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One of the Wizards' most important personnel decisions this offseason lies with Paul Pierce, who has a one-year player option in 2015-16 worth $5.5 million. Though there were reports claiming that Pierce may opt-out to play for the Clippers, it sounds like Pierce is still very happy to be in Washington as well.
Last week, Pierce spoke on "The Players Tribune Show" on SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio when he reiterated his love for the team. Here's part of his money quote that Dan Steinberg of the D.C. Sports Bog transcribed:
Man, it was a good run. We really have a really good young team, and a couple budding superstars. It was tough. It especially really hurt us when John [Wall] broke his hand. Even though he came back, that really kind of hurt our rhythm, because we [were] playing so well. We felt like we were the better team if we had stayed healthy, but we lost some heartbreaking games.
In addition, Pierce said that he will be in Mexico for vacation this week and will decide on whether to pick up his player option for next season before the deadline at the end of June.
As Steinberg noted in his piece, it's great to see that Pierce is still talking about the Wizards in the present tense, and I'm glad to see that he is still happy to be here. But at the same time, let's not jump to conclusions about what he'll do just yet.
That said, the Wizards can use one more year of Paul Pierce in any capacity.