The Re-Sign James Posey and Eddie House Thread

[cordobes]

If Posey were playing of the Lakers instead the Celtics, what do you think the outcome would be? One player can make all the different in this final.

Before the finals, I wrote in this board that Posey was the best bench player from both teams (in a thread with a title like "Lakers bench the best in the league" or something close), and a Lakers fan basically said I was out of my mind. How things change...

Curiously, CB was probably the only place where I've seen written what in my opinion was clearly evident: the Lakers bench was too mistaken-prone and a team whose first - and only acceptable - big from the bench was Turiaf would be in trouble against us.

[wahz]

The more I think about it, the more I am worried that Posey will go elsewhere.

I just don't see the C's wanting to match anything over 3 years on the MLE, or they may not want to use the MLE at all.

And there is a good chance at least one team will offer him 4 or even 5 years, and considering this is his last big chance to cash in, I think he will likely be unable to turn it down.

I agree. He MAY have to be willing to accept something less to stay. Simply to hurt us Kupckak will throw the max he can at him, which will be what, 18.5 mill over 3 years? In one stroke we are badly, badly damaged, and LA gets exactly what they need. If James stays, I hope everyone knows there will be some degree of financial sacrifice from him to do it.

Nope. The C's and LA can offer Posey exactly the same: full-MLE for x years.(Boston can also offer him a 5 year non-Bird contract, that LA can't)

The question is: shall we?

cool. If you are right about that, then that is an easy one for me: yes we should offer the full-MLE for 3 years

[Casperian]

Well, I don't think there's something wrong per si, but I'm not sure which the best option is.

I'm not worried about the salary situation in 4 or 5 years (that's why i said that our priority should be to offer Posey the non-Bird exception for 5 years). I'm also not worried about the aging thing.

But look at the downsides:
We'll only have a 1st round pick this year. It's hard to believe that the rookie will be good enough to contribute for a championship team, especially if he is a pg or a center (our weakest positions if we keep Posey), since they take more time to develop.

Powe, BBD and Scal play the same position, one that Posey also does. Besides them, if we sign House with the LLE, we'll have Pruitt, maybe Tony Allen (and as it seems we are only giving workouts to SGs I think he's leaving), and that's all. So, our bench situation would be: PFs, Posey as a SF, House as a shooting specialist and 2 very raw guys who won't be used in the playoffs.

Can we find good enough veterans who want to play for the minimum to fill the holes, especially pgs and centers? Not only next year, but for the next 2/3 years (when we'll need more help from the bench as the Big 3+Posey are getting older). Maybe we do, but I'm not sure. I won't rule out the hypothesis we can have a better bench using the MLE+LLE in the free agent market.

So, at least is premature to have a definitive position, IMO.

1. It´s not premature to have a definitive position on this topic. Time´s running out, and the FO has to make a decision. I thought about this topic several times during the last weeks, that´s why I think I can form an opinion.

2. Judging by the workouts and rumours, we tend to pick a wing player. Even if we pick a Center, I trust Danny to find the right guy. Powe and Rondo were also second-year players.

3. There´s no guarantee that either Powe or BBD will become the players we hope they become. One injury, and we´d be awfully thin at PF. Scal is not the answer, imo (Sorry^^)

4. I am certain we can find vets that could contribute. We won the title, and in an impressive way. There´s always a PJ Brown who wants a ring before he retires.

5. There would be less pressure on the FO to find the right players with Posey on the team, since he´s so versatile, which means we don´t have to overpay for a guy just because of need.

[D Dub]

This is a no brainer.  Eddie and James MUST MUST MUST be resigned.  Just write the check already.

[BudweiserCeltic]

It all comes down to our priorities to determine what is smart and what not.

Do we want to win titles during the next years, or do we want to make sure our cap situation doesn´t hurt us in three years?

I think it´s obvious that we should place title runs over cap situation in three years. Titles are opportunities that don´t come around very often, while the cap situation is something that resolves itself with time.

With this in mind, I think we have to resign Posey, even if that means we have to pay too much money for one year. There is no other player in the league with his combination of skills, maybe Bruce Bowen, and I´m not sure about that. The playoffs have proven how valuable and clutch Pose is, and considering that he´s ok with coming from the bench, he´s even more of a rarity.

Someone said that if we want to replace Posey, we probably have to get 2-3 guys to compensate for this loss, and I agree. Imo, Posey is indispensable.

Resign Posey.

If House would resign for around the same money he gets now, and if he doesn´t want a long-term deal, I think we should bring him back, too. His energy and confidence off the bench have proven to be an integral part to this year´s playoff run. If he wants significantly more money, or minimum a 3-year-deal, I think Danny has to think about a replacement. 

There is more to it than this.  I think question comes down to whether they have a better chance of repeating next year by bringing back Posey with the MLE, and then filling other holes with veteran minimum guys, or do they try to convince posey to stay on the non-bird exception, and if he doesn't, use half of the MLE to replace him, and then the other half to upgrade another weak spot (such as backup PG or center).

I honestly don't know the answer to this until we see the market, and what kind of replacement we would be able to get, and what other guys we could get.

I'm on the fence like you are. At the moment I'm leaning towards letting Posey go if he wants full MLE, even though I would hate to do it. I can see us getting someone like Barnes, who I think plays very hard and has the skills to compliment our team quite nicely. After that, spend the rest on a real back-up Center... or a true back-up PG.

The other side of it, is that Posey will probably stay with Boston given that the Celtics matches some offer... I'm more doubtful about guys in the market wanting Boston over some other team. So if we put the money, Posey should stay... I don't think there's the level of guarantee with other players. So if we don't sign Posey, we risk our plan B, C, and D failing too.

I disagree, I think Boston is a very popular option right now for free agents.  They give them a chance to win, and a chance to play in a great team environment.  It is not for everyone, as some guys are looking for that big payday...but there will be plenty who may take a bit less to play for the C's.

That isn't what I was insinuating. I'm just talking about the level of confidence of acquiring a particular guy they are interested in. For example, I have no doubt that if we show the money to Posey he will pick us over ANY other team.  I don't think that's true for other people, especially when we don't know on who specifically the Celtics are interested in, and if that person is particularly interested in the Celtics.  For equal pay, though the Celtics should have a good chance to acquire X guy, whose to say that he won't preffer to play for the Spurs, Hornets, Lakers, etc.? I don't think there's that kind of doubt with Posey.