Ex-Celtic Posey signs with Hornets

NEW ORLEANS — James Posey has won NBA championships with two teams. The New Orleans Hornets hope to be his third.

Posey, a 6-foot-8 forward who last season helped the Boston Celtics win their first title since 1986, agreed Wednesday to a four-year, $25 million contract with New Orleans, agent Mark Bartelstein said.

Posey also was part of the Miami Heat’s championship squad in 2005-06. His record of playing a prominent reserve role on title-winning squads made him a top free-agent target for the Hornets, who are coming off their best season in franchise history and looking to contend for a first championship of their own.

The Celtics hoped to keep Posey, a 31-year-old veteran who has a reputation as a strong defender and who was periodically assigned to guard LeBron James and Kobe Bryant during the postseason.

Posey struggled with the decision, knowing that joining All-Stars Chris Paul and David West in New Orleans would mean leaving behind Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in Boston, where as recently as Tuesday Posey was signing copies of the Celtics’ championship DVD for fans.

“It was a really tough decision for him,” Bartelstein said. “Boston was an incredible experience for him every way you look at it. If he was going to leave Boston, he wanted to make sure it was for a team that would compete for a championship immediately and the Hornets certainly are in that world.”

Riding the play-making ability of Paul, who’ll also play point guard for the United States at the Summer Olympics, the Hornets won a franchise-record 56 regular season games and the Southwest Division for their first division crown.

New Orleans beat Dallas in five games in the opening round of the playoffs and came within a victory of reaching the Western Conference finals, losing to San Antonio in a seven-game, second-round series.

The Hornets’ weakness was an inconsistent bench.

Posey, meanwhile, averaged 22 minutes of playing time during Boston’s playoff run, scoring 6.7 points and grabbing 3.6 rebounds per game. Posey averaged 7.4 points and 4.4 rebounds during the regular season, his 10th in the NBA.

Shortly before the draft, the Hornets traded away their only selection, the 27th overall pick, to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for $3 million in cash with the stated purpose of using that money toward a proven player in free agency who could help them win right away.

The Hornets inquired about several free agents, including Corey Maggette, Eduardo Najera and Jarvis Hayes, but as those players signed with other teams it was clear that Posey was the player the Hornets’ coveted most.

With the money they received from Portland, combined with the savings that came from not having to shell out guaranteed money to a first-round draft pick, the Hornets were able to offer a generous enough deal to bring Posey to New Orleans.

With the Hornets, Posey could compete for a starting role as coach Byron Scott could move Peja Stojakovic from small forward to shooting guard and send Morris Peterson to the bench.

However, Scott may prefer to keep Posey as a sixth man, a role sometimes as important as starting.

The Hornets now will likely turn their attention to signing a backup point guard and possibly a backup power forward or center. New Orleans’ top choice at the point appears to be Jannero Pargo, an explosive scorer who opted out of the final year of his contract with the Hornets, more in hope of getting a longer, more lucrative contract than leaving.

Bartelstein also represents Pargo and said a handful of teams are competing for him, including New Orleans, and that Pargo wanted to test the market.

Pargo became Paul’s primary backup last season when the Hornets traded Bobby Jackson and a draft pick to Houston for Bonzi Wells and Mike James. In the playoffs, Pargo averaged 10.2 points, scoring 30 points in a first-round game at Dallas.

Wells became a free agent this summer as well, but the Hornets are less likely to pursue him now that they have Posey playing the same position.