This sounds like miscommunication between two sides to me, or there's holes in Powe's argument. Because Powe, be it a contract for one or two years with a player's option, was looking out for number one. In both instances, he desired to set himself up so that he can hit free agency after next season. I think Ainge knew this, and decided to look at his other options. In my opinion, Powe's attitude on this is unfortunate and ironic. It was unfortunate since he probably could've been back with the Celtics but won't be. And it's ironic that he signed for a two-year deal that indeed has an option but one that's the team's option.
I still like Powe but the stance he took on this I believe was wrong. Especially, if he's or his agent is coming out and saying that his preference was to remain with Boston. Sometimes, I don't think it's always the front office of the former team's fault, it can be that player's fault too. Powe was too concern with looking ahead to a more lucrative contract after next season. I want to believe Powe, but sometimes you can't always blame Ainge in some cases. It's easy to point the finger in his direction if you believe he's an insincere general manager or what have you.
There was unmitigated relief after Cleveland doctors satisfied Powe’s greatest hope - that the power forward’s surgically repaired left knee is healing ahead of schedule. There was the thrill of signing on for two years to play next to his former AAU teammate, LeBron James.
But there was also a lag a day after signing his new contract. The newest Cavalier remains stung by the fact that he’s no longer a Celtic, that Powe’s old team didn’t have enough faith in his work ethic to wait.
Instead, they went out and signed Shelden Williams, a power forward with a journeyman’s track record.
“I knew they were done with me then,” Powe said today from his home in Oakland. “But I’m not mad at nobody. I’m just going to do as always - play as hard as I can. I guess they just felt that they needed someone available for the full year.”
Though his chances of re-signing with the Celtics were slim from the moment the team didn’t extend him a qualifying offer on June 30, Powe still tried to plead his case with Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca.
“I talked to him for 45 minutes,” said Powe. “But he said they weren’t going to do nothing. It was quite a shock to me, but he said they didn’t have the extra money to sign me, and (Pagliuca) said that he would have to pay out of his own pocket for them to wait on me.
“I understood what he was saying, because it was the same thing I heard from Danny. I told Danny that I would take the one-year deal. But that was it. After (talking to Pagliuca), I didn’t call them no more.”
Ainge said today that there was considerable discussion within the front office about whether to make Powe a qualifying offer. The executive director of basketball operations also said that he raised the possibility of signing Powe to a veteran’s minimum two-year contract with a team option in the second year - the very deal Powe just signed with Cleveland - but that the forward rejected the idea.
The Celtics, in turn, weren’t interested in bringing back Powe for one year.
“Unfortunately, the way things turned out, Leon took it to mean that we didn’t want him back, and that wasn’t necessarily the case,” said Ainge. “Though we didn’t extend him the qualifying offer, we did talk to him about coming back. I told Leon from the beginning that what happened is what I thought would happen - that he’d get a two-year contract with a team option.
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/bask ... position=0
