So, with Al and Kyrie likely gone the Celtics now project to have around 28 million dollars in cap space if they renounce all free agents, and around 19.5 if they keep Rozier's cap hold on the books. Most Celtics fans would prefer to see them make a run at free agents like Vucevic, D-Rus, ect. And while I d find Russel intriguing lets say the Celtics strike out on him. It may be time to go back into asset accumulation mode and the age old tradition of taking on bad contracts for assets.
This could take a couple forms. First off taking salary into space in order to give teams breathing room against the tax, or to open up cap space. In this case there are several teams the Celtics could keep an eye on.
Charlotte- So many bad contracts, Batum goes two years at 25.5 and 27.1 and is close to dead money. MKG one year at 13. Biyombo one year at 17. If Charlotte is gonna bring back Kemba they may be willing to use assets to dump money. They have the 12th pick, and a couple interesting young guys like Monk who they may be willing to move.
Detroit- Reggie Jackson at 18 million, Galloway at 7.3 and Leur at 9.5 are all potential targets. All are expiring, they have the 15th pick. Not much in the way of young guys.
Portland- Meyers Leonard at 11 million and Evan Turner at 18.6 both expiring but both pretty useless in terms of winning playoff games. They have 126 million in salary committed to 11 guys right now, so no flexibility. They have the 25th pick. Also Zach Collins is interesting.
Miami- Take your pick, Richardson and Winslow are positive value contracts probably so forget them. But Olynyk, Waiters and Johnson are all in the 11-12 million area at 2 more years (including options). They have the 13th pick. If they could free up space to make a run at somebody like Butler maybe we could help.
And there are more teams, depending on exactly how free agency plays out. Another option would be to use Gordon hayward. Now I know what you are thinking "Gordon Hayward has no value!" and thats largely true, but one thing the Celtics could try is trading him for even worse value and getting an asset. he may not be worth 30 million dollars, but he is still an overall largely positive basketball player in terms of on floor impact. Charlotte for example might be willing to swap Batum (who is bad) for Gordon who even if he just repeats his second half from last year can still be a solid passer, defender, shooter and provide a nice wing option for a playoff team. Thats close to net neutral money wise, while being a talent upgrade. or maybe Portland Swaps Turner/Leonard and throws in an asset. Same thinking, two guys who are no help in the playoffs for one guy who would at least be a slid 3/D guy and has upside for more. Hayward is the exact type of player they could use.
One thing to keep in mind is the free agent class next year is week. Assuming most the major guys sign long term deals this offseason, or intend to stay with the team they go to, you are looking at Draymond and not much else. It is probably then not a bad idea to take on even two year contracts to extract maximum value.
We could also use it as a mechanism to move up in the draft. Say Charlotte wants to unload 13 million of MKG and flip the 12th and 22 picks. Is that fair value? Something to consider. Also, the picks we get don't need to be this year if the C's arent crazy about adding more rookies. New avenues for salary dumping that cannot be foreseen may open up as free agency approaches/progresses. Say hello to lottery protected/ top 10/ top ## 2020 first round picks!
So what do you guys think? Should we focus on free agency and brining in talent? Or given our likely options (we arent getting a veteran max guy) should we be a dumping ground? If so who would you pursue and for what assets?