12:01pm: Lee will receive a fully guaranteed four-year, $21.5MM contract in the sign-and-trade,
tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. That's a little more than he
could have earned with the mid-level exception, so his starting salary figures to be slightly over $5MM.
11:30am: Lee figures to earn a first-year salary of about $4.6MM, while the Celtics will pay Pavlovic's salary for Portland and will also send the Blazers a second-round pick, tweets John Hollinger of ESPN.com. It's unclear what exactly the Blazers are giving up in this deal, but it doesn't seem like it'll be anything of significance.
FRIDAY, 12:17am: The Trail Blazers are expected to step in as a third team to facilitate the Lee sign-and-trade, according to Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald (via Twitter). It sounds as if Portland will receive Sasha Pavlovic from the Celtics.
THURSDAY, 9:50pm: Even though the deal has yet to be completed, Lee will join the Celtics and the Rockets' end of the sign-and-trade will not change, writes Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. The Rockets will receive JaJuan Johnson, E'Twaun Moore, and Sean Williams, but do not plan on keeping the latter two. Houston will also get the Bobcats' 2013 second-round pick in the deal.
9:30pm: The Suns and Hornets are the teams that were, and still may be, involved in the trade talks, tweets Bulpett.
7:35pm: JaJuan Johnson hasn't requested a trade from Houston, but would welcome it if he winds up there given the number of power forwards the Rockets have, tweets Sean Deveney of the Sporting News.
6:19pm: If the trade goes down, it will involve at least three teams, Bulpett tweets.
5:52pm: JaJuan Johnson will request a trade if he is sent to the Rockets, a source told Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe (via Twitter).
5:42pm: The trade for Lee still expected to go through, tweets A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com. Blakely adds that the Rockets will waive Moore upon acquiring him.
5:05pm: The trade appears to be in trouble but both sides are working to keep it alive, Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald tweets.
4:30pm: The deal will send E'Twaun Moore, JaJuan Johnson, Sean Williams, and a second-round pick to the Rockets, tweets Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald.
3:41pm: The Celtics have agreed to acquire Courtney Lee in a sign-and-trade deal with the Rockets, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter). Details are still being worked out, but JaJuan Johnson will be heading to Houston, says Spears.
As John Hollinger of ESPN.com points out (via Twitter), for salary-matching purposes, it's "inconceivable" that the Celtics could acquire Lee for Johnson alone. It's likely that the non-guaranteed contract of E'Twaun Moore will be involved as well, along with at least one other player, and perhaps cash or draft picks. The deal figures to require some maneuvering from the Rockets, who are already shuffling their roster around to create a spot for Omer Asik's offer sheet.
The Timberwolves, Bulls, and Suns were also believed to be in the running for Lee, and the Rockets could have re-signed him as well, since they'd yet to renounce his rights. The 26-year-old averaged 11.4 points per game for the Rockets in 2011/12, on 43.3% shooting (.401 3PT%).
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