KG Back

He's Back

Three weeks after LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh eliminated his Boston Celtics from the Eastern Conference Finals with a 101-88 Game 7 victory in Miami, unrestricted free agent Kevin Garnett has re-committed to the organization that helped him win his first and only NBA championship in 2008.  The 36 year-old, who's already piled up more than 50,000 minutes (playoffs included) of mileage across 17 seasons, was reportedly considering retirement.  He set yesterday, the day before free agent negotiating begins, as his ultimatum for informing the C's whether or not he was going to return to the team or retire; apparently he had no interest in winding down his career with somebody else, even though he would have been one of the most attractive free agent big men since the others--Roy Hibbert, Tim Duncan and Ryan Anderson--aren't expected to switch teams.  Either way he had made up his mind to retire as a Celtic.  His only decision, then, was whether or not he wanted to keep playing.  "And once he decided that he did, it was going to be Boston," a source told the Boston Herald. "He wasn't going to leave Doc Rivers and those guys and play anywhere else."

Now that's what I call loyalty (Lebron could learn a thing or two about that, right Cleveland?).  Barring serious injury he will remain a Celtic for the remainder of his thirties.  The Big Ticket, always a model teammate, took one for the team by inking a cap-friendly contract; three more years for $34 million, which equates to roughly $11 million per year--nearly a 50 percent pay cut from the $21,247,044 he earned last season. But for a man who's earned nearly $300 million in his career from player salaries alone, I'm willing to bet that money wasn't much of a factor in his decision because he could afford to forfeit half his paycheck.  That leaves Boston with around $12 million to work with for Danny Ainge to try to bring back unrestricted free agents Ray Allen, Jeff Green, Brandon Bass, and Mickael Pietrus.  Allen is reportedly drawing interest from the Heat, who are trying to add quality role players around their Big Three. We've all seen how hard he has to work for shots in Boston's slow-paced halfcourt offense, so nobody would blame him if he decides to camp out in the corner for the next few years, racking up three-pointers after Wade and Lebron drive and dish.  Nobody knows what to expect out of Green, played poorly after coming over from OKC in the now-infamous Kendrick Perkins trade before missing the entire 2011-2012 season recovering from heart surgery.  Bass represented a significant upgrade over Glen Davis and added some much needed youth and athleticism to the roster, but he still needs to work on his passing and help defense.  Jared Sullinger may make him expendable. Lastly Pietrus, with his great defense and decent outside shot, is a great bench player to have.  Guys like that are a dime a dozen, though, and he would be the easiest to replace.

But Garnett is irreplaceable, and his return opens the door for some of them to reunite in pursuit of the franchise's 18th championship banner.  Rajon Rondo is the team's best player and sparkplug.  Paul Pierce is the "Truth" and the Captain, their gritty crunch time scorer.  But if you ask me, Garnett is the true heart and soul of the team.  He's the one who transformed the culture and identity back in 2007, when he almost single-handedly turned the Celtics into a premier defensive team.  His unwavering intensity, dedication and fierce competitive spirit are matched in this city only by Dustin Pedroia and the recently departed Kevin Youkilis.  The crowds at the TD Garden feed off that energy.  I'm glad to see a championship hasn't changed his attitude one bit; he still cares just as much, plays just as hard, and talks just as much trash as he did five years ago.  A player with those intangibles, specifically that kind of drive, can only make the teammates around him better.  I think he'll be a great tutor for Fab Melo, who's already a good interior defender but is pretty raw.  He will have plenty of opportunities to learn from one of the game's best, the same way Perkins did for three and a half seasons.  Young players look up to him and listen to him.  Even if he gets hurt, he's the kind of veteran who can still contribute valuable lessons in practice and from the sidelines.  He's a phenomenal leader and motivator who makes one hell of a cheerleader.

And it doesn't hurt that he's still a very valuable player. Obviously he can't jump as high, run as fast or cut as quickly as he used to--not many athletes in their mid-thirties can--but any talk of a precipitous drop-off in his performance is premature.  Like his contemporary Tim Duncan, Garnett has aged rather gracefully.  Instead of slowly declining, his statistics have held steady over the past several years, with his numbers hovering around 15 points, eight rebounds, two-and-a-half assists and a 20 PER.  The only noticable drop-off last year was his field goal percentage, which at a still stellar .503 was the lowest it had been since his final season in Minnesota, but given that the lockout caused FG% to plunge across the league I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.  Considering he missed just six games last year and averaged more than 31 minutes per contest, he looks fully recovered from his offseason surgery three years ago and is still pretty durable for a player of his size and age (give Rivers credit for managing his minutes and keeping him rested).  He's still a selfless passer, one of the league's best big men in that regard along with Duncan, Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol and Al Horford.  He's still an elite defender who led the league last year in defensive rating--points allowed per 100 possessions--with a score of 94, the same mark he posted when he was named the 2008 Defensive Player of the Year.  As long as he's healthy, he still has something left in the tank.  Many expected that the compressed schedule, with its increased travel and added back-to-backs, would take a toll on older players such as Garnett, Steve Nash, and Kobe Bryant.  Instead, the 14 time All-Star got stronger as the season wore on, stepping in at center for an injured Jermaine O'Neal:

Through February 1st (21 games)  13.1 points, 7.2 rebounds, .478 FG%, 10.3 GmSc
Feb 1st to April 18th (38 games)   17.6 points, 9.0 rebounds, .518 FG%, 14.5 GmSc

In the postseason he played even better, averaging 19.2 points and 10.3 rebounds while shooting just a hair under 50 percent from the floor.  While Pierce and Allen struggled mightily in those 20 matchups with the Hawks, Sixers and Heat, Garnett was a model of consistency, scoring in double digits every game but one.  He dropped at least 20 points in half of those contests and accumulated 13 double-doubles.   Not too shabby for somebody born during the Gerald Ford administration.

And if he keeps playing like that, his new contract is going to look like quite a bargain.