Thinking of the enemy!

[KG_ended_Bias]

 Im not exactly sure if Paul Pierce can opt out and become a 2010 free-agent, but if he could, would the Celtics have enough money to sign a max free agent this summer? Paul is stating he would'nt want to rebuild so if he made the ultimate sacrifice and signed back for the mid-level execption or far less of what he was making, could we sign Lebron knowing we would have Ray Allen and Paul Pierce off the books to begin the summer with intentions of bringing Paul if not both back?

Roy, Edgar or one of the capologist help me out on this one please!

[Chris]

The short answer is no (this has been beaten to death elsewhere, if you want to look around, thanks to Gary Tanguay's incorrect claims that it could be done).

Even if Pierce did opt out, the C's would still have something like $42 million on the cap eaten up by Sheed, KG, Perk, Rondo, and Davis...and that doesn't even get into the cap holds, etc.

The highest I have seen the cap projected at next year is $53 million.  So that leaves them $11 million (minus cap holds), which would not be enough to sign Lebron...and even if they did convince Lebron to take less, they would have nothing left to resign Pierce for anything more than the vet minimum (and would you give up $20 million?), since teams under the cap do not get to use the MLE.

It is a fun thought, but alas, it is not possible.

[Edgar]

Im not exactly sure if Paul Pierce can opt out and become a 2010 free-agent, but if he could, would the Celtics have enough money to sign a max free agent this summer? Paul is stating he would'nt want to rebuild so if he made the ultimate sacrifice and signed back for the mid-level execption or far less of what he was making, could we sign Lebron knowing we would have Ray Allen and Paul Pierce off the books to begin the summer with intentions of bringing Paul if not both back?

Roy, Edgar or one of the capologist help me out on this one please!

Sounds to me that Chris have this all right.
I am not even close to a capologist, even more, I stink at it
I will hope Roy confirms but as long as I see it Chris has every word right
again i am not good to judge.