As the Boston Celtics prepare to open up the post All Star-break portion of their season on the road against the Utah Jazz on Friday night, one glaring absence was evident at the team’s shootaround on Friday morning, as power forward David Lee was not present.
The 32-year old is not expected to suit up for the matchup against the Jazz, and a buyout appears to be imminent.
Lee, who has not received playing time with Boston since January 10, was rumored to be in the mix of a plethora of trade discussions leading up to Thursday afternoon’s deadline as the team looked to move the remaining $5 million on his contract, which expires following the conclusion of the season.
David Lee not with team, a buyout being negotiated.
— A. Sherrod Blakely (@ASherrodblakely) February 19, 2016
However, there were no buyers for the veteran as general manager Danny Ainge kept silent as the deadline past, which sparked inevitable buyout negotiations between the two sides, talks which appear to be reaching a resolution quickly.
Lee has not practiced with the team since the Celtics arrived in Utah to commence the second half of their season, and he mentioned to ESPN’s Chris Forsberg that although he feels that he still has plenty of fuel left in the tank to assist a playoff-contending team, “it’s just looking like it’s not gonna be in Boston.”
Despite the impending absence of reserve center Kelly Olynyk for at least the next three weeks due to a partially separated right shoulder injury, Lee’s minutes with the team were not to be affected as the Celtics promoted rookie big man Jordan Mickey up from the D-League to join the team for the foreseeable future, swiping away any playing time that Lee would wish to acquire in head coach Brad Stevens’ rotation.
Added by the team in exchange for small forward Gerald Wallace in a swap of overpriced, expiring contracts this past summer, Lee garnered consistent minutes in Stevens’ rotation to begin the season, contributing multiple double-digit scoring performances for the team in the season’s first two months.
However, as center Tyler Zeller began to receive an uptick in his playing time, Lee was essentially dropped from the rotation, his minutes abruptly decreasing as the new calendar year began.
In 30 appearances in the 2015-16 campaign, Lee has posted 7.1 points and 4.3 rebounds per game while accumulating a PER of 15.70. Scoring wise, the 10-year veteran’s most impressive game of the season came in a November 18 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in which he converted on four of his seven field goal attempts for 14 points.
Next: Preview: Boston Celtics at Utah Jazz
For his career, the former All-Star has recorded per game averages of 14.4 points and 9.2 rebounds. Twice, Lee averaged 20-plus points per game in a season, posting 20.2 points per night in 2009-10 while with the New York Knicks and 20.1 per game while with the Golden State Warriors in 2011-12.