The Boston Celtics reached out to Sacramento point guard Isaiah Thomas at the start of free agency:
The Celtics reached out to Isaiah Thomas tonight. Interesting, the Kings and Celtics had recently been in talks on Rajon Rondo deal.
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) July 1, 2014
* Rapid reaction: Boston making a young point guard one of its initial calls will do little to quell speculation about Rajon Rondo's future here. In the aftermath of drafting Oklahoma State point guard Marcus Smart with the sixth pick in last week's draft, Boston's top decision-makers maintained that Rondo is part of the team's future plans and that there was room for multiple ball-handlers in the guard rotation. The 25-year-old Thomas is a restricted free agent after averaging 20.3 points over 34.7 minutes per game last season. Some have speculated that his salary could jump up towards (or above) the nontaxpayer's mid-level exception ($5.3 million), which means Boston might have to explore sign-and-trade options to make a potential courtship work. At the right price, Thomas would provide a much-needed scoring punch, while also giving the team another in-house option should Rondo's future take him elsewhere. If nothing else, this is the latest in a persistent bunch of rumors regarding the Celtics and Kings. -- Chris Forsberg
Elsewhere in early free-agency news, the Clippers (and old friend Doc Rivers) appear to have been among the early callers to old friend Paul Pierce.