Center Chris Kaman signs with Portland

Another potential Celtics center comes off the market.

From Sam Amick at USA TODAY:

Chris Kaman agreed Thursday night to a two-year contract with the Blazers, a person with knowledge of the deal told USA TODAY Sports. The deal is worth $9.8 million total but only $1 million is guaranteed in the second year. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because NBA contracts cannot be signed until July 10.

The 32-year-old Kaman would have been a nice addition for the Celtics, if only because he's a veteran center and Boston is seriously lacking in that department at the moment. If he wanted $5 million this year, however, that would have eaten up pretty much all of Boston's mid-level exception and wouldn't be worth it for a stop-gap center. There should be younger, better players the Celtics can acquire with that exception.

Even so, as free agency marches on the center market gets smaller. The first piece to fall was Marcin Gortat returning to the Wizards and now Kaman.

Here's a list of free agent centers still available for the Celtics with their ages and career stats next to their names:

Emeka Okafor, 31, 12.3 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 1.7 bpg

Jordan Hill, 26, 6.7 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 0.7 bpg

Cole Aldrich, 25, 2.0 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 0.6 bpg

Ekpe Udoh, 26, 4.4 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 1.3 bpg

Aaron Gray, 29, 3.4 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 0.3 bpg

Chris "Birdman" Andersen, 35, 5.5 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 1.5 bpg

Nazr Mohammed, 36, 5.9 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 0.6 bpg

Greg Oden, 26, 8.0 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 1.2 bpg

Byron Mullens, 25, 7.4 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 0.5 bpg

Channing Frye, 30, 9.9 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 0.7 bpg

Not exactly a star-studded list, but there weren't a ton of big name free agent centers this year to begin with. None of these names are particularly "sexy." Grabbing Okafor for the veteran's minimum or a chunk of the mid-level exception or Hill with a bigger chunk of the mid-level exception seem like great deals. Problem is, with guys like Kaman commanding $5 million per season, those numbers may not be realistic for the Celtics. Never count out a trade when it comes to Boston, but unless one of the guys on this list agrees to come over on the cheap, we may see another center-by-committee season.

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