Report: Paul Pierce Opting OUT of His Contract With Wizards

Report: Paul Pierce opting out of contract with Wizards
Dan Feldman Jun 22, 2015, 9:49 AM EDT






Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals: Atlanta Hawks at Washington Wizards
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Paul Pierce will play next season.

With that decision made, his next step is handling his his $5,543,725 player option.

Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post:

Washington Wizards forward Paul Pierce has decided to play next season but is expected to bypass his $5.5 million player option, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

This doesn’t preclude Pierce from returning to the Wizards. In fact, he can re-sign for a 20% raise from last season (to $5,543,725). Exercising his option would have meant just a 4.5% raise.

Pierce probably has the leverage to secure that bigger deal from Washington after his impressive season and playoff run. But the Wizards should be mindful of getting Otto Porter an expanded role.

More importantly, they’ll be wary of giving Pierce more than one year – with their primary goal preserving cap space for Kevin Durant in 2016.

That could open the door for the Clippers, who are interested in Pierce and have a big hole at small forward after trading Matt Barnes. They can pay just the taxpayer mid-level exception ($3,376,000 starting), but they’d probably hesitate less to offer multiple years (a second year at $3,527,920 and maybe even a third year at$3,679,840).

It’s unclear how much a longer contract appeals to Pierce, who turns 38 before the season. But the Clippers offer a starting job, a coach he knows in Doc Rivers and a spot in his native Los Angeles.



bob
MY NOTE:  We need an assassin.  We also need veteran leadership.  Gerald Wallace has done as good a job as he can, but Pierce is a world champion and that carries HUGE weight.  Also, he went through some hard times as a Celtic, hung in there and Danny turned it around for him and that's a great message to deliver to our young and perhaps impatient roster.

Should we bring Pierce back for a year for his maturity and leadership or just say that ship has already sailed?


.

The Celtics are going in a very new direction.  The pattern has been set, and the process is well under way.  I don't believe the team needs a greatly admired ghost from the past exerting any influence that could temper the team's direction.  They need to find their own way, make their own mistakes, carve out their own identity; and anything that could potentially compromise that process should be avoided.

Why do they need an old assassin (although I believe that term is a huge stretch wrp Pierce)?  If anything, they need to develop new assassins within the image of what the team is coming to be, not what the team once was.

At some point, signing him for a day to allow him to finish with the Green makes a lot of sense.  But, at presence, it's not as important to sever ties with the past as to establish strong ties for the future.

Sam