As the panic that has gripped Celtic Nation grows because our beloved team has now officially looked mortal and had their winning percentage fall to an unfathomably low level of 85%, we have all, of course, decided to put on our Danny Ainge hats and are attempting to find the best way to make a trade that will bolster this team's one weakness, their bench.
But, as they say at NASA, "Houston, we have a problem!" And the problem isn't necessarily one that you would think it is. The problem isn't even with this team. The problem lies with who the other teams want to trade. Jeff, being our fearless leader here at Celticsblog and the very diligent and thorough trade-rumor-seeker-outer that he is posted a fanshot on some of the names that are rumored to be available around the league. Brad Miller, Corey Maggette, Raymond Felton, Samuel Dalembert, Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes to name a few. Well, what do all these players have in common? That's easy, contracts that the Celtics really can't afford to trade for, with the possible exception of Felton who only makes about $5 million a year for the next two years. But even with Felton the team that ends up trading for him is probably going to have to eat Adam Morrison's contract or give up a low priced quality player in return.
And therein lies the rub. The Celtics don't have the dollar values on contracts to be able to trade for the players that are available. Most of the aforementioned players make close to $10 million a year and due to the restrictions that the Celtics are held to because they are over the cap, the Celtics really don't hold assets that they can trade that will land them a difference making player. Here are the Celtics player's that would be available to be moved and their salaries:
Scalabrine - 2008: $3.2 million, 2009: $3.4 million
T Allen - 2008: $2.5 million, 2009: $2.5 million
Davis - 2008: $711,000
Powe - 2008: $797,000
House - 2008: $2.6 million, 2009: $2.8 million 2009 being a player option and 2008 a Bird Rights restriction so the player has to approve any trade.
Pruitt: 2008: $711,000, 2009: $729,000
Giddens: 2008: $957,000, 2009: $1 million, Team Options for: 2010: $1.1 million, 2011: $1.9 million
Walker: 2008: $542,000 2009: $736,000 Team optios for the next 2 years at less than $1 million a year each year
O'Bryant: his contract has been reported as different amounts depending upon who is doing the reporting but it's somewhere between $750,000 and $1.5 million for each of the next two years with 2009 possibbly being a team option.
I didn't include any of the starters as I feel Danny isn't going to be dumb enough to do that and I didn't include Sam Cassell because I feel that he will probably just retire if the Celtics traded him because he just doesn't want to be going anywhere else. So, you can see where the problem lies. If the Celtics have interest in any of the better, higher priced talent on the market, they just don't have the contract values to make a trade.
Say, for instance, the Celtics had interest in Samuel Dalembert. The Celtics would need to send about $10 million in yearly salaries back. Taking just the highest salaries, regardless of who the Sixers would want, the Celtics would need to send Scal, Tony Allen, House, Giddens and O'Bryant just to get the one player, Dalembert, in return. There just is not a team out there that can or would be willing to do a 5 on 1 trade because most of those players or some of their own would need to be released out right or bought out first. And this doesn't even take into account whether or not the five players above would even generate enough interest around league to perpetrate such a trade. And then you have to consider what has really been accoplished. The Celtics would need to send virtually their entire bench away in a trade just to be able to get one player in return. Such a move would only cripple this team unless Danny has the ability to sign some other vets right away.
So what is most likely is that if Danny does do a trade it is probably going to be for a very minor to mid level talent that has an affordable contract. Most of those guys are probably going to have some baggage attached. Or Danny is going to need to get creative with a multiple team trade. Or Danny is just going to do what he did last year and sign an aging veteran that is not currently attached to a team who wants one last shot at a ring or a veteran that gets bought out of their contract.