Celtics had their eyes on Memphis' JaMychal Green in free agency last summer

One of the few bright spots for a horrendous Memphis Grizzlies team Monday night at the TD Garden was JaMychal Green. The power forward had a team-high 21 points and 11 rebounds for the visitors in the 109-98 defeat to Boston. That type of production made Green a wanted man on the free-agent market last summer, and it turns out the Celtics were one of the teams that wanted to bring him into the mix.

Green told BostonSportsJournal.com on Monday night the Celtics showed strong interest in him as a free agent. Memphis had the right to match any offer sheet he signed with another team due to Green’s status as a restricted free agent.

“I talked to Danny and the coach,” Green said. “They did show some love. It's a great organization. They have a great team this year.”

The four-year veteran admitted he was flattered the Celtics pursued him.

“Definitely. Just the history with this team. It definitely was a good feeling,” he said.

Green was coming off his best year to date last year. He put up 8.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game last season for Memphis and showed off his ability in a stretch-4 role by shooting 37.9 percent from three-point range. That mix of perimeter ability and rebounding proved to be appealing to the Celtics.

“They liked how hard I played and what I bring to the game,” Green said of his meeting with the Celtics. “(I) just play with my engine and bring that spark. That's just my mindset. Just try to be a dog out there. I just tried to go out there and compete every night.”

The Celtics, obviously, had their sights set on bigger fish in free agency with Gordon Hayward, but Green was told that the team wanted him to sit tight until Hayward made a decision.

“It was something like that,” Green said. “They did most of the talking with my agent so I don't know too much about that.”

If Hayward picked Miami or Utah, the Celtics would have had plenty of salary cap room to make Green a sizable offer sheet and hope Memphis wouldn't match it. Once Hayward signed, that option was off the table. Still, the Celtics showed interest in acquiring Green — even after Hayward signed — through a sign and trade.

Once Hayward signed with the Celtics for upwards of $30 million per season, Boston no longer had cap space to make Green a competitive offer beyond the room-level exception ($4.2 million, which ultimately went to Aron Baynes). That number was far below Green’s market value ($7-9 million), so the only option the Celtics had, if they wanted to continue pursuing Green, was to agree to a sign-and-trade with Memphis.

Since a player's original team has matching rights in restricted free agency, sign-and-trade are fairly common in this scenario. NBA rules necessitate that a team has to sign a restricted free agent to a three-year deal if they want to use him in a sign-and-trade. The suitor (Boston in this case) is required to send back enough salary to the Grizzlies to roughly match the annual salary they wanted to give Green in his new deal (likely $7-9 million per year). Boston also would have needed to provide some sweetener in the form of draft picks or useful players to make it worth it for Memphis to give up their rights to Green to Boston.

Ultimately, that path proved to be a challenge given the team’s salary cap crunch (Avery Bradley dealt to clear cap room for Hayward) and Boston’s eventual pursuit of Kyrie Irving. The type of salary ($7-9 million worth of players) that would be needed to make the money match in any potential Green deal, while also being appealing to Memphis as a trade return, was in short supply on Boston’s roster in the wake of the Irving deal. Attractive contracts like Jae Crowder and Avery Bradley were used elsewhere, leaving Boston with limited moveable deals. The only remaining mid-level salaries on the roster were important parts of the C’s rotation (Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier, Marcus Morris), which likely made any agreement tough to come by. The addition of bigs in Daniel Theis and Baynes also gave the C’s added depth in the frontcourt. Ultimately, there were too many moving parts to make a deal work for the Celtics.

The 27-year-old Green remained on the market for three months last summer before eventually signing a two-year, $17.5 million deal with the Grizzlies in September.

The process proved to be a contentious one for Green with the Grizzlies. His agent spoke out about the lack of respect the team gave the 6-foot-9 forward multiple times before ultimately agreeing to a deal.

“It definitely was tough because I had no control with what was going on with my situation,” Green admitted. “I left it in God's hands.”

The power forward is currently averaging a career-high 10.4 points and 7.7 rebounds per game this year but has only suited up for 39 games due to various injuries. Green will be an unrestricted free agent when his deal expires in the summer of 2019.

The Celtics won’t have serious salary cap room to pursue him then (likely just the mid-level exception), but he’s a name to keep an eye on this summer for Boston. Memphis has a lot of salary ($103 million) committed to a squad that may be looking to rebuild. Green’s age (27) doesn’t match well with that timetable, so he may become a movable piece for them if he can fetch enough in future assets.