Which 2010 Free Agent Do You Want?

[gpap]

For me it's Lebron James, easily. If not Lebron, I could settle for D-Wade and Chris Bosh    Either way, the Celtics are in a very desirable position right now. They currently have a roster ready to compete for a title in 09-10. After this season they have so much money coming off the books (Pierce, R.Allen, T.Allen, Rondo, Scalabrine, E.House, M. Daniels.)

Who do you think the Celtics should go after?

[lon3lytoaster]

my oh my.. So many to choose from. Here's my short list.

Al Harrington, I'd love him here.
Mike Miller would be perfect, too.
Raja Bell who I hope we can get via trade
Jermaine O'Neal would be great for the MLE. If we got him, best front court ever.
Ditto for Udonis Haslem
Chris Duhon
Luke Ridnour

I gotta say, though.. This team with Mike Miller or Al Harrington? No way they don't add a championship or two.

[greenwise]

I don't want to think of 2010 yet We have a championship quest now

That said, D-Wade is my fave of the mentioned players

[PosImpos]

Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo.

[lon3lytoaster]

Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo.

I don't think Paul will be a free agent, I highly doubt he declines his option. Rondo and Ray, we have no shot at getting (Sarcasm)

[bruinsandceltics]

Piece isn't coming of the Books. The Celtics would be absolutely stupid to renounce Rondo's rights. Ray is coming back.

We aren't getting any free agents other than the guys we get for the MLE.

[nickagneta]

You do realize we have next to no salary cap room for next year, right? Here, look at this:

Player                                  2009/2010           2010/2011
Paul Pierce                      $19,795,712         $21,513,521
Ray Allen                          $18,776,860               N/A
Kevin Garnett                   $16,417,044         $18,832,044
Rasheed Wallace          $5,854,000           $6,322,320
Kendrick Perkins            $4,750,000           $4,890,208
Brian Scalabrine             $3,413,793                 N/A    
Eddie House                   $2,862,000                  N/A    
Tony Allen                         $2,500,000                 N/A    
Glen Davis                       $2,500,000          $2,500,000    
Rajon Rondo                   $2,094,922           $3,018,783    
J.R. Giddens                    $1,028,880          $1,100,640
Shelden Williams          $825,497                     N/A
Marquis Daniels             $1,999,000                 N/A    
Bill Walker                       $736,420             $854,389
Total salaries                  $83,444,128      $56,013,122
Total w/o options             $83,444,128      $33,398,961


Pierce has an opt out for 2010 and Rondo's number is his qualifying offer

Paul Pierce can opt out of his $21 million contract in 2010(yeah, right, like that's gonna happen) which could bring the Celtics available number under the cap to $15-$20 million or so depending on where the cap is put and if the Celtics renounce everyone including Pierce, Rondo and Ray Allen.

That's not going to happen.

More likely scenario:

Pierce does not opt out which puts the Celtics over the cap right there meaning they can resign their players and have the Mid Level Exception of $5.5 million per year, approximately, and veteran minimum salary contracts to offer.

So depending on how much Rondo matures and develops and how much Ray's game falls off will probably decide what happens with this team. Rondo could mature into a superstar which would make retaining him a must. He could be the teasing talent he was this year who might have a bit of an attitude and perhaps signing and trading him away is in the Celtics best interest. I'm not convinced Ray is even on this team come the playoffs, never mind next year. A $20 million expiring contract could get a lot in return come the trading deadline.

[Eja117]

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but even if Ray comes off for $17millish and we resign him for 7ish we'd still give a hefty raise to Rondo and we'd still be a good deal over the cap. I don't think we can get any big free agents any time soon.

[Eja117]

It'll be nice to have Scala come off the books

[nickagneta]

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but even if Ray comes off for $17millish and we resign him for 7ish we'd still give a hefty raise to Rondo and we'd still be a good deal over the cap. I don't think we can get any big free agents any time soon.

See the above, if we resign Rondo and Ray, forget the salary cap, we are probably over the luxury tax next year.

[Eja117]

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but even if Ray comes off for $17millish and we resign him for 7ish we'd still give a hefty raise to Rondo and we'd still be a good deal over the cap. I don't think we can get any big free agents any time soon.

See the above, if we resign Rondo and Ray, forget the salry cap, we are probably over the luxury tax next year.

Aren't we over the luxury this year? So won't we just give Rondo some of Ray's money and not resign Scala?  Wouldn't we basically be a few million less next year?

Otherwise it seems like you're saying we can't keep both.

[nickagneta]

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but even if Ray comes off for $17millish and we resign him for 7ish we'd still give a hefty raise to Rondo and we'd still be a good deal over the cap. I don't think we can get any big free agents any time soon.

See the above, if we resign Rondo and Ray, forget the salry cap, we are probably over the luxury tax next year.

Aren't we over the luxury this year? So won't we just give Rondo some of Ray's money and not resign Scala?  Wouldn't we basically be a few million less next year?

Otherwise it seems like you're saying we can't keep both.

We can keep both. But we will be over the luxury tax again and there's nothing wrong with that if the ownership group is willing to pay that money.

[nickagneta]

My guess, and it is just a guess, is the salary cap number is going to fall in somewhere between $51-$54 million and the luxury tax will be somewhere in the $64-$67 million range. This is based on estimates already provided to the teams by the league.

So we will definitely have KG, Pierce(I don't see him walking away from $21 million), Perk, Rasheed, Baby, Giddens and Walker(if we renew them). If we don't do trades we will probably extend Rondo and Ray and maybe Perk, though that wouldn't hit the books until 2011 and he will make nice trade bait. I see no way Williams and Tony come back. Eddie might be resigned and Scal might be offered a vet min contract. resigning those players could add between $18-$24 million depending on what Ray and Rondo get.

That would definitely put them over the luxury tax threshold once again.

Just one man's view but

[Eja117]

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but even if Ray comes off for $17millish and we resign him for 7ish we'd still give a hefty raise to Rondo and we'd still be a good deal over the cap. I don't think we can get any big free agents any time soon.

See the above, if we resign Rondo and Ray, forget the salry cap, we are probably over the luxury tax next year.

Aren't we over the luxury this year? So won't we just give Rondo some of Ray's money and not resign Scala?  Wouldn't we basically be a few million less next year?

Otherwise it seems like you're saying we can't keep both.

We can keep both. But we will be over the luxury tax again and there's nothing wrong with that if the ownership group is willing to pay that money.

So basically it'll be the same as this year, but a little bit cheaper.  Then the next year we have the same situation again with PP, and the year after that the same with KG, meaning in like 2013 or something we can add one big free agent to hopefully a really really good Rondo and 3 old guys that are ok.

[nickagneta]

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but even if Ray comes off for $17millish and we resign him for 7ish we'd still give a hefty raise to Rondo and we'd still be a good deal over the cap. I don't think we can get any big free agents any time soon.

See the above, if we resign Rondo and Ray, forget the salry cap, we are probably over the luxury tax next year.

Aren't we over the luxury this year? So won't we just give Rondo some of Ray's money and not resign Scala?  Wouldn't we basically be a few million less next year?

Otherwise it seems like you're saying we can't keep both.

We can keep both. But we will be over the luxury tax again and there's nothing wrong with that if the ownership group is willing to pay that money.

So basically it'll be the same as this year, but a little bit cheaper.  Then the next year we have the same situation again with PP, and the year after that the same with KG, meaning in like 2013 or something we can add one big free agent to hopefully a really really good Rondo and 3 old guys that are ok.

Depends on how they structure Ray's salary