Great news for Celtics fans that he has resigned. Not so happy it was for 3 years, but it seems an immutable law of the NBA that superstars always get one more year than they should on their final contract. Kind of a golden handshake I guess.
They're going to have to manage his minutes even better next season though. Even though KG was playing great defence right up to the end, you could see that his offence dropped off as the playoffs wore on (last two games v Miami 14 & 7 and 12 & 5).
I actually hope they can get enough big man help to only play KG 20 mins a game until the home stretch of the regular season, instead getting him to spend more time mentoring guys like Stiemsma, Melo and Sullinger. If they can do this and get to the playoffs (even if its as the 8th seed) I think it'd be worth it.
The team currently has KG, Pierce, Bradley, Rondo, JJ Johnson, E'twan Moore, Sullinger and Melo signed. That comes to almost $45 mill and the salary cap is expected to be $61 mill, so they've basically got $16 mill to sign a couple of good F/A's and fill out the rest of the team with vet minimum contracts.
Assuming Jeff Green would play for a slight discount on the $9 mill he was offered prior to his heart problem, that leaves up to about $8 mill for another good FA (maybe a few mill more if the Celtics were to trade away some of their recent draftees).
I'd like to see the Celtics try for Kaman, who would give them another big with some height, a post game and decent rebounding.
Maybe bring Wilcox back for the MLE and the rest vets like Pietrus and Dooling.
Bass and Ray Allen are probaby goners in this situation, unless either is willing to play very cheap.
That would give the Celtics:
Kaman Stiemsma Melo
KG Wilcox Sullinger
Pierce Green Johnson
Bradley Pietrus Joseph
Rondo Dooling Moore