Eddie (Wants More) Money
Eddie House's future with the Celtics has flown under the radar as we debate contracts (for Big Baby Davis and Rajon Rondo), free agent targets (Marcin Gortat, Anthony Parker, Matt Barnes to name a few) and trade rumors (Ray Allen).
But it looks like Eddie is going to pass on the $2.86 million player-option he has with the Celtics.
“We haven’t made a final decision,” agent Mark Bartelstein said. “He’d love to stay in Boston. He loves everything about what he has here. The fans have been great to him, and he’s been a big part of the team.
“But I think it’s safe to say that he’s outplayed his contract.”
Bartelstein is right. Like I stated last month, House (who recently turned 31) is going to search out a longer contract. He definitely deserves a new two-year deal ($6 million total?) and I wouldn't be surprised to see one contending team give him three years.
As for potential free-agent targets, the Herald's Mark Murphy throws out two possible names:
Pachulia (6 ppg, 5 rpg in 19 minutes) could be a good fit. But because he's 6-11 and just 25 years-old, I cannot imagine he'd sign for anything less than $4 million per. (He's also a member of our All-Ugly Team.)
I can only laugh at the RealGM forum trade rumor thrown about in our comments section. Rondo, Ray and TA for D-Wade, Mario Chalmers and James Jones. Miami would want much more for Wade.
The Shaq-to-Cleveland rumors are back. This rumored deal ships O'Neal east for Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic. But if the Cavs were too old and slow to deal with the Magic, how does adding Shaq change that?