Boston Celtics: The need to re-sign Evan Fournier is valid, but does BOS value him?

The Boston Celtics have spent a vast majority of the offseason retooling their front office personnel and coaching staff. Between Brad Stevens and Ime Udoka both being in new positions, it’s fair for the Celtics to gradually approach their first offseason together. However, the Celtics currently have five players who are pending free agency, which begins on August 2, and there has been nothing gradual about Stevens’ approach to the offseason.

Free agency will be the next task for Stevens as the new president of basketball operations for the Celtics. Stevens, however, has already made a few roster decisions that were ultimately in the best interest for Boston moving forward, which also puts the team in a better position to potentially bring in some experienced and veteran talent over the next few seasons.

The decision to re-sign Evan Fournier affects the entire free agency process for the Boston Celtics this offseason. The need for him is valid in Boston.

By doing so, Stevens traded away Kemba Walker and the remaining $73 million left on his super-max contract to the OKC Thunder. Along with Walker’s contract, he being injured more often than not in Boston started to weigh down and limit the Celtics on and off the court.

However, before the Celtics can address their now vacant point guard position, the team needs to make a decision on retaining or parting ways with their five pending free agent players. As it currently stands, Evan Fournier, Semi Ojeleye, Luke Kornet, Tremont Waters, and Tacko Fall will all become available free agents this offseason.

The big one here for Boston is making a decision to keep Fournier. The Celtics used more than half of the Gordon Hayward traded player exception to acquire Fournier at the 2021 trade deadline from the Orlando Magic. Although it was the original plan to sign Fournier to a long term contract in the offseason, it’ll be interesting to see how Stevens values the veteran swingman.

The decision to re-sign Evan Fournier or not affects the entire free agency process for the Boston Celtics this offseason. However, the need for retaining him is valid.

In his short tenure with the Boston Celtics during the second half of the season, Fournier averaged 13 points per game while shooting 44.8 percent from the floor and an impressive 46.3 percent from behind the arc. His veteran presence and calm approach to the court paired well with the youthful talent on the Celtics.

Keith Smith of SB Nation’s Celtics Blog crunched the numbers to see what it would take for Boston to re-sign Fournier and it turns out that his expected salary is fair and reasonable for both sides. Smith figures that most teams will target Fournier around $17-18 million.

The big decision revolving around Fournier comes down to value. Should the Boston Celtics part ways with Fournier, they’ll be able to open up the full amount of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, which is worth about $9.5 million.

If the Celtics elect to re-sign him on a contract that’s worth at least $15 million (which is less than market value), then they’ll be over the tax threshold and limited to the taxpayer mid-level exception (MLE) of only about $5.9 million. Which as Smith notes, is a “big difference in spending power.”

From everything we’ve heard thus far from Stevens regarding reconstructing the overall roster, he expressed that he wants to add “edge and experience” to the team. However, as previously mentioned, if Boston re-signs Fournier, they will only have the mid-level exception of $5.9 million for the experience and edgy player that Stevens would like to add to this team.

"“Well, everybody’s going to bring different strengths to the table. I think when I talk about edge that can be a number of things. It starts with competitiveness, starts with a willingness to do hard things, an unselfishness to do hard things and not necessarily always reap the rewards of the person that gets the headlines.I think that it’s so important that teams are built with people that bring different things to the table and bring a toughness to the table that kind of permeates throughout the team. And so when I talk about edge, you can obviously talk about a physical toughness or mental toughness, grit that you see very easily and others you can also talk about — like the desire to be a part of something special and represent this place, with kind of that toughness and grit that our fans love.” – Brad Stevens, per Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston"

Entering his 11th season in the NBA, it’s fair to say that Fournier is both the edgy and experienced player that Stevens appears to be looking for. It would make sense for the Boston Celtics to retain him.