Celtics guard Ray Allen is in the final year of his five-year, $85 million contract and has begun pondering his future.

Allen's first choice would be to re-sign with Boston, but he understands that the feeling may not be mutual.

"I would love to be here," Allen said. "In my mind right now, for me there's no other place to be. It's a great tradition. This is really NBA basketball to me, being a part of a team and the tradition of winning, a great fan base. But the situations have to be addressed. There is a business connected to it. The team is going to do what they think is necessary. We'll have to make a decision based on how they come to me business-wise."

Allen, who will likely have to accept a hefty pay cut as a free agent on the downside of his career, is open to signing a contract extension with Boston.

"I am a loyalty person. If the opportunity presented itself to get a deal at the current moment as we speak, I would be all over it," said Allen.

"So moving forward, I don't have to worry about how the summer is going to go and long term we at least between myself, Kevin [Garnett] and Paul [Pierce], we know we are going to be here, Rasheed [Wallace] and [Rajon] Rondo. You know what the core is going to be."