The east is wide open and the heat are an injury themselves away from beatable. Plus there are no "expiring contract, young player and picks" trades out there because of the amnesty clause and all those bad contracts eliminated. So any trade we make with peirce and kg would involve taking on a bad long term contract or two more than likely.
Our best shot for now and the future is standing pat, grabbing a solid PG and letting Doc work his magic. Then, in the offseason, if it is a fail, blow it up. Only then there will be be a million options that don't involve taking back any contracts. This is exactly what Ainge will do.
I like Calderon. He is a good distributor, shooter and expires after the season (giving us $10 million to jump start the rebuild). Thing is, it would likely cost us bass, lee and a 1st or sully/Bradley or any combo. I'm not sure parting with our mid/high end prospects is worth it here. But in a weak draft, the pick would be worth clearing that $10 million in my opinion. I really like this idea, but I wouldn't be surprised if Ainge just let's it ride and does very little.
Long story short, yes we are still contending!