The Celtics made Marcus Morris an extension offer ... but for how much?

Marcus Morris was one of the few Celtics on last year’s roster that played up to their potential for much of the 2018-19 season. He had a career-year in FG percentage (44%), rebounds per game (6.1) and shot a terrific 37.5 percent from 3-point range, helping to turn Boston’s season around after being inserted into the starting five in November. Despite an ugly slump in the second half of the season, Morris was one of the only guys that delivered consistent production in the midst of an ugly 4-1 series loss to the Bucks as well.

Yet, the Celtics never made him an offer in free agency last summer, a decision that should not come as a shock, even though it apparently did for Morris.

“Surprisingly no,” Morris told reporters in New York last month about whether he talked with Boston in free agency. “I didn’t get a phone call, I didn’t get anything from Boston … My two years there were special. I thought I did a lot for the team. I thought I at least deserved a phone call.”

The Celtics didn’t really have a chance to make Morris a competitive offer however once they decided they were going to try to open up max cap room for Kemba Walker. In addition to clearing salary cap space by trading guys like Aron Baynes, the team had to renounce their bigger free-agent cap holds, which included Morris, in order to make room for Walker’s max deal under the cap. Danny Ainge explained the realities of the situation in his Thursday interview with Toucher and Rich on 98.5 The Sports Hub.

“I don’t remember it that way,” Ainge said when asked about Morris' comments. “I did talk to him. I know Jerome Allen and Brad Stevens talked to him. I think what he’s referring to is that he didn’t receive an offer when he said we didn’t talk to him. The reason was that we were signing Kemba and we were doing all we could. In order to get Kemba, we had to renounce our free agents. That’s why we didn’t make him an offer.”

Ainge went on to reveal the Celtics did make Morris an offer last summer before the season even began to try to keep him in green for the long term.

“We did make Marcus Morris a three-year contract extension offer last summer (in 2018) before the season started. He chose to become a free agent,” Ainge said. “We like Marcus and he’s played really well for the Knicks this year. I’m happy for him.”

What exactly could the Celtics have offered Morris in that deal? And was he better or worse off for not taking it? CBA rules provide a clear picture of what was on the table for the veteran.

Morris was underpaid last season ($5.3 million) but the C’s still had the ability to offer him 120 percent of the NBA’s estimated average salary per NBA rules. That would have worked out to $10.6 million in the first year of the deal. With annual raises factored in, the Celtics could have offered up to three years for $34.3 million and that’s the deal that was likely put on the table.

While that was probably a little bit below market value for Morris’ services at the time (given the large chunk of teams with expected salary cap room in summer 2020), it was a savvy move by Boston’s front office to try to lock Morris up. Not only would that have been a fair deal in hindsight, but it was also a likely attempt to provide Boston with another salary matching chip in the event of an Anthony Davis deal this past summer. Having Morris under contract would have allowed Boston to keep one of Tatum/Brown and still have enough matching salary in the deal to make it work under CBA rules.

Morris obviously went in a different direction though, believing he could get more than that in free agency. He was ultimately right since the Knicks swooped in with a $15 million offer for one season in a controversial move in mid-July. That caused Morris to back out of a two-year, $20 million deal with the Spurs that was a smaller deal than what Boston likely offered with their extension talks.

Whether or not Morris makes more than he would have in Boston’s three-year extension offer over the next three years remains to be seen. He’s had a great year in New York on a bad team so far (career-high 17.9 ppg) and could very well be trade bait at the deadline for a team looking to make a shooting upgrade. With so few contenders with any cap space next summer, however, Morris will be reliant on rebuilding squads to land a big deal and it’s hard to like those odds for the 30-year-old. At this point, his best-case scenario is the Knicks or another team using his Bird Rights (if he's traded) to sign him to a long-term deal (thus not needing cap room). He should surpass $34.3 million over the next three seasons (including this one) if he keeps up his current production but that is far from a guarantee.

His situation though is an indicator of just how much last year’s disappointment impacted guys up and down the roster. Once Kyrie Irving was on the way out, the Celtics had to regroup and decide whether they wanted max cap room or not. Once they did, that opened the door for Walker, which pushed out guys like Morris who lost their Bird Rights with the C's after being renounced (i.e. losing a good chance of getting a big-money offer). Signing Morris to an extension last summer would have put Boston into an even tougher situation in attempting to clear the necessary cap room for Walker so it’s likely a hidden blessing for the team that he didn’t sign that deal if they truly wanted Walker along with this team's younger core.

While knocked for his ball hog tendencies at times in Boston, Morris easily outplayed his contract over the last two years. He will help some team this postseason that’s smart enough to land him. In the meantime, he will keep putting up good numbers for a bad Knicks team while potentially second-guessing his decision to test the free agency waters.