Next year's free agent crop is awful w/o Paul, Howard and Williams

[Roy H.]

Welcome to the late 80s / early 90s.  We're either going to run out our ancient vets without a chance of winning anything, or we're going to overspend on players with mediocre talent.

The Celtics, at this point, have little choice other than to go into a total rebuild after this season, and hope that we get lucky in the lottery.

[nickagneta]

facepalm

Exactly greg...TP

[PosImpos]

Welcome to the late 80s / early 90s.  We're either going to run out our ancient vets without a chance of winning anything, or we're going to overspend on players with mediocre talent.

The Celtics, at this point, have little choice other than to go into a total rebuild after this season, and hope that we get lucky in the lottery.

at least once we're in rebuild mode we can all get hopeful and excited for winning the lottery.

what really bums me out about all that's happened in the last couple of days is it means that there really is no hope for this season.  the celtics are going to make the playoffs, and they're going to be competitive enough to perhaps win a playoff series, but that's it.  nothing good for the future of the franchise will come out of this season.  it's just a farewell tour for KG, Ray, and probably JO.

im just glad we have a ballsy GM who hopefully won't hesitate to do what has to be done to help us become competitive again -- which in this case probably means becoming really bad as quickly as possible.

[nickagneta]

Welcome to the late 80s / early 90s.  We're either going to run out our ancient vets without a chance of winning anything, or we're going to overspend on players with mediocre talent.

The Celtics, at this point, have little choice other than to go into a total rebuild after this season, and hope that we get lucky in the lottery.

Yeah, some of the younger than 30 crowd here at CB don't remember that era that was oh so painful(more so because the two best young players we did happen to get died), but they are about to get a painful reminder that history does repeat itself.

[LooseCannon]

One logical path is to basically rent out cap space, acquiring some big expiring contracts for teams that don't want to spend money, charging a fee of a draft pick or some young player still on a cheap rookie deal with some upside (but probably not star potential).  The Celtics would have whoever they drafted with the Clippers pick, a possible lottery pick in 2013, and a ton of cap space to go after the top free agents in 2013.

Or acquire guys with deals expiring in 2014 and see if you can use that salary as an expiring deal that can be traded in 2013 and go after a big free agent in 2014 if you can't make a deal.  Given how players don't seem to want to come to Boston, trading may make more sense.

[beantownboy171]

Well, I know you guys will probably hate this. What do you think of handing out a bunch of lucrative one year contracts next summer to aging vets. Resign KG and Ray, and putoff the rebuild for 2013?

Or maybe we should just tank for the pick.

[nickagneta]

One logical path is to basically rent out cap space, acquiring some big expiring contracts for teams that don't want to spend money, charging a fee of a draft pick or some young player still on a cheap rookie deal with some upside (but probably not star potential).  The Celtics would have whoever they drafted with the Clippers pick, a possible lottery pick in 2013, and a ton of cap space to go after the top free agents in 2013.

Or acquire guys with deals expiring in 2014 and see if you can use that salary as an expiring deal that can be traded in 2013 and go after a big free agent in 2014 if you can't make a deal.  Given how players don't seem to want to come to Boston, trading may make more sense.

Thing is the 2013 crop of free agents are pretty poor unless you are looking for a PG, which we won't be. Here's a look:

http://www.hoopsworld.com/2013-nba-free-agents/

[bdm860]

It's just depressingly sad to think about.

So the plan was to trade for Chris Paul, and give it a good shot this year.  Then in 2012 sign Dwight Howard, and get Ray and KG to sign small contracts, and fill out the roster with a bunch of quality role players who want to win, and the C's compete for the next several years.

Without being able to bring in any major upgrades, it's pointless for Ray and KG to re-sign here next year.

Without Ray and KG it's pointless for Pierce to be here. So you either cut him, or trade him to a contender for an expiring bum and a late first round pick.

Without Ray, KG, and Pierce, many of us have believe Rondo isn't a guy we should build around.

All the cap space does no good with nobody worth signing out there.

So this is what it felt like last year to be a Cavs or Raptors fan 

[jambr380]

It's sad, but the players I pretty much would like the most are Garnett and Allen...I guess we'll see. Let's not all be Debbie-Downers...

[bdm860]

It's sad, but the players I pretty much would like the most are Garnett and Allen...I guess we'll see. Let's not all be Debbie-Downers...

See it just goes to show, you think positively and already good things are starting to happen