Nic Batum is out there. Kris Humphries is available.
But my problem isn't the amount of money in the first year, it was the total destruction of the future cap space. If Green wouldn't accept a 1 yr, 9/10 million dollar deal then let him walk as he wasn't getting 4 years, 36 million from anyone else.
Just because you have cap space doesn't mean you should waste it on role players and destroy all future flexibility ala the Detroit Pistons.
What future cap space? There would be none. By the time Green's contract would actually have a real impact on our salary cap, we'll be either way under the salary cap with the ability to sign free agents, or he'll be an expiring contract which will be easily moved with an athletic player, who's skilled, and still quite young.
And this situation is not even remotely similar to what went on with Detroit.
I see the similarities. The only difference was the Celtics only gave out one of these contracts where Detroit gave out two.
No the same thing. We used bird rights to get Green + have MLE + BAE at our disposal for furthering adding to our team, plus we're in the middle of trying to win a championship, not rebuild.
Detroit actually had a ton of cap space, and they wasted it. We merely resigned our players.
Once we sent Garnett 11 or so a year, we were no longer in a position to play the salary cap game, particularly with the indecision of Ray Allen in the balance, the agreement with Terry for MLE money, the resign of Bass.
The only way we'd be in a comparable position is if we renounced our free-agents, and then wasted that money on Ben Gordon. But we didn't. It's really not similar. Whether we signed or didn't sign Green to this contract we weren't going to be salary cap players in the next 3 years.