There have been a bunch of scenarios thrown out with Ray Allen getting traded. The thinking is obvious, he has a massive expiring contract and a lot of teams around the league are looking to either unload on contracts going into 2010 season so they can get one of the top free agents or just unload contracts because their franchises are struggling financially.
IMO, we can't let him go unless we get a starting 2 that replaces 75% of what he gives the team (on the court at least) and get either a top 10 draft pick or a good young player for future who can back up the front court or the wing. We're obviously going to have to take on some bad contracts to make this happen and I'm ok with that.
The reason I would ask for so much is because I think we can fill out our bench pretty well on the cheap this off season and make a great run with our starting 5 this upcoming season. So let's say we don't get a great deal (and I would only take a great deal) for Ray and we move forward with our current starting 5 and an improved bench. Ray Allen has a similarly great year to this year (maybe even a little better because those ankles are now two years removed from surgery).
July 15th 2010 rolls around. Ray is 5 days away from his 35th birthday, and at this point, heading into his 14th NBA season. My question is, how much can we resign him for?
IMO, I think that counting a hometown discount (I think he loves boston), we can get him for $6-8 mil for 4 years. So a 4 year $24-32 million deal that would take have him under contract until he turns 38. I'd be willing to give him a 5th year if he signed for $6 mil a year.
The reason I'm asking this is because I wouldn't want to pay him much more than that (unless it was like a 3 year deal) and the worst case scenario would be if we allow his contract (and all the leverage it allows us) to expire and he walks for more money we really messed up.
What does everyone else think he's worth?