ORLANDO — The terms of the blockbuster deal between the Celtics and Brooklyn Nets were agreed to on the night of the NBA draft.
“I was at the draft when it was all going on,” Nets guard Kris Joseph said Wednesday at Orlando Summer League. “I was in [the deal], out of it. My name was in and out.”
Ultimately, his name was left in, though the deal won’t become official until Friday.
But for the 6-foot-7-inch Joseph, being traded back to Boston would mean rejoining the team that picked him in the second round (51st overall) of the 2012 draft.
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“I liked it too there lot, definitely,” he said. “I’ve built a relationship with those guys even when I was gone. Just that feeling of being a part of the family is still very much alive.”
Joseph, a Syracuse product, played just six games with the Celtics last season before he was waived in January. In February, he was reacquired by the NBA Development League’s Maine Red Claws.
Then he was traded to another D-League team, the Springfield Armor. In April, he signed a 10-day contract with Brooklyn, and he later signed a deal with the Nets for the rest of last season.
“I’ve been through a lot as a professional in my first year,” Joseph said. “I think that’s just going to help me grow to help me mature just for the future.”
He’s also excited about the prospects of joining a younger team, which the Celtics certainly will be with Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce departed to the Nets.
“I think we’ll be able to push the tempo and play a different style of basketball under coach [Brad] Stevens,” Joseph said.
Joseph added, “I played against coach Stevens at Syracuse. They beat us in the [NCAA] tournament. Just remembering how his team played, I can tell that this Celtics team and how he’s going to handle it is going to be great.”
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Thinking cap
The Celtics formally received their luxury tax bill for the 2012-13 season Tuesday and, according to figures obtained by ESPN.com, the team will owe $1.182 million.
It’s the sixth straight season the Celtics have been over the tax line in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA), meaning they have to pay a penalty.
Also on Tuesday, the NBA formally announced its salary cap ($58.68 million) and the tax line ($71.75 million) for next season.
After completing a blockbuster trade with Brooklyn, the Celtics’ salary cap total should be close to that tax line next season, which, if they go over, could become expensive.
Through this past season, teams over the tax line faced a dollar-for-dollar penalty under the terms of the CBA.
Starting next season, though, the penalty becomes progressive, moving to a $1.50-to-$1 penalty, with the ratio increasing for each additional $5 million that a team is over the tax.
And starting in 2014-15, teams that have exceeded the tax threshold in three of the past four seasons will have to pay the “repeater” tax, which further increases the penalty that teams would have to pay.
For example, last season, a team $5 million over the salary-cap threshold would have owed $5 million in taxes, but it would owe $7.5 million in taxes next season, and, if that team were deemed a “repeater” in 2014, it would owe $12.5 million.
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Regardless, the Celtics will be likely hard-capped for next season, meaning their bottom line cannot be more than the “apron,” which is up to $4 million over the tax line, or $75.75 million.
The reason the Celtics likely will be hard-capped is because they’re accepting a player in the Nets trade (Keith Bogans) through a sign-and-trade, which automatically triggers the hard cap.
Rockets prevail
The Houston Rockets ended the first quarter on a 18-4 run and went on to beat the Celtics, 85-78, in their summer league game at Amway Center Wednesday, evening the Celtics’ record at 2-2. Rookie center Kelly Olynyk had 19 points and 10 rebounds in 28 minutes in the loss . . . Guard Darius Johnson-Odom wasn’t with the Celtics after playing on their team for the past three games. Instead, he was in Las Vegas to join the Denver Nuggets’ summer league team . . . After practicing or playing games for the past week, the Celtics will take Thursday off. They had played four games in four days after practicing for three straight days upon arriving in Orlando. They will play Friday, but they won’t know what team and time that they’ll play until Thursday’s rounds are completed.
Baxter Holmes can be reached at baxter.holmes@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BaxterHolmes