5. Will Garnett or Pierce be back?
The Nets traded for Garnett and Pierce last offseason, hoping the two would turn them into championship contenders. Now it’s hard to know if they’ll even stick around.
Garnett has a player option for $12 million, while Pierce is an unrestricted free agent. The Nets own Pierce’s bird rights, meaning they can offer him any amount of money they want. But he may want to play elsewhere, either returning to Boston to end his career with the Celtics, or perhaps moving to Los Angeles to play with the Clippers under Doc Rivers, his former coach.
It’s possible that Garnett has played his last game in not just a Nets uniform, but any uniform at all. Garnett will be 38 years old before the 2014 playoffs end, with nearly 55,000 regular season and playoff minutes on his odometer. After averaging 38.4 minutes per game in the playoffs in his career, he could barely muster 20 per game in these playoffs.
We won’t know any time soon. Garnett refused to speak to reporters after the team’s Game 5 loss and did not show for their team exit interviews. Billy King reportedly told him that he didn’t need to give an answer right away.
Players — and, well, people — rarely just give away $12 million. It’s possible Garnett accepts the option just to become a player-coach of sorts, not unlike Jerry Stackhouse’s role last year. But that might not be an option Garnett wants to exercise.
My guess: I think we’ll see Pierce & Garnett return to Brooklyn. The Nets can offer Pierce more money than any other attractive destination, and players just don’t turn down $12 million, even in the twilight of their careers.
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