Sam Hauser has agreed to a four-year, $45 million extension to remain with the Celtics. The Celtics had already picked up their team option on Hauser for this season, so he’ll make a little more than $2 million in 2024-’25 and then get a very big raise for the ‘25-’26 season.
This adds to an already massive tax bill for next season. With the Hauser extension factored in, the Celtics team salary will be about $225 million and the tax penalty will be $210, nearly doubling the out-of-pocket costs for team ownership.
Karalis’ analysis: In for a dime, in for a dollar, right?
The Celtics aren’t in nickel-and-dime territory, so why not get this one last deal done?
Hauser has made great strides over his three-year career. He went from G Leaguer to spot minutes to key rotation player after going undrafted. Obviously, his shooting is why he’s getting paid, but defense has gotten good enough to justify his time on the floor even when he’s not getting shots. And to get him at half the cost of Duncan Robinson is really good for Boston.
Hauser is a career 42% shooter from 3, but he can get a bit streaky. He shot 48% against Miami in the first round of the playoffs but then 33.3% against Cleveland and 7% (1-14) against Indiana before bouncing back to shoot 11-23 (47.8%) in the NBA Finals. Shooting specialists like Hauser tend to be streaky because that's the nature of that shot, but I’d still like to see a little more consistency.
There has been some talk that Baylor Scheierman might be a Hauser replacement, but Scheierman’s shot wasn’t quite there in summer league. I’m curious if Scheierman’s hot-and-cold summer league led to a little more urgency to get the Hauser deal done. The timing of the deal might just be coincidental, but it also might not be. At the very least, if Scheierman does prove to be a cheaper alternative to Hauser someday, the ~$11 million Hauser is making will be easily tradeable.
It’s also possible that Hauser makes this deal even more of a steal with his steady improvement. He has gotten better each of his three seasons and he turns 27 in December, so he’s entering his prime athletic years. At the same time, the cap is increasing by the maximum 10% in each of the seasons he’s under contract. That means he’ll occupy a smaller percentage of the cap as this deal moves forward. There's a good chance he’ll be considered vastly underpaid by year two of this deal.
The Celtics will be very expensive in a couple of seasons, which is something the new ownership group will have to deal with. But again, the way the contracts have been handed out this summer, it just strengthens my belief that the new owners will be a lot of the old owners.
These kinds of contracts aren’t typically handed out mid-sale. New owners tend to want to have a say in how their money is spent, so I’m pretty sure the new owners have had a say in how their money is spent.
This is a good deal for Hauser, who gets a nice payday and security until his 31st birthday. He can probably get one more deal after that and live a nice life with a ton of money. It’s a good deal for the Celtics, who continue to run it back but also set themselves up to make the moves they need to make down the line.