While a weekend report suggested that Brandon Bass was likely to exercise his player option, A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com says that's not necessarily the case. Multiple sources told Blakely that Bass is a good bet to opt out of his contract, though the forward would like to remain in Boston. Presumably, Bass' top choice would be to renegotiate a multiyear deal with the Celtics.
Here are a few more Monday morning updates on the C's from Blakely and a handful of other Boston scribes….
Free agent forward Jeff Green is out for the year after surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm, and the Celtics voided his contract when he failed a preseason physical. Nonetheless, he's been attending the team's home games this year, occasionally sitting on the team's bench, and CSNNE.com's A. Sherrod Blakely believes it's clear Green prefers to re-sign with Boston as an unrestricted free-agent this summer (Twitter link). Michael Lee of The Washington Post adds, via Twitter, that Green still has a home in the Boston area.
Green's pending unrestricted free agency comes about by an odd set of circumstances, and that's not simply because of his heart ailment. When the Celtics voided the one-year, $9MM offer after his failed physical, they also withdrew their qualifying offer to him, making him an unrestricted free agent instead of a restricted one, which allows any team to sign Green to a deal without giving the Celtics a chance to match it.
Perhaps Green feels a debt of gratitude over the move, which the Celtics didn't have to make. Still, with the expiring contracts of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, the Celtics will have plenty of cap space this summer, and with Green coming off surgery, he won't command the type of contract he otherwise would. The former No. 5 overall pick has career averages of 13.9 PPG and 5.5 RPG, and was acquired by the Celtics last year at the trading deadline.
With a few games into the second half of the season, the battle for the Atlantic Division crown and homecourt in the first round of the playoffs should only look to intensify over the next few weeks. The Celtics, riding a four-game winning streak, are only two games behind the Sixers for first place in the division while the Knicks remain just three and a half games out. Today brought more topics of discussion: