The Celtics bought the No. 53 pick in the 2013 NBA draft to get Colton Iverson out of Colorado State, and he thanked them by allowing them to keep his rights the last three years.
Iverson rejected the required tender – a one-year contract, surely unguaranteed at the minimum, teams must extend to retain exclusive negotiating rights to a second-round pick – year after year to sign overseas. Accepting the tender would’ve likely meant Iverson going to Boston’s training camp and getting waived. Perhaps, the timing of that would’ve limited his European options that year. But it would’ve made him an NBA free agent – or, best-case scenario, he could’ve made the Celtics and drawn an NBA paycheck.
As it was, Iverson limited himself to joining Boston and only Boston. If another NBA team wanted Iverson, it would have had to trade for him.
And what does Iverson get for that loyalty? A Celtics contract with at least a partial guarantee?
Nope.
Just a head start on finding another team – which he could’ve gotten for himself three years ago.
Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe:
According to a league source, Celtics have renounced their rights to Colton Iverson. Team wants to give him shot to make a roster elsewhere.
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) August 25, 2016
This is why second-round picks should be more aggressive about accepting the required tender. Even if you get waived, you open NBA options.
Iverson is a strong 7-foot center who plays with physicality. He can help in certain matchups, and he’d make sense as a third center on teams that have first- and second-stringers playing a different style.
But Iverson is 27, and his NBA window may be closing if it hasn’t already.
It’s a shame he spent so many years beholden to Boston, which didn’t want him.
It was probably just courtesy of the Celtics to renounce his rights now rather than have him sign the tender. They would have guaranteed him no money with the tender, and they could have gotten a few minor benefits with it – an extra body for training camp, the ability to assign his D-League rights to their affiliate after waiving him and the slightest chance he impresses enough in the preseason to hold trade value.
But them forgoing those potential advantages, even if out of courtesy, also sends a signal about how little they value him. Teams don’t do these types of favors for players they actually covet.