This year's free agents, listed by position

[More Banners]

My favorites (unrestricted only):

Point guard - Steve Blake, Earl Watson
Shooting guard - Ray Allen, Tony Allen, Mike Miller (can also play SF)
Small forward - Mike Miller (see above), Rasual Butler
Power forward - Al Harrington, Hakim Warrick (we can't really afford any of the big names)
Center - Brad Miller, Brendan Haywood, Ben Wallace

Miller and Blake are my favorite guys on the list for our team, I think.

Can Al Harrington still play the 3 occasionally?  I always fit him in the Eric Williams/Ryan Gomes box.  If he's got enough quickness to back up both 3&4, he'd complement TA, BBD, and Sheed fairly well, I think.

Still rather have Miller, though.  I expect (due to their ages) that both will be really pulling for 5-year deals.

[Cman]

My favorites (unrestricted only):

Point guard - Steve Blake, Earl Watson
Shooting guard - Ray Allen, Tony Allen, Mike Miller (can also play SF)
Small forward - Mike Miller (see above), Rasual Butler
Power forward - Al Harrington, Hakim Warrick (we can't really afford any of the big names)
Center - Brad Miller, Brendan Haywood, Ben Wallace

Miller and Blake are my favorite guys on the list for our team, I think.

Can Al Harrington still play the 3 occasionally?  I always fit him in the Eric Williams/Ryan Gomes box.  If he's got enough quickness to back up both 3&4, he'd complement TA, BBD, and Sheed fairly well, I think.

Still rather have Miller, though.  I expect (due to their ages) that both will be really pulling for 5-year deals.

Nice comparisons in the case of Al Harrington.  I think Al off the bench backing up Pierce would be great, playing a 6th man type of role.  He will probably be too expensive, though (ie, above the MLE). 

Someone mentioned Ty Thomas above.  I also doubt he's available for the MLE, but if Charlotte is interested in Rasheed, maybe a S&T could be worked out.

Mike Miller is a decent option, but I don't think he has much left in the tank.  I think it would be relatively easy to sign him for 2 years at the MLE.

[Redz]

I'd like Miller a lot more if he is playing with us.  Can you imagine how hated the C's would be.

[the_Bird]

Wait, since when is Mike Miller a *despised* player?  Brad Miller, I can see, but I don't ever recall anything controversial about Mike Miller.  What am I missing?

MoreBanners, I also don't see why you think Mike Miller doesn't have enough left in the tank for more than two years?  He's what, 30 years old?  He strikes me as a three year/full-MLE kind of player, maybe a four-year contract. 

[Redz]

Wait, since when is Mike Miller a *despised* player?  Brad Miller, I can see, but I don't ever recall anything controversial about Mike Miller.  What am I missing?

MoreBanners, I also don't see why you think Mike Miller doesn't have enough left in the tank for more than two years?  He's what, 30 years old?  He strikes me as a three year/full-MLE kind of player, maybe a four-year contract. 

Oh, I was definitely referring to Brad.  If anything Mike is a little too friendly!

[the_Bird]

Too many Millers!

I'm not convinced BRAD Miller has much left in the tank.  He's never been that athletic, but the couple times I watched him this year he looked painfully slow.  Rebounding took a huge dive this year, from 7.4/game to 4.9/game, in only about four fewer minutes.  Worse three-point shooting than Regular-Season-'Sheed (28.0% last season, 23% the season before).

Not sure what's really left there.  I mean, as a veteran-minimum guy, third-center type, no harm, six fouls. 

As a contributor?  Wouldn't count on much.

[More Banners]

Wait, since when is Mike Miller a *despised* player?  Brad Miller, I can see, but I don't ever recall anything controversial about Mike Miller.  What am I missing?

MoreBanners, I also don't see why you think Mike Miller doesn't have enough left in the tank for more than two years?  He's what, 30 years old?  He strikes me as a three year/full-MLE kind of player, maybe a four-year contract.  

I think you mistook me for Cman.

I think Mike Miller would be fabulous, but (at 30) will likely go for the MLE (or similar money) wherever he gets the most years.  That won't be us, unless he falls, which I suspect quite a few players will this year.  In '12, the 3rd year of a full MLE contract would be, what, about $8 million?  I wouldn't tie up that much dough in a complementary player for that year IF the plan is to reload through cap space somehow (may or may not be a FA signing).

[jayk009]

hmm, seems like alot of depth at each position, and a few players that can be had for cheap.

I really doubt we give the full MLE to one player unless the player pulls a Ron Artest and gives us a discount to try and win a title. I'm also making the assumption that we will re-sign both allens, I just hope some team doesn't offer Tony Allen some ridiculous contract for more than 3 million a year, I think Ray is a lock to return to us though.

