Boston Celtics 2013-14 Season

His injuries have always been acute and not the type of soft tissue or wear and tear injuries characteristic of guys whose bodies just can't hold up. You're dealing with small sample sizes here, and three injuries over four years is hardly an epidemic. It's just not much of an issue for me.

Saw that. Seemed strange as it suggests it was close enough to take to Rondo.

Just saw that Toronto, looking to deal Lowry, is interested in RR. If above report is true, then I think him extending in Toronto is even less likely.

If it's not this years' pick, that offer becomes a lot less exciting.

I'm not even sure what picks they could be talking about. It can't be this years bc, unless it's outside the top 12, it belongs to Cleveland (via Chicago). It also can't be next year's pick bc (the protection passes on to next year OR, in the unlikely event Sac gets out of the bottom 12 picks, the Stepian rule would kick in).

If this rumor is true (Spears IS usually pretty good), then it must be for future picks anyway.

Blakey had a great article today saying the Celtics were interested in Hayward. Went on to say he played for Stevens at Butler and that the Jazz would have no interest in who the Celtics would trade player wise, but said they might be interested in picks. Oh but the Celtics wouldn't trade picks. Great read, highly recommend it.

I was joking about the article but I like Hayward a lot more then Green, but I don't see him in Boston before the following year if he makes it to UFA or if he made it clear in the offseason he wants to go to Boston. The former player coach thing is way over-rated.

I was reading something yesterday on the NBA and now I cannot find the link, but there was a "throw away" line in the article that caught my attention. It was about contracts in the 8m range. It was along the lines of NBA GMs try to avoid these contracts if at all possible. It wasn't expanded on as to why or anything like that so all I can do is speculate.

I went to the trade machine and browsed through all the teams and it starts to make a little more sense. The teams with multiple contracts in this area are all stuck being bad or mediocre. Hardly any contenders have these types of contracts on their books. There are some exceptions, but they seem to be somewhat unique cases:

Houston: Asik & Lin - both fit here, but then other than Harden and Howard no one else on the team makes more then 1.6m and they are basically all on rookie deals

San Antonio: Manu is in this range, but they are unique because he's an aging star who took less money to be in SA and Duncan is making a lot less than a player of his caliber would most other players because he's at the end of his career. Previously, you'd have a TD and MG making more money and there's not salary room for other players like Splitter making 10m.

OKC: Perk, but they've been trying to dump his salary like the plague almost since he signed it. If they weren't in such a small market, he would have been amnestied and Harden may still be there.

Indiana: They may be the best example of how to make it work as George Hill makes this amount of money


I think the point is that to win the NBA you need a legit top 3 and guys making this amount of money don't typically fit that bill. There's a reason they aren't $10m+ players and if a guy is making more then 6m per year he better be a top 3 rotation player or you better have gotten lucky to have a low salary guy fitting that bill. NBA contracts are a tricky lot and its just as important the order in which you sign the contracts as it is who you sign. Since the Celtics own Bradley's Bird rights they can resign him without much regard to the cap, but he will take up cap money. Those bird rights only really come in handy when you're already up against the cap and you want to keep a home grown player. He may be a wise investment at 8m if the team already had their top 3 locked up, but he may be a bad investment because he could prevent them from having the cap room to get the right player.

Danny needs to ask himself if Rondo-Bradley-Sullinger is really a legit top 3 (which I think it's laughable to think so), and if not then who doesn't fit in the lot. If the answer is Bradley then he needs to hold firm and not pay him between 6-8m.

I'm just telling you what I read regarding GMs feelings on contracts in that range. I will have to look and breakdown the long term salaries and include first rd pick salaries, etc to the figures.

However, in general no I wouldn't pay a guy 8 just to keep him if I think he's worth 6 on a rebuilding team. It takes extra cap space, even if only 2m. More important is it greatly affects his trade value which matters a lot on a rebuild. It may not seem like a big difference but it is when you have to match salaries. If this were a championship level team and you were pretty much capped out, then I'd pay 8m in a heartbeat because you can't really add a player of his caliber any other way.

The last thing a rebuilding team needs are any bad contracts. Tricky situation and timing really matters.

Redick makes 6.5m, which is a tradable contract, but more importantly he was added to a team as a role player who already had it's core in place.

Memphis is a similar story. Mike Connelly was resigned to a team who was already "contending", at least to Memphis standards. Prince, wasn't someone they wanted to take on, but had to in order to get rid of Rudy Gay and his contract. They've been trying to get rid of his 8m contract ever since, because he's not worth the money.

I just don't feel it's wise to add an expensive role player to a rebuilding team. Obviously, if you feel he's a top 3 player on a championship team, then 8m is a bargain and you'd be happy to give that to him. I personally, think that's an extreme over-evaluation, but I'm no expert.

Figured I'd post trades here and tie it into the thread by indicating how it affects the C's. To wit:

Philadelphia trades Spencer Hawes to Cleveland for Earl Clark, 2 2nd rounders (and likely another player on a small contract that's non-guaranteed for next year - UPDATE Henry Sims).

So Philly gets worse (no real change) and Cleveland should get better (keeping them better than Boston in all likelihood). Should have no net impact to Boston's lotto chances (I'm not going to get into how this impacts Boston's chances of beating those teams when they play them again - that's too much).

I, for one, will be pretty disappointed if Bass isn't moved for at least an expiring contract.

Looks like the Celtics stand pat. Disappointing.