Evan Fournier arrived in the middle of the season with an expiring contract and the Celtics have to face his renewal with limited money. What will Stevens do?
Evan Fournier and the competitive need
The Boston Celtics have their accounts in the red. With the entry into force of the renewal of Jayson Tatum, the cash to be disbursed is $ 134 million (can be minimally reduced by cutting Jabari Parker). Luckily for the owners, Tatum has failed to make an All-NBA Team, reducing his contract total by about $ 32 million.
In this context, Brad Stevens has to see how to renew Evan Fournier and convince him to stay charging less than elsewhere, or lose to Marcus Smart O Kemba Walker on the way, if you don’t want to pay a lot of luxury tax.
Estimates of the salary that the French can acquire are around a floor of 16 million, with a maximum of 20/22 million. The Boston Celtics have their rights, so they can offer you what they want and go over the limit if they wish (the other side is paying the waste with the tax), so the offer will be to the low and it will be expected that the # 94 feel like staying.
From the sporting point of view, Evan Fournier showed interesting things, good game reading, better defense than expected and chemistry with his teammates. COVID-19 deprived us of seeing what would have been in full, and the loss of Jaylen Brown did not allow him to be exploited in the role that he came to fulfill.
It is speculated from the Boston media that the renewal of the former Orlando would come only in the case of freeing Kemba Walker or Marcus Smart, in case they do not want to enter a high penalty.
The other option is to pay the excess tax part of the year and try to get rid of one of the players in the middle of the season (which happened with Theis), so as not to add a luxury year on the books.
About this and much more, thinking about what the Celtics are going to do this summer, we talked in Episode 5 of Coffee without Rick that you can see here.
In search of the Celtics coach
Chauncey Billups one of the candidates to replace Stevens
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If Evan Fournier is one of the intrigues of the summer, the other is who will be the next coach of the proud greens. The latest information reinforces the speculation that the 18th coach in history will come from outside the franchise.
Today it emerged that Jerome Allen, Stevens’ former assistant, had an offer from the Detroit Pistons and will likely continue his career as Casey’s assistant.
Reports from those close to the franchise speak that the profile that is being sought is a young, African-American coach with experience in the league and good communication.
The top candidates within that profile go through Chauncey Billups (Portland also has it in the pipeline), Lloyd Pierce, Udoka and Sam Cassell among others.
Kara Lawson and Beckie Hammon have yet to receive a call from the green leadership, despite rumors that Brad Stevens may be interested in their services.
Detroit is finalizing deals to hire three new assistants to Dwane Casey’s staff: Boston’s Jerome Allen, ex-Indiana assistant Bill Bayno and Sacramento’s Rex Kalamian, sources tell ESPN. Kalamian, Bayno worked for Casey in Toronto. Allen interviewed for Celtics HC job last week.
– Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 15, 2021
The possibility of Kara Lawson is being practically ruled out considering that she will lead the USA Basket 3 × 3 team in the Olympic games, and will also be commenting on the event for North American television.
The choice of who will be Stevens’ replacement can be extended until the end of this season, considering that both Billups and Cassell are still in the role of assistants and are the main candidates.
Cover Photo: Brian Babineau
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