we don't have much use for Shaq...
Richard Jefferson is one of the most overpaid players in the league... we probably could have had him if we really wanted him, but why pay a guy 15 mil to come off the bench?
Crawford sucks.
That's your short answer.
We have the capacity to make those kind of deals. We can throw together some collection of expiring deals... Scal, Tony, House, Giddens, Walker, Pruitt... and I think we'd come close to being able to bring in a guy making 10-11 mil. But it's gotta be the right kinda guy and the right fit. And I think Ainge is trying to keep his options wide open. If he gets a crazy deal where he's able to trade Rondo for a guy who will be on his rookie scale contract for a few more years, that means we'd avoid paying Rondo big money... and once Ray expires we could in theory have some free agent money to play around with ... If we go and trade for an overrated player on a bloated contract (Richard Jefferson) that eliminates that long-term flexibility.