Celtics free agents: who do we keep?

[Lucky17]

http://www.82games.com/0809/08BOS3.HTM#5man

Shows what we'd expect: when playing as PG, the Celtics defend better but score less points than when House is in the lineup as SG.

It also shows that House has played only 40 minutes this season when he has been the primary ball handler (unless you consider Tony Allen the point guard for that unit). At all other times, he's been on the court with a true point guard, or either Pierce or Allen, both of whom run the offense while he's in.

[Who]

Boston has four great shot creators in Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo. Because of their strength, I think it's fairly unimportant whether the team has a shot creator off the bench.

Of course I'd like to have a quality shot creator there, I just don't think it's a necessity. I think the team can build a very good bench without one -- based on defense + rebounding + complementary offensive players (like stand still shooters and garbage men).

[ManUp]

Sign Powe to the LLE, or Vet minimum.

Re-sign Pruitt for as little as possible.

If House opts out let him walk, his salary is perfect as is.

See what we can do with the MLE before we try to re-sign Baby.

Let all other scrubs walk.

[Kuberski33]

I think it's been proven that BBD needs minutes to be effective, so you basically go with a 3 man rotation up front -- him, KG (assuming he comes back healthy) and Perk.  KG in essence becomes your backup center when BBD enters the game.

Powe gets signed for as little as possible for a couple of years.

You've got Scal at relatively short money, I believe, to back up.

House definitely returns.

Pruitt I think is gone.

Marbury I'm sure will try to return as a starter somewhere but I wouldn't rule him out assuming they can agree on terms.  I'd like to see what he could do with a training camp under his belt, but if not, you need a backup PG so Eddie can play the 2.

We need to get longer/bigger at the backup 3 with a veteran option.

[PaulPierce34G]

House will be smart & exercise his option (can't blame him with the way this economy is going.)  So whether you like him or not, want him to stay/go, he will be here.

Get rid of TA (I know he isn't a free agent, but I just feel like venting).  As usual, he showed minor flashes here & there but nothing consistent to make him have an impact like Posey did in 07-08. Waste of cap space and a roster spot.  

Mikki Moore...Please don't walk through that door anymore...A blunder by Ainge..He panicked because he didn't think Joe Smith would be bought out.

I'd personally be open to keeping Marbury.  Like others have said, give him a chance to have a full season under his belt.  He definitely acted in the correct/proper manner during his time here.  He seemed pretty serious, accepting of his role & I believe him when he says he wants to stay here.  I don't think he is just saying the right things to try and lure other teams to give him one more big pay day.  He's made more money in 13 years than probably 99.9% of this blog will ever earn in a lifetime.  I think he is strictly about winning now.   I want him back in green.

Gabe is basically a waste of a roster spot, too.  I say let him walk.  Can hit the open shot, but I don't want him back. Doc has used him here & there, but his game will never flourish in Boston because Doc clearly has very low confidence in him.  Let him go to a low end team where he can play consistently, even as a back up 2nd PG and earn his stripes.

As for BBD & Leon Powe, I would like to see them both back barring any other potential signings (ie Rasheed Wallace).  Davis definitely helped his case/increased his pay with his postseason play...Hopefully he and the C's can agree on something fair for both parties.  Leon..As someone else said, I say they offer him a 1 year deal with a little salary increase from what he made under his current contract, as it would be the fair thing to do, and let him use next year to play for his pay day.  It's only fair for both parties. Don't want to overpay someone and he gets injured again next year, but at the same time, give him another shot.

I just would like to see the bench get some obvious adjustments made to it.  I hope the ownership is committed to winning as much as they publicly say they are.  Ainge has some work to do this off season. If we can sign anyone else on the FA market, I would love to see either Rasheed Wallace or McDyess (even if it means letting BBD or Powe walk to get the job done) and a solid back up 3 to help out Pierce. Anything can happen.  This is certainly going to be an interesting summer in terms of how the team manages its free agency agenda. Surely am looking forward to it.  

[Kuberski33]

Get rid of TA (I know he isn't a free agent, but I just feel like venting).  As usual, he showed minor flashes here & there but nothing consistent to make him have an impact like Posey did in 07-08. Waste of cap space and a roster spot.  

Mikki Moore...Please don't walk through that door anymore...A blunder by Ainge..He panicked because he didn't think Joe Smith would be bought out.

Neither of these two could get on the court when the team needed bodies this series, so characterizing them as a waste of both cap space and a roster spot is accurate.

