The few days of uncertainty regarding Paul Pierce re-signing with the Celtics is seemingly no more. A source has told ESPN's Ric Bucher that Pierce has agreed to a four-year, $61 million deal with Boston. Additionally, the source said that the tricky fourth year is fully guaranteed.
It is not immediately known if a no-trade clause is included in the deal, "which Pierce is eligible for by virtue of having at least eight years of service time and four with the same team."
ESPN Boston's Chris Forsberg reminds that the deal cannot be official until July 8.
Let's be honest, did we ever expect Pierce to walk away? The 12th-year veteran is synonymous with Boston and even when he opted out of his deal earlier this week, walking away from $21.5 million, it seemed unfathomable that he could end up in any other city. [...]
And while we all expected Pierce back, the Celtics can breathe a sigh of relief because there was no quality Plan B. If Pierce had walked away, the team would have been bound by the salary cap and it was unlikely they could have secured a player of his talent -- at least without cutting ties with Allen as well -- particularly in this deep-pocketed market where free agents are receiving head-shaking amounts of money early in the process. It might only get worse as the pickings get slimmer for cash-gushing teams that spent much of the past season clearing space to lure a superstar, but could get left scraping for whatever is leftover.