmed the ability of Ainge to bring in a star if he was seen letting a player like Bradley walk away for nothing.

I expect Bradley to set a new career high in 3P% sometime in the next three years.  I expect him to set a new career high in PPG that is 1-3 more than his current best.  I don't expect him to become a serviceable point guard.

[D.o.s.]

LC's gotta be popping champagne.

8 million a year is more than I would have paid him, but with the cap rising and the fact that we're probably not going to bring in any blockbuster free agents, its ok. The Meeks deal basically ensured this one, at least to my eye.

 

The Meeks contract made me certain that anyone who was talking about signing Bradley for $4m/year was crazy.  The purpose of allegedly contacting 30 players on day one may partly have been to gauge the market for what Bradley wants compared to what other players want.  I think other players around the league respect Bradley and it would harmed the ability of Ainge to bring in a star if he was seen letting a player like Bradley walk away for nothing.

I expect Bradley to set a new career high in 3P% sometime in the next three years.  I expect him to set a new career high in PPG that is 1-3 more than his current best.  I don't expect him to become a serviceable point guard.

Agreed, both with your analysis and your expectation -- assuming he stays healthy-ish.

Nick Collison signed a contract with OKC in ‘10 that paid him 13.3m. 3.3m, 2.9m, 2.6m, 2.2m.

Kirk Hinrich signed a contract with the Bulls in ’08 that paid him 11.3m, 10m, 9.5m, 9m, 8.1m

Ben Wallace signed a contract with the Bulls in ’07 that paid him 16m, 15.5m, 14.5m,

Ronnie Brewer signed a contract with the Bulls in ’10 that was for 4.8m, 4.7m, 3m

Carlos Boozer signed a weird contract with the Bulls in ’10 that was for14.4m, 13.5m, 15m, 15.3m, 16.8m

Joahkim Noah signed a weird contract with the Bulls in ’10 that was for 12m, 11.3m, 11.1m, 12.2m, 13.4m

Noticing a trend here with which team tends to do this?

What is, "teams that are owned by notorious cheapskates?"

[heyvik]

#Celtics officials - citing moratorium - not willing to discuss reported Avery Bradley contact. Ainge, Stevens unavailable today.

Scott souza

seems strange

[chambers]

After a bit of time to ponder over this...
I wouldn't jump to any conclusions until we see what else Ainge does.

Also remember that the new NBA tv deals will come into play soon and the salary cap will continue to rise after this season's already anticipated jump of over $5 million per team. Let's say the cap has gone up to $70-72 million by Avery's third year of this contract in 2016-17, which makes his contract between 11-12% of our total cap, before the tax threshold comes into play. If we speculate the tax threshold at the same time will be something like $85 million, then his $8 million will be 9.4% of our allowed room if we add real superstar/max money guys by then.
Jeff Green's contract is something like 15% of our current cap, so if we can have a situation where Avery is 8-10% of our cap by the 3rd year of this deal, and he improves slightly, then the deal becomes very good.

I'm not a huge Avery fan but after some consideration the contract isn't as bad as most are portraying it.
He projects to continually improve and he's the same age as some guys in this recent draft. His shoulders are fixed and his shot is gradually improving.
Still a risk, and I can't understand why Ainge wouldn't at least offer Lance Stephenson an 11-12 million dollar contract when Avery is basically a poorer, shorter man's Lance.
I don't think we can trade Avery until 2015 though, unless a sign and trade is organized before he signs with us?

[Mr October]

I have mixed feelings on this signing. I like Bradley and will be glad to see him play for the Celtics next year.

However, i mourn the loss of cap space. If the Celtics were to extend Rondo, they cannot afford another max player in 2015.

Here comes the long rebuild. Perhaps that was the most likely course anyway. The Celtics are way short on star talent to use in a big trade.

[saltlover]

What will Bradley add to his game that will eventually make him worth $8 mil? Hes a very good defender and a solid shooter, undersized for his position and cant play point because he has suspected ball handling. Thats not $8 no, even if he learns to dribble.

But it actually is worth 8 million.  Look at the market.

And if he could add passing and ball handling?  It'd be a steal.  He would be a stud.

Just because some imprudent teams are making dumb moves does not mean that we should be doing the same.

1.  I think it's been pretty well established that $8 mil a year is not at all an outrageous salary for someone of Bradley's talent at his position.

2.  James Young won't turn 19 until August.  Unless you want Boston to tank again and even harder this time, you need someone to man that spot.

And I think people are overlooking the fact that this is only a 4 year deal.  That's huge.  Gortat got a 5 year deal.  Lance Stephenson is reported to be unhappy with a 5 year offer from Indy at slightly more per year than Bradley.  Given the new salary rules, a lot of FAs are going to be demanding that 5th year to resign with their teams.

Mike

I actually wanted it to be a 5-year deal.  As an ABeliever, one more year at a reasonable rate would have suited me just fine.

[chambers]

I have mixed feelings on this signing. I like Bradley and will be glad to see him play for the Celtics next year.

However, i mourn the loss of cap space. If the Celtics were to extend Rondo, they cannot afford another max player in 2015.

Here comes the long rebuild. Perhaps that was the most likely course anyway. The Celtics are way short on star talent to use in a big trade.

I'm not too worried about cap room. We have so many picks that we could move Wallace with one or two of those. Green and Bass can be dumped with picks in a trade for a star. easy 15 million there+ renouncing Krstic's cap hold and we can sign another FA with Rondo and Bradley. Just needs to be a sign and trade- and that's what those picks are for.

Danny wouldn't do this without a plan for the future.

[D.o.s.]

As an ABeliever.