Celtics Rumors: Ray Allen Must Accept Boston's 2-Year Offer
The Celtics are clearly aiming to make one more run at an NBA title with their Big Four intact. Now that Kevin Garnett has agreed to return to Boston, there's only one piece missing—Ray Allen.
According to the Boston Herald's Mark Murphy, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge called Allen at midnight on Saturday night—the moment his current contract expired—to offer him a two-year, $12 million deal. Not bad for a soon-to-be 37-year-old shooting guard.
The biggest reason Allen needs to accept this deal? Money. There aren't a lot of teams out there who are going to offer him $6 million per year, including the Heat, who can only offer him their $3 million mini-mid-level exception, according to ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard.
Another team in the mix is the Grizzlies, who have offered Allen their full, $5 million mid-level exception for two years, Broussard reports.
The Celtics can offer more money than both of them, as well as stability. Allen could continue to be an integral part of the team with which he won a championship four years ago, and he can help it make another serious run this year.
The last serious contenders for Allen are expected to be the Suns—current president Lon Babby is Allen's former agent—and the Clippers, who might be able to offer Allen the one thing the Celtics can't: a starting job. If Allen stays in Boston, he's expected to play behind Avery Bradley, who took over as the starter when an ankle injury KO'd Allen earlier in the season.
Bone spurs continued to limit Allen during the 2012 postseason, but the Celtics believe he can still be competitive, though they don't necessarily believe he's their starting shooting guard.
Even if the C's can't offer Allen the chance to start, they can still offer him the chance to win another title, and they can offer him the chance to do it with a coaching staff he's familiar with, in a city that has grown to love him. There's no GM who wants Allen as badly as Danny Ainge, and there's no team on which he'd feel more comfortable heading into what could be the final two years of his career.
Allen's days as a starter might be over, but his role on the Celtics—as a lights-out shooter off the bench—has never been more important. In Boston, he'd still be making more money than he'd make anywhere else, he'd still have an excellent opportunity to compete and his role would still be just as crucial. No other team can offer him all of those factors.
In Boston, Allen will get the best of all three worlds.
