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LAS VEGAS – Jonas Jerebko re-signed with the Boston Celtics on Friday, 10 days after free agency began. In his mind, there was never a doubt that he’d be back in green and white.
“I had some offers, but my first choice was always coming back here and we worked it out and I’m happy to be back,” Jerebko said Tuesday evening in Las Vegas, where he caught the Celtics’ summer league game against Miami. “There were teams that were knocking on the door, but I just liked being in Boston and what we had going on.”
Boston originally acquired Jerebko from the Detroit Pistons on Feb. 19. He went on to become one of the team’s most versatile threats, playing both inside and outside as an athletic forward on the frontline. He said he plans to bring a similar dynamic to the team this coming season but also hopes that his role expands.
“(I’ll bring) a little bit of what I did this year in the games that I played and of course I want my role to be bigger and bigger,” he said. “I’m just going to work as hard as I can to impress my teammates and my coaches when I get to training camp.”
Jerebko said that Danny Ainge called him shortly after midnight when free agency began to extend a contract offer. Similar to what new Celtic Amir Johnson stated earlier this week, Jerebko loved the fact that Boston wanted him more than any other team.
“They just said that they really liked what I brought to the team and they wanted me back,” he said. “Like I said, it was my first choice to come back and play for both of them, Danny and coach (Brad Stevens), and play with my teammates.”
The forward also made it clear that the culture that Ainge and Stevens have established in Boston played a big role in his decision to return on a new contract.
“What we had going on last year with the playoffs and the team chemistry and the coaching staff and everything that was going on,” he said, “I just felt like I wanted to be a part of it for more than just two months and really get a good training camp and preseason.”
Last season gave Jerebko his first taste of the NBA playoffs. He loved making a postseason run with the C’s, and he believes the team is set up to become an even greater threat next season.
“I think we can be a lot better than we were last year,” Jerebko said. He later added, “We’re going to be dangerous and we’re going to be able to play with a lot of different lineups. We’re going to be good.”
And that’s something that Jerebko knew he wanted to be a part of.