It's not a one year fix.

[saltlover]

I don't think KG's contract has the kind of value for young players / picks. But Allen's?

He's old but he still has some game left and can definitely put a team over the top. I believe he is around 10 millions a year. You can work something out here.

Him, PP and Rondo have trade values.

Pierce has 2 1/2 years and $40 million left in his contract with what appears to be a rapidly declining physical ability. Good luck get anything of value for Pierce.

Ray has value but who's going to rent him out for a year?

Miami...no picks available.
Chicago...29th or 30th in the first round for the next several years
OKC...already has Harden and Sefalosha
LAC...already has Billups though if Paul is hurt or Billups gets hurt its a possibility. It would not be a pick from this year though.

Dallas, Portland, and San Antonio because of Manu's injury might be the only ones and is a late first rounder and $10 million in contracts that removes that from the cap space for 2-3 years really worth it.

Pierce has value to a team that thinks he's better than someone else they're trying to salary dump, but have already used their amnesty and/or want to hold onto it for some reason.  I'm specifically thinking of Orlando and Hedo.  If the Wojo article is to be believed, several teams think Pierce still has something to offer, and Orlando wants to do everything in its power to show DH12 that they're trying to put a competitive team around him.  Mind you, I'd rather not trade Pierce, as he's the one player I'm most sentimentally attached to, but I disagree that there isn't a team who would take him.  In the case of Orlando, the value to them is the upgrade over a sunk cost in Hedo, plus their hope in keeping Howard.  A draft pick or two (especially an unprotected one a few years from now in the event that Howard leaves as an FA) doesn't seem crazy, considering some teams just sell late first-rounders.

I also think Ray would be a great fit in Indiana, but I started another thread on that yesterday, so that should be debated there.

[nickagneta]

1. I give no credence to the Wojo article. He wrote an article mostly about Kendrick Perkins returning to Boston for a game. Well, who's going to read that article outside of Celtic fans? No one.

So he puts in a one line quote of someone saying that people are inquiring about the C's blowing it up, writes a sentence or two about the Celtics situation and his editor headlines it with "Paul Pierce being traded?" and suddenly people all over the country are reading an article about Kendrick Perkins.

I'll believe this team will trade Pierce when I read it being announced on celtics.com and not a second before.

2. I have read the plethora of Ray Allen trade proposals by people here. Thank God, Danny is in charge of this team and not Celticsblog readers. They start at ridiculously bad or unrealistic and get worse from there.

3. Cap space is not just about signing free agents or about having that space for a single year. Trades can be made when under the cap that net you players where you don't have to return anything. The Grizzlies got Zach Randolph this way. Minnesota got Michael Beasley this way. It also allows you to try to save that space for the following year and remaining a player in free agency for years, until the right FA becomes available.

[chambers]

Great post.
People panic and think we can get some kind of stud team built within 2 or 3 years.
That ain't happening without serious luck in the draft.

Let the old guys ride it out, clear them off the books.
Once they are cleared- both Ray and KG have stated they are Celtics for life.
Bring them back on cheap contracts as bench players/mentors.
We could have Ray and Pierce for another 3 years guiding, teaching some young one and two guards which would be priceless.

I don't know if KG would stay to come off the bench for a lottery team but who knows...
Ray and Pierce probably would. Only problem is the size of Paul's contract.

We aren't getting anything in return for Pierce or Ray.
People want to trade Ray for OJ Mayo. Mayo comes off the bench for Tony Allen!!!

There is no quick fix to the C's situation.
If we don't get Howard, we are going to be in struggle town for a loooong time.
Our best shot at a title for the next 5 years is THIS YEAR with the current players we have.
Again, what are we going to get in return for our old guys?
We can't get any decent picks, just more fillers and contracts that we really won't want next year after waiting so long to clear cap space.

Stop dreaming and start appreciating this last year because before we know it, these NBA greats we have on our team will be gone, and so will our guaranteed playoff spot for at least 5-6 years, probably longer.

As the Nickagenta states, Danny isn't going to rush into anything.
He will wait things out and use the money and space to build a great team over a period of time- resigning Doc to 5 years is evidence of this long ride to be.

[clover]

I don't know how good their chances are with Howard anyway, but certainly a max contract type player is more likely to come to Boston if, instead of having Pierce still here eating up that salary, they can bring another young max contract type player in next year with him.

[Casperian]

Remember people we are way over the cap as is most of the teams would would trade players to. If ray or JO or Bass or KG go, that much money is coming back and the chances of that money coming off the books right away is almost zero.

So trade those players and you might get a late pick in the first round but you bring back bad contracts as well. And by bad contracts I mean contracts of players that probably wouldn't be cracking our current rotation but have contracts lasting more than this year.

There are so many different possibilities that it´s moot for us to discuss the possible outcomes of specific actions until we know which approach we take.

If the plan is to rebuild through cap space, bad contracts don´t make sense. However, which kind of players do you think we can attract?
If the plan is to tank for 1-3 years, I see no reason why we shouldn´t take on a few bad contracts plus picks for that time, as the whole point of tanking is to be bad.
And if the plan is simply flexibility, it´s somewhere in the middle.

However, I do think that riding it out is the worst possible outcome.

The whole system in the nba is designed to give every team roughly the same chance to become a top team. If we don´t want to get caught up in the machine, I believe we have to do something as long as we´re still able to. In that sense, I´m in favour of "blowing it up", regardless of what that means and the approach we ultimately take.

Generally, unless you believe we can use this cap space to lure Dwight Howard to Boston, I see no advantage in this particular strategy.