[celticpride07]

1. mikki moors sucks hes gone!

re-sign powe and marbury for cheap. marbury will be a lot better.

eddie should want to come back.. if not bye

pruitts option is real cheap and a good 3rd point guard.

big baby has earn a decent contract from someone.celtics wont match it.

we can use the MLE for rasheed wallace
grant hill vet min?

[Who]

Yeah, I think Eddie House is a lock to return at that money. I can't imagine him passing up that type of money. He's not earning that in free agency, or gaining a long term deal, so there's no upside for him.

House is on what will likely prove to be the best contract of his career. I don't think he's ever made more than $1.5mil before, and he's unlikely to do so after this deal is up. The contract he's on is a great one for Eddie.

Plus ... you know that whole playing for titles thing, and playing for a team you really enjoy being a part of.

[hpantazo]

bring back House and Marbury. Davis only if the price is right (he should talk to Perk about the benefits of the hometown discount). Say goodbye to Tony Allen, Pruitt, and Moore, and Leon (sorry, but he's done for good). Go all out after Rasheed, and a solid backup center. If they can do that, then we will get #18 and 19.

[Scalablob990]

Powe,Eddie,BBD,and Marbury are the only ones to keep.

[cordobes]

Whether it's from the point guard position or not, though, I'm assuming that you agree we need another ball-handler and penetrator for the second unit?  In my opinion, we desperately need somebody to create offense when both Rondo and Pierce are off the floor.

I do not agree. It would be nice if the C's could get one, but it's not a necessity.

One of the Big Three can play in the second unit in the regular season, and two of the Big Three can play with the second unit in the playoffs. That's more than enough shot creators.

Having watched our bench struggle to generate offense for the past two seasons, I disagree.  We need more play makers for that second unit. 

I'm siding with Who on this one. I think the last thing this team needs is another shot-creator.

Our bench may struggle to create shots during the regular season, but that's something that doesn't worry me for the post-season. Four guys in the roster who can create for themselves and for others is pretty good. It'd be difficult to find another NBA team with so many shot-creators and with such a high level.

Besides that, good play-makers are hard to find. You can have bad play-makers, guys like Tony Allen or '09 Marbury. For example, Pargo will probably try to return to the NBA. I strongly dislike that kind of player though: I think most of the times they hurt you more than they help, especially, once again, in a team like ours (that's one of the multiple reasons why the Tony Allen experiment failed - he needs the ball to be effective, meaning you'll have a much better shot-creator than him playing off him just to transform your offence in a russian roulette; in a different proportion, that was the reason why one year ago I wasn't that interested on Maggette). I've said this multiple times: mediocre, inconsistent shot-creators is the most overrated kind of NBA players. 

[silvershamrocker]

Keep Davis, Powe, House, and Starbury. Let Moore and Pruitt go. That gives us two roster spots to spend on a Center and a SF...

[Mr October]

I'd like to keep:

Marbury - at his current money (maybe $2mill for a year, if he's willing)

Davis - $10/3 or 12/3 should get it done.

Powe - since this coming year is mostly lost, I'd try to keep him at a low deal: $1mill/1year

House - I doubt he opts out. He's not worth more than 2.8 per. If he does opt out, as much as I love his scrappy game, I'd only keep him for maybe 1.5 per year.

Pruitt - If Marbury is gone, I definitely keep Pruitt.

[greenwise]

I would like to keep Marbury, House (he will exercise his option), Powe and BBD. Pruitt and Moore should leave. The thing is, if we want to trade for someone, our biggest asset would be Davis...

Seeing the ideas of others, I would really try to land Sheed Wallace and Grant Hill

[cordobes]

I'd like to keep:

Marbury - at his current money (maybe $2mill for a year, if he's willing)

Davis - $10/3 or 12/3 should get it done.

Powe - since this coming year is mostly lost, I'd try to keep him at a low deal: $1mill/1year

House - I doubt he opts out. He's not worth more than 2.8 per. If he does opt out, as much as I love his scrappy game, I'd only keep him for maybe 1.5 per year.

Pruitt - If Marbury is gone, I definitely keep Pruitt.

The problem with this is that after those moves, you already have $80 millions in salaries. If the LT threshold drops to $68 millions, that would mean the team would be paying about $92 millions in salaries, just with 13 players under contract. Even with that gigantic payroll, you'd still have deeply flawed bench: you'd still need another big, able to rebound; you'd need a backup wing and you'd need one of them to be good enough to be a bona-fide 6th man. Those guys need to be paid, increasing the pay-roll even more.

I have a tough time seeing that happening.