David Lee has finally been sent to a new home. The Golden State Warriors traded him to the Boston Celtics Tuesday afternoon in exchange for Gerald Wallace. Wallace has also been a salary cap burden for the Celtics, while Lee has just been the odd man out for a while in Golden State.

The deal thus far seems to be a straight up exchange of these two contracts, but details remain under the radar.

Lee signed a maximum six-year deal with the New York Knicks in 2010 worth about $79.5 million. He is due $15,493,680 in 2015-2016, and that salary is perfectly payable for the Celtics this coming season.

Wallace signed an overly high-paid deal in 2012 with Brooklyn, and was traded to Boston that offseason in the deal that sent Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce out of Bean Town. He is set to be paid $10,105,855 this coming season, and with the depth, weapons, and salaries Golden State already has under contract, the Warriors are likely to use stretch provision to waive Wallace after the trade goes through.

If Wallace is stretched, the cost for the Warriors will be just around $3.7 million each season for three years. That would leave some extra room for Golden State to maneuver the rest of this 2015 offseason or even amid next season in case of injuries or other absences. 

Other sources seem to imply that the Warriors plan to keep Wallace. There is seemingly no reason for this move other than keeping depth, and they still save nearly $5.5 million by ridding of David Lee's contract.

The Celtics now get Lee for a multitude of reasons, primarily to provide short-term on-court production and leadership. After the 2015-2016 season, the 32 year-old is set to become an unrestricted free agent. At that point, Boston can figure out whether he is worth keeping for the latter stages of his NBA years, and so can the Warriors do with Wallace.

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About the author
Zach Drapkin
Philadelphia-based journalist with expertise in basketball, football, and soccer/fútbol.