celtics two years from now

[heitingas]

Let's say we signed Howard in 2012 and paired him with Rondo.
It's Pierce's final year..the year after that his salary is partially guaranteed and he could be waived.

What do we trade for Perkins ? I always thought we could trade for Josh Smith but they signed an extension to Horford, so that might be difficult, so why not trade Perkins for Horford ? Horford could play PF , we could have a chance to get Josh Smith who's expiring and send Perkins to be the Hawks Center. I don't know if Smith would re-sign with the Hawks and they would need a Center and We have Rondo whom he played with in HS and Howard,that would be easy to have him sign in Boston. I know some will say they could get better for Smith than Perkins but Smith could never be an allstar with all the forwards in the East and even as a sub,he's questioned alot so for Perkins he could come to Boston.
That's a thought anyways, plus in a way to kickstart our new big 3 era ? Rondo-Howard-Horford/Jsmith ? we convince KG and Ray to return with vet min deals with to be role players with reduced minutes in regular season and to play the final year together with Pierce.

Billups would be a free agent too so will Jason Kidd,either one could be signed to a vet min deal to backup Rondo and Nash (longshot), other free agents are Chris Kaman,Ben Wallace,Antwan Jamison, Tim Duncan  

This could be our lineup:

Rondo_Billups/Jkidd ?
Allen/Bradley
Pierce/Josh ?/Jamison
KG(Josh/Horford ?)Harangody
Howard/Kaman/Erden

[GreenEnvy]

Let's say we signed Howard in 2012 and paired him with Rondo.
It's Pierce's final year..the year after that his salary is partially guaranteed and he could be waived.

What do we trade for Perkins ? I always thought we could trade for Josh Smith but they signed an extension to Horford, so that might be difficult, so why not trade Perkins for Horford ? Horford could play PF , we could have a chance to get Josh Smith who's expiring and send Perkins to be the Hawks Center. I don't know if Smith would re-sign with the Hawks and they would need a Center and We have Rondo whom he played with in HS and Howard,that would be easy to have him sign in Boston. I know some will say they could get better for Smith than Perkins but Smith could never be an allstar with all the forwards in the East and even as a sub,he's questioned alot so for Perkins he could come to Boston.
That's a thought anyways, plus in a way to kickstart our new big 3 era ? Rondo-Howard-Horford/Jsmith ? we convince KG and Ray to return with vet min deals with to be role players with reduced minutes in regular season and to play the final year together with Pierce.

Billups would be a free agent too so will Jason Kidd,either one could be signed to a vet min deal to backup Rondo and Nash (longshot), other free agents are Chris Kaman,Ben Wallace,Antwan Jamison, Tim Duncan  

This could be our lineup:

Rondo_Billups/Jkidd ?
Allen/Bradley
Pierce/Josh ?/Jamison
KG(Josh/Horford ?)Harangody
Howard/Kaman/Erden

Rondo/Howard/Smith would be fun to watch on the break, but a horror at the line and shooting in general. Ray and Pierce probably couldn't save that half-court offense.

Besides, we can't afford two FA in 2012, only one.

Don't want Horford.

Tim Duncan is never leaving San Antonio.

Kidd will be 40, Billups like 36 (but I could see Billups coming here if KG returns).

[heitingas]

are you sure we can't afford both Howard and Josh ? I don't know how much cap hold we have but we could renounce the bird rights of KG and Ray and sign them to vet min deals, if Perk is signed to a reasonable salary and we traded him for Smith, I think Smith has a trade kicker so we could send someone else there,maybe a pick plus cash, and still be under the cap to sign Howard.

[Celtic#9]

I don't think Perkins is enough for Josh Smith. He is a young big man who is extremely athletic for a one dimensioal center coming of a major knee surgery. And Horford is an all star center last year and is playing even better this year. He is young and a stud. That is why they locked him up.

[pearljammer10]

Perkins for Horford? I'll have what he's having.

[KCattheStripe]

Perkins for Horford? I'll have what he's having.

I don't, it's the stuff of nightmares.

[KobeShesNotConsenting!]

Celtics should keep the big 3 together, maybe not for the remainder of their pierce's deal but at least 2 years. After they win titles the next 2 years, they should give ray and kg one more year to give them the shot at going for the 3 peat

[hwangjini_1]

interesting thread, but it will take a lot of drinking to imagine the celtics still being good beyond 2 more years.

as i look ahead i see the current team as offering really two types of players who might be helpful 2-3 years from now.

good = rondo & perkins. but not the stuff of championships by themselves. they need at least 2-3 stars around them.

nice = having west, big baby, & bradley, maybe nate. that would provide some good depth and talent to put around rondo at guard and back up forward.

after that, i can see much left. erden? harangody? daniels? good off the bench, but the celtics are lotto bound if this group get significant minutes as starters.

so....

how will the celtics rebuild? keeping rondo and perk seems to be an obvious start. everyone else, anyone else, is a clear candidate for trade fodder. but what GM, really, would trade a star for any combo of the players listed above (excluding rondo and perk)?

that means ainge will have do some combo of: draft a star, trade for a star, and/or pick up a star free agen.

all of this is possible. but i ask these real questions of the cb board...

(1) who will be a free agent in 2-3 years that qualifies as a star? ainge will the salary to bring one in, but he may have to convince the free agent that the celtics are a time on the rise. (ala what happened with KG.)

(2) who could the celtics get in a trade? the celtics have gone down this road more than once. but it will take a special combination of celtics offering the right package, and, the other GM having a player he MUST dump. (ala carmelo?)

(3)the draft - we all know how hard it is to build through the draft, unless you have duncan, lebron, et al. this means the celtics would become bottom feeders again, or acquire/trade for a very high draft pick (both have happened before, but it is very rare) ainge will be faced with more flawed players through the draft.

i await the wisdom of the board. 

[Roy H.]

I love Perk, but he's a defensive role player, not a star.  He doesn't have the trade value to bring back an all-star.

[heitingas]

If we can't get josh smith in a trade he could very well sign with us the season after that as a free agent IF we brought in Howard and then there's Rondo. That requires Pierce retiring and not taking his 5 million guaranteed salary the season after which I think was the only reason Ainge gave him that 4th year.

And there is a possibility Hawks trades for Perkins + maybe baby ? (if resigned),Perk would be better after a year's recovery. And Josh is not the guy that appears to want to be the guy on a team,he would fit in well in Boston.

[LooseCannon]

keeping rondo and perk seems to be an obvious start.

Even if the Celtics have no chance of getting Dwight Howard, I'm not sure that Perkins is part of an obvious start.

[Celtics4ever]

They are going to have to blow it up to rebuild the team.  It's sad but I can see us having to tank a year or two for some draft picks and its going to suck.   But its inevitable.  Not even Red could reload once his core was shot.   It really tooks the Celts to 74 to bounce back from losing Russell in 69.  Red was the best GM ever too.   LA has Hollywood as a draw, we have cold to offer free agents.

We better enjoy this ride while it lasts.  This team is really fun to watch.   I can't see them blowing it up this year.  Trading aged assets and face it most of our assets that are desirable are veterans in their 30's won't pan out a young superstar.  Big Baby has probably the most value.   West and Nate have a little value.  Rest of the team aside from the starters have little value.   Perk, we don't even know if he can come back.  I hope he can but both him and big baby don't have top trade value.   They are B level talents and good players but not grade A superstars. 

When the Big Three retires we will have oodles of cash.   We could probably sign two or three really good players if we could get them to come here.   But that is a huge "if".   I feel we will probably have to settle for second tier free agents as you don't hear many grade A ones speak of coming here.   We will be less attractive without the chance to win a title that brought O'Neal here.  Even if they can land a power duo or trio it will take some time to mesh at first.

They will have to build around Rondo.  The C's know this just look at their Rondo commercial where he is the future.  No one else is the commercial folks.  Danny made it so a lot of our contracts will not go past 2012.  He is going to do what he can to prevent a big slide.  But its not going to be easy and other teams are not going to help us.   Its going to take a plan, some marketing to FA and some luck in the draft.

http://realgm.com/src_freeagents/2012/

So enjoy this team now.  They are very special......

[PosImpos]

We're gonna have a rough few years.  It'll be hard watching this team be just okay at best through part of Rondo's prime, but it is what it is.

Hopefully Danny can make something happen eventually, but it'll be difficult.  Rondo is just not good enough to be THE guy, though he's a decent start.

[greenpride32]

That's an awfully big assumption that we're just going to get Dwight Howard and then think about what pieces to put around him.

If you're going to get other guys, you can't really pay KG and Ray much.  Not like they need the money but they probably wouldn't go through the grind of a season for a small (in their terms) pay check.

[arctic 3.0]

We're gonna have a rough few years.  It'll be hard watching this team be just okay at best through part of Rondo's prime, but it is what it is.

Hopefully Danny can make something happen eventually, but it'll be difficult.  Rondo is just not good enough to be THE guy, though he's a decent start.

imho rondo at this point in his development is one of the three best point guards in the league. his ability to take it to another level in big games is amazing. few players can play of a game against lbj and come out looking like the best player on the court, rondo has on several occasions. his jumper is improving, leaving only free throws as a yet unsolved issue with his game. he is the centerpiece of our future, and they way he dishes he will be a major attraction for top tier free agents.  there are few other players in the league who i would choose to build around.

with rondo at point and perk orchestrating out D we will need a dead eye shooter, a scorer and an athletic 4 with a brain to keep us in the playoff hunt. none of these guys have to be superstars, they need to be above average at their position and maybe great at one thing.

a few second tier players who could keep us rolling:
guards :a morrow, francisco garcia, l fields, ben  gordon...
sf: w chandler, l deng, granger, casspi...
bigs: taj gibson, e Ilyasova, j thompson, s ibaka, thadeus young ...
not that these guys will be second tier in 2 years or that any will be available, or that any combo could lead us to a title. my point is that with rondo conducting the o and perk anchoring the d we have in place the two most difficult positions to fill. the rest of the puzzle becomes much easier to fill in.
imHo