At backup pg I would be interested in Chris Duhon, Mardy Collins, or Shaun Livingston. Steve Blake seems like he would be out of our price range, and the most we would be willing to give to a backup pg is around the range of what a LLE contract would be worth. Probably enough to get Livingston, but Duhon would have to take a paycut, I think there's a good chance that Duhon waits it out and after not receiving an offer he likes, sign on for aroound 2 mill a year with a contender. If we miss out on these 3, I could see us taking a look at Royal Ivey, Acie Law or even Rafer. I would happy with any one of these options as they are better then any other backup pg we've had in the past few years. For some reason I prefer having a pg that has size such as Livingston, Collins, Law, but my favourite player out of the list is Chris Duhon.

At the backup wing position there seems to be alot of depth. There's really alot of guys that we can go with  including Mike Miller, Bobby Simmons,  Jarvis Hayes, Antoine Wright, Ime Udoka, Damien Wilkins, and Dorell Wright. Travis Outlaw or Mike Miller would be the ideal choice but I'm not convinced the Celtics want to use their full MLE on one player, if they do there is a high high chance that it will be one of Outlaw or Mike Miller. Otheer then theses two, the rest can be had at the minimum and each one of these options are pretty good 3 point shooters other than Dorrell Wright and  they all have good size other than Udoka, I would be happy with any one of these players.


For a backup big man we have several options we can go for. One is ....go for an offensive guy to fill Leon Powe's shoes or go for a big guy that plays excellent D but is a stiff on offense. For the offensive, one guy that stands out to me is Craig Smith, he seems like a better version of Leon Powe, and I think  we can sign him to a partial MLE deal. If we are going for a defensive guy, I wouldn't be opposed to bringing back Shelden, or we can even look at Kwame Brown, Ben Wallace, one of the Collins brothers, Earl the pearl, Rasho, the list is endless. This seems like the least of our worries out of the 3, and any of these options would be fine as the 4th or 5th big man for our team. My ideal choice from this group is Craig Smith.



My ideal off season signings would be:


Sign Chris Duhon and Craig Smith using MLE (maybe 2-2.5 mill. a year for both)

Sign Jarvis Hayes to a minimum contract.

length of their contracts would be 2-3 years.


Sorry for the bad grammar and organization, I'm really tired....

[jayk009]

When I imagine Brad Miller, I imagine him in a  triangle offence.  He needs to sign on as a backup in LA.....

[ToppersBsktball10]

my All-Free-Agent team.

Point Guard: AI/Raymond Felton/Luke Ridnour
Shooting Guard: DWade/Joe Johnson/Ray Allen
Small Forward: LeBron/Paul Pierce/Rudy Gay
Power Forward: Dirk Nowitzki/Chris Bosh/Amare Stoudemire
Center: Yao Ming/Jermaine O'Neal/Brendan Haywood

[Evantime34]

My list
PG: Steve Blake, Chris Duhon, Raymond Felton (probably out of our price range/wants a starting spot), Earl Watson
SG: Delonte West (can play pg), Ray Allen, Tony Allen, Keith Bogans, Roger Mason, J.J Reddick, Wes Matthews
SF: Mike Miller, Rasual Butler, Jarvis Hayes, Kyle Korver, Travis Outlaw, Ime Udoka
PF: Louis Amundson, Udonis Haslem, Amir Johnson, Craig Smith, Hakim Warrick
C: Kwame Brown, Etan Thomas, Brandon Haywood, Josh Boone.

I expect us to sign around 3-5 of these guys then fill out our roster with draft picks and NBDL guys. Wouldn't be shocked if we sign Scal to the vet min also

[Roy Hobbs]

My list
PG: Steve Blake, Chris Duhon, Raymond Felton (probably out of our price range/wants a starting spot), Earl Watson
SG: Delonte West (can play pg), Ray Allen, Tony Allen, Keith Bogans, Roger Mason, J.J Reddick, Wes Matthews
SF: Mike Miller, Rasual Butler, Jarvis Hayes, Kyle Korver, Travis Outlaw, Ime Udoka
PF: Louis Amundson, Udonis Haslem, Amir Johnson, Craig Smith, Hakim Warrick
C: Kwame Brown, Etan Thomas, Brandon Haywood, Josh Boone.

I expect us to sign around 3-5 of these guys then fill out our roster with draft picks and NBDL guys. Wouldn't be shocked if we sign Scal to the vet min also

I think we can only sign three of those guys if two of them are Ray and Tony.  We're just not going to have much money to bring in good free agents.  $5.6 million (approximately) just doesn't go that far, and I can't see many of the above guys playing for the minimum (although some probably would.)

