Likely Offseason Targets for Jeff Green Trade

[KGs Knee]

I think it might be best for the team as a whole if Jeff Green has a very good end of year and playoffs and then the Celtics use Green's increased value(and maybe another player if necessary) to get a sign and traded player like Tiago Splitter or Paul Misap or Josh Smith or Nikola Pekovic or maybe a traded player like Pau Gasol or Emeka Okafor, you know, a big that can give you close to a double double, play good defense, and be on a short contract.

I would gladly give up Green's possible future for a big that can be thrown into a frontcourt rotation and give the team the 10/10/1 they desperately need from the front in a one last ditch at a title before KG and Pierce retire. And, if you get a player like Okafor, then his salary comes off the books the same time as Pierce's and KG's and make it possible for a 2014 max free agent to be signed like Carmelo Anthony, Lebron James, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, Greg Monroe, Paul George or DeMarcus Cousins(though every player on this list would be ETO's or RFA's).

I would gladly sacrifice heavy-money guys like Tiago Splitter, Paul Millsap, Josh "max" Smith and Nikola Pekovic. Each and every one of these guys will get $9mil/yr or more.

I also don't prefer the huge contracts of Emeka Okafor and Pau Gasol (what's next, Rudy Gay and Joe Johnson?).

Looking at those names, $9mil/yr looks totally fine by me and if KG/Pierce leave, I wouldn't mind a three-man core of Rondo/Jeff/MaxFA.

How could you want Jeff to leave? For potentially even-more-overpaid players? KEEP JEFF.

You talk about a three-man core of Rondo/Green/Max-FA, but it's impossible.  Even if KG/Pierce come off the books in 2014, we'll still have approx $43 in committed salaries for  7 players, and that's not including the two 1st round draft picks we'll have made by then.  Also, Bradley will be a restricted FA in 2014, so when you factor in those three additional contracts, we're over $50m.  Not nearly enough for a max-contract FA.

I agree with Nick, in that trading Green for a guy like Gasol would be a good move.  The beauty of trading for Gasol, is that not only does he come off the books in 2014, but because he makes so much money, Green can't be traded by himself.  We'd have to add in the contracts of Bass and one of either Terry/Lee.  I'm sure the Lakers would want Lee, but I'd push hard to move Terry.  I'd probably even throw in a 1st round pick.

With Gasol, Bass, Terry and one of our 1st's off the books in 2014, we'd have approx $21m + whatever we'd be paying the 1st round pick we still have and however much it takes to sign Bradley.  Max, that's no more than $30m.

I'll take the better immediate chance at a title, and the quicker opportunity to sign a max-FA, over Jeff Green any day.  Let's hope Green actually has this much value to other teams.

[KGs Knee]

As a follow up to my previous post, it appears that once our 'hard-cap' we've been operating under this season is shed, we'd actually be able to trade just Green and Terry for Gasol (salary wise).

This may be more palatable to LA.  They'd only have Howard, Green and Nash under contract for 2014, as of now, and would still have plenty of room for a max-contract FA.  I'm sure they'd be able to do something with Nash to clear even more room.

The Celtics would still need to move Bass, but if we had Gasol, we'd have more freedom to