'Indications' are Kevin Garnett will return to Brooklyn next season; Paul Pierce too?
You've got to love the New York Post and their headlines:
Garnett declined to talk to reporters both after the Nets’ final loss of the season to the Heat in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals and during the locker room cleanout the following afternoon.
Still, all indications have been — despite the drop in production this season — Garnett will be back in Brooklyn for what would be the 20th season of his stellar NBA career. The fact is $12 million is an awful lot of money – no matter how much you’ve made in the past – and after playing much, much better over the final few months of the season, it would be easy to see Garnett agreeing to rejoin Pierce for one final season in Brooklyn before riding off into the sunset next summer.
He also supports his case by saying:
Garnett looked his age at times during the Nets’ playoff run, but he performed extremely well in two of the team’s biggest games of the season – Games 6 and 7 against the Raptors, when he went for 13 points and 15 rebounds and 12 points and 11 rebounds, respectively, to help the Nets advance to face the Heat.
Bontemps is definitely a guy who's "in the know" when it comes to the Nets, so chances are he's probably right.
But maybe he's not. Personally I think Garnett is done. He's now 38 years old. Does he really want to continue taking the floor knowing he's nowhere near capable of performing like he used to?
Remember, Paul Pierce is the one who convinced KG to accept the trade to Brooklyn in the first place. Does free-agent Pierce really want to stick around? Might he be interested in reuniting with Doc Rivers in LA, or even coming back to his old home in Boston?
If Pierce takes off I can't imagine Garnett playing one more year without him just to take home another $12 million. He's already made far and away the most money in salary of any NBA player ever, nearly $350 million. Who cares about $12 mil more? Unless Pierce decides to re-sign with the Nets and once again talks Garnett into joining him, I think we've probably seen the last of KG in an NBA uniform.
Follow Mark Vandeusen on twitter @LucidSportsFan