[Prof. Clutch]

My favorites (unrestricted only):

Point guard - Steve Blake, Earl Watson
Shooting guard - Ray Allen, Tony Allen, Mike Miller (can also play SF)
Small forward - Mike Miller (see above), Rasual Butler
Power forward - Al Harrington, Hakim Warrick (we can't really afford any of the big names)
Center - Brad Miller, Brendan Haywood, Ben Wallace

Miller and Blake are my favorite guys on the list for our team, I think.

First of all, TP Roy for posting this.  I've been looking at the espn version of the free agent list for the last few weeks. 
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=FreeAgents-09-10
I think the really exciting thing about this off season is that there is the potential for the C's to actually makes some pretty impacting moves if they want. 

I think the assumption from many here is that Ray Allen and Tony Allen will be pursued and re-signed (pending Ray's willingness to take a pay cut from his previous salary and Tony not getting a big contract offer from somewhere else.)  Paul has the early termination option on his contract that he very well could exercise.  I mean if you think about it, almost half of our roster are, or potentially could be, free agents (including everyone on our team who plays shooting guard.)

I really like all the guys you listed and I think the other big story of this off season (that nobody seems to be talking about) is that, although there are a bunch of teams with the ability to offer the max, there aren't as many teams as there are max level free agents that want one of those max contracts.
Miami, Jersey, New York, Chicago, Kings, Wizards, Clippers, and Timberwolves (although I can't imagine teams like the Kings and Timberwolves spending money on any max free agent.)

So while many teams will be duking it out for guys like Lebron, Wade, Bosh, Amare, Dirk, Johnson, Boozer, etc. there will be an opportunity for teams like the Celtics to grab ahold of the list of stellar mid range free agents out there who might want a chance at winning a ring.  You're list is a perfect example of some of those players who are very much within reason and probability of attaining.

[Greenbean]

My list
PG: Steve Blake, Chris Duhon, Raymond Felton (probably out of our price range/wants a starting spot), Earl Watson
SG: Delonte West (can play pg), Ray Allen, Tony Allen, Keith Bogans, Roger Mason, J.J Reddick, Wes Matthews
SF: Mike Miller, Rasual Butler, Jarvis Hayes, Kyle Korver, Travis Outlaw, Ime Udoka
PF: Louis Amundson, Udonis Haslem, Amir Johnson, Craig Smith, Hakim Warrick
C: Kwame Brown, Etan Thomas, Brandon Haywood, Josh Boone.

I expect us to sign around 3-5 of these guys then fill out our roster with draft picks and NBDL guys. Wouldn't be shocked if we sign Scal to the vet min also

I think we can only sign three of those guys if two of them are Ray and Tony.  We're just not going to have much money to bring in good free agents.  $5.6 million (approximately) just doesn't go that far, and I can't see many of the above guys playing for the minimum (although some probably would.)

One thing the deep playoff run has done for us is once again made us into a very attractive free agent destination. Much more attractive than if we had lost to the Cavs in the 2nd round.

I'm not saying guys would take huge discounts but it is certainly more possible than if free agency started a month ago.

[the_Bird]

Wait, since when is Mike Miller a *despised* player?  Brad Miller, I can see, but I don't ever recall anything controversial about Mike Miller.  What am I missing?

MoreBanners, I also don't see why you think Mike Miller doesn't have enough left in the tank for more than two years?  He's what, 30 years old?  He strikes me as a three year/full-MLE kind of player, maybe a four-year contract.  

I think you mistook me for Cman.

I think Mike Miller would be fabulous, but (at 30) will likely go for the MLE (or similar money) wherever he gets the most years.  That won't be us, unless he falls, which I suspect quite a few players will this year.  In '12, the 3rd year of a full MLE contract would be, what, about $8 million?  I wouldn't tie up that much dough in a complementary player for that year IF the plan is to reload through cap space somehow (may or may not be a FA signing).

Oops, sorry about that.

As I said somewhere else, I think a lot depends on whether they still want to target 2012 as a summer to do a complete rebuild, or if they put that plan off and instead load for bear for the next two seasons.  A guy like Mike Miller would likely take a three- or four-year committment to procure, but would do wonders for keeping the wear and tear off Ray and Paul's legs.  Bring in someone like Watson to back up Rondo, get Pierce and Perk signed to extensions, and I'm thinking we're title contenders for at least next season and maybe the season after that.

BUT, we'd be in a much worse situation for the inevitable rebuild.  We'd still be pretty much capped out when KG and 'Sheed's contract expire (and Ray Allen's, assuming he get signed to a two-year extention).  It might take a season or two at that point to clear up some of those contracts.  We wouldn't be a player in the 2012 Durant sweepstakes.