Tweet of the Night goes to Jeff Green, who can now proudly call himself a Celtic for the foreseeable future after the team officially signed him to a contract on Wednesday after much anticipation throughout the summer. It will be great to see the forward back in an NBA uniform after watching him miss the entire 2011-2012 season due to an aortic aneurysm, which required heart surgery. Here are some notable quotes from the signing, from NBA.com: “We are thrilled to be able to have Jeff back with the Celtics,” said Danny Ainge, Celtics President of Basketball Operations. “Jeff’s versatility on offense and ability to guard players out on the perimeter is something that we are looking forward to having on the court this season.”…“I cannot wait to get back out onto the court and help this team towards our goal of winning another championship for Boston,” said Green.
Earlier in the summer, reported rumors had Green signing a four-year contract worth about $36 million, which some found to be controversial. The details of his contract has yet to be disclosed, but the numbers are probably still within the same vicinity. Given the size of the contract, it will be interesting to see if Doc Rivers will start him at power forward alongside Kevin Garnett, who will presumably stay a center after all the success he found at the position last season.
Starting Green would push Brandon Bass, who also signed a lucrative $20 million contract of his own with the team, to the bench. Green and Bass are both undersized power forwards that aren’t known for their defense and don’t rebound particularly well – Bass grabbed a career-high 6.2 rebounds last season and Green has grabbed no more than 6.7 rebounds in his first four seasons – so the decision to start one of them should be based on their ability to score – an advantage that clearly belongs to Green.
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