2010 Free-Agency Class & James Posey

[Eja117]

See this is where I am with FA stuff. Perk gets like 4 mill. I think that set the market. Or should anyway. Better than Perk equals more money. Worse than Perk equals less. The thing is I wonder if he signed for less than market to stay here or if other teams are just dumb and didn't get the memo. I mean I will be curious to see how much these guys get. It would just be dumb for Cleveland to match 5mill on Delonte. Then again it would be dumb for us to offer that much, but still.

[BudweiserCeltic]

See this is where I am with FA stuff. Perk gets like 4 mill. I think that set the market. Or should anyway. Better than Perk equals more money. Worse than Perk equals less. The thing is I wonder if he signed for less than market to stay here or if other teams are just dumb and didn't get the memo. I mean I will be curious to see how much these guys get. It would just be dumb for Cleveland to match 5mill on Delonte. Then again it would be dumb for us to offer that much, but still.

The market varies from year to year, and the restrictions placed on teams on how much they can offer certain players in certain situations makes it very hard for players to get comparable deals. So, I don't think in the NBA the whole "I'm going to get X amount of dollars because this guy is making X amount of dollars" works well.

[timepiece33]

Just curious.   We flirted with the luxury tax this year.   What makes you guys think that Wyc won't spend money for the additional seat/apparel sales he gets? 

With regards to Allen, I could easily see a team wanting to get in a position to secure one of those guys giving us a young star in return for Ray.   

[Truth Hurts]

Good thread! TP for you, Budweiser.

The interesting sub-topic here is how to best maximize the roster for 2010, and what to do about Ray Allen.

Do we repeat next year? Does Ray decline into a pure sniper, or is he still able to create his own shot and be an offensive presence as the trade deadline in early 2010 approaches?

These questions will have a lot to do with how Ainge handles what could potentially be a really tough decision. Ray compliments KG and Pierce really well. He is a consummate pro, a leader and a deadly assassin. But I think a very good point has been made here: if the team is to move on from Ray, it really seems like the trade deadline in 2010 is the best way to do it. If we hypothetically re-sign Posey to a three year deal, and re-sign an aging Ray in 2010 at less than half his current salary....that still brings us up to over $60 million plus other young players that we re-sign down the road. So yeah, we probably will not be able to be players in that great free agent class. But how many teams would trade a really good, younger scoring guard who is under contract for a long time, just to get out from under the contract? $22 million in cap space is a HUGE bargaining chip to possibly create the "New Big Three" in 2010. I do believe that KG and Pierce will still be playing at a really high level at that point.

So what if we win it next year again, and Ray is playing well in 09-10....but is fast approaching 34 years old? Does Ainge pull the trigger? It will be interesting, to say the least. Ray has quickly established himself as a fan favorite, and I think it's pretty obvious that the players love playing with him. A very tough call indeed.

[JudsonMerrill]

I think we already know which young player we're going to sign with the money that Ray will free up in 2010: number 9 with the alien hands. Next summer we'll sign him to an extension that will kick in as Allen's contract ends. And we use the remainder to re-sign Allen at old man money, which will be a good deal. Seems to me a team can carry three big contracts at a time and after that they turn into the Knicks.

Seventeen has certainly been worth it, but this team is not really built for a quick turnover into another championship squad. We have one excellent young player and some massive expiring contracts over several years, and I don't see Pierce being traded ever. If ownership stuck with him before.... I fear in 2011 we'll be back in 48-win country. I hope I'm very wrong.

If we were to re-sign Rondo and then use Allen's expiring to land a 4th big contract, the pool of available players would come from the guys signing this summer or maybe last year. I could see Golden State, for example, going horribly, horribly wrong by 2010 and deciding to unload Monta Ellis's sure-to-be-large contract to make a run at LeBron and company. Allen to GS for Ellis and some small contract they don't much care for? Orlando will probably have realized by that point what a gross mistake Lewis's contract is. Guys like that might be available....

Entertaining to speculate about because the scenarios for what the league will look like in two years are endless.