Krstic and Danny showing mutual interest

"I want to come back here," he said. "Obviously I want to see what my options are, but I definitely like the organization and I like the team. If you ask me, yes, but I don’t know if they want me."

And here's Danny's thoughts:

He never got his starting job back after he got hurt, and then he got hurt again on the other knee. So he had two bruised knees. He was finally healthy by the time the Miami series started, but by then Jermaine was playing really well defensively for us, and Doc was trying to get (Glen Davis') confidence back, and was trying to get something out of Baby that we had the first half of the season. In the last game Krstic was back, ready and contributing."

My prediction is that Krstic stays. He's not a starting center on a championship team, but I think he could be a quality back-up. You also have to remember that teams over the cap (like us) are severely limited in the free agent market. The one caveat is that they can sign their own guys for any amount (and what I'm hearing is that the new CBA will make it even more friendly for teams to keep their own players). So while people can dream of the Celtics getting Nene or Tyson Chandler, neither are going to give up tens of millions to come here. Krstic will probably be our best bet as a backup.

It's somewhat similar to last offseason where we could've paid T.A. anything, but once he left we only could pay a backup wing the minimum. There were no decent candidates for the minimum, so Ainge had to resign Nate.

Another advantage of keeping Krstic is that his contract could then be used in a future trade. So let's hypothetically say (not gonna happen) that the Magic decide they will trade us Dwight Howard, but only if we also take Gilbert Arenas's contract. Krstic's deal could be necessary to make the numbers work. Look for Ainge to try to sign Krstic to a 1 yr contract at a slight overpay over signing him to a multi year deal. Unless some crazy team decides to break the bank for Nenad, I expect him to take that offer.