Celtics Sign Jason Terry

JULY 18TH, 7:41am: The Celtics have officially signed Terry using their mid-level exception, reports Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe (via Twitter).

JULY 17TH, 4:58pm: After spending nearly a week exploring a way to acquire Terry via sign-and-trade and save their $5MM mid-level exception, the Celtics have exausted the possibilities and are preparing to simply announce the Terry signing, tweets Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald.

JULY 3RD, 2:48pm: Terry told Chris Tomasson of FOX Sports Florida (Sulia link) that he will give the Mavericks one last chance to match the Celtics' offer, but said he's "not optimistic."

2:12pm: The Celtics and Jason Terry have agreed to terms on a three-year deal for the mid-level exception, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. If Terry's deal is for the full $5MM MLE with 4.5% annual raises, it will pay him $15.675MM for three seasons.

At age 34, Terry remained a dangerous scoring threat for the Mavericks in 2011/12, averaging 15.1 PPG on .430/.378/.883 shooting in 63 games. Terry has spent the last eight years of his career in Dallas, and expressed frustration at times this season that the Mavs seemed unwilling to extend his contract.

The Celtics have expressed a desire to re-sign Ray Allen even with Terry on board, but if Allen chooses to sign with the Heat, Clippers, or another club, Boston will still have a perimeter shooter in Terry. Terry's is the second significant free agent contract for the Celtics this offseason, as they also agreed to a three-year, $34MM deal with Kevin Garnett.

While it was reported that Terry would give the Mavericks the opportunity to match his offer from Boston, the Mavs are unlikely to do so, according to ESPN.com's Jeff Caplan and Marc Stein.

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