Read an intriguing article about KG pondering retirement today, and according to Blakely:
“I think he retires, I think Kevin Garnett, he’s done all you can expect him to do. If he does decide come back, I he’s not going to make that decision quickly. Kevin, I think he’s looking for a situation where he is part of the solution but he is not THE solution. I think Kevin is at a point, you look at guys who have been in the league as long as he has, they’re not expected to play 30-35 minutes a night, and be the defensive anchor, and be the only guy who can get buckets down in the post.”
And Sam Cassell reinforced this notion that KG would either return to the Celtics or retire when he said this:
Garnett’s trusted friend Sam Cassell said KG was still talking about retiring as recently as 10 days ago, but Cassell was trying to persuade him otherwise. Cassel’s advice: Play as long as you can.
“KG is a loyal guy,” Cassell said. “I can’t see him playing for anyone else except Doc at this point.”
So following up Blakely's comment, I think it's safe to say that KG's retirement hinges on two things:
1. Minutes allocated to him per game
2. The presence of another defensive-minded stopper in the pain t and another scorer in the paint
As these playoffs have so transparently showed, KG was a phenomenal defensive anchor, but he was the ONLY defensive anchor. Brandon Bass does not address this need going forward. Yeah, I'd love to keep the dude, but if he demands an upwards of over 5 million, I'd say walk on him. He's too undersized and not as defensively-adept as we need a KG-pairing to be. So dissecting KG's likely demands for smaller minutes further, it means that he wants to have a role similar to that of Tim Duncan's. So to give KG this defensive pairing, I think we have a couple options, in no order of any sort.
1. Josh Smith
2. Roy Hibbert
3. Javale McGee
Those guys would add the youth and athleticism that the Celtics front court sorely lacked. To land Josh Smith, I'd say the best way to do this while keeping our cap room still viable is by packaging Pierce in an offer. Call me callous, but I think it's time for our captain to go. He simply didn't have the legs to match the speed and agility of more agile forwards that he had to guard in the post-season, like Iguodala and James, and those guys aren't going anywhere. This issue becomes even more glaring if the Celtics could potentially make a return to the Finals, where someone would have to guard Durant for years and years to come. But in the best scenario, we would only be able to pick up one, so with that in mind, here are players that could further mitigate KG's minutes.
1. Kenyon Martin
2. Ivan Johnson
3. Reggie Evans
4. Hasheem Thabeet
Aside from the "bust" in Thabeet, these guys aren't the youngest guys out there, but they bring rebounding and toughness that the Celtics missed this postseason. Thabeet could also grow and realize this potential under the tutelage of a defensive-great in KG.
Now, given that we can nab at least one guy from each of the lists above, KG could most likely return for somewhere around 6-9 million. After resigning Stiemsma and getting some bigs in the draft, I think our frontcourt and size issue that have plagued us for so long will be finally resolved. Keeping in mind that the Lakers will probably be making some off-season changes and Howard will go to some contender, and these size upgrades just seem to be the biggest priority.
Now, on to the back court issues.
I would like to start off by letting Ray Allen walk. The man clearly wants to stay in the league a couple more years, and logical sense says that he's not staying for cheap. Walk.
What we need are scorers to build around Rondo. Yes, after the all-star break, the Celtics had
the most stifling defense in the league, putting on numbers to challenge the record books. But we were one of the worst in the league in offensive production. Couple this with the fact that our backcourt was excruciatingly slow to guard opposing guards, who seem to be getting faster and more explosive each year, it's time we brought some young scorers in. If Pierce can be traded for the aforementioned Josh Smith, then we would have enough cap-room to sign a budding offensive machine like Eric Gordon, but stealing Hornet's cornerstone for the future seems highly implausible. So what's the next best option?
Lou Williams. He's opting out of his deal with the Sixers for more money, and I think it would be worth it to sign him for 6-7 million per year going forward. The dude is still only 25, and he's proven time and time again he's a clutch scorer, able to create his own shot at will. In this scenario, we could start AB and bring Lou off the bench in a similar 6th man role that he's made a name off of with the Sixers. I think Dooling and Pietrus have done a good enough job to warrant a return in green next season, given that they dont require more than 2 million each going into the future. Now, onto the Jeff Green issue, I think he could be had for 4-6 million. The guy is coming off a serious medical injury, and for some of you guys who have previously stated that he would make more than what he was making pre-injury, that's just ludicrous. He's not going to command more than what he was getting before the injury. If Pierce is traded/amnestied, then we need to start Green. Again, trading Pierce seems to make a lot of sense because going back to Jeff Green's first season with the Celtics, he didn't mesh well with the team. He was uncomfortable in his minutes decline, and giving him the minutes, and hence the confidence to become that 15-18 ppg scorer is a must in order to keep developing this once-budding starter for OKC.
So this could potentially shape out to be a roster like this:
Starting Five:
PG: Rajon Rondo
SG: Avery Bradley
SF: Jeff Green
PF: Josh Smith
C: Kevin Garnett
Reserves:
PG: Keyon Dooling
SG: Lou Williams
SF: Mickael Pietrus
PF: Reggie Evans/Ivan Johnson/ Royce White/ JJJ
C: Kenyon Martin/Greg Stiemsma/Fab Melo (subject to change depending on draft)/Thabeeet
Now, given Pierce can be amnestied or traded, and given the fact that we hold the bird rights to Jeff Green, this could well be all done under the cap space. What do you guys think?
Topic: Let's play a game called "Split up the Cap Space" (Read 12411 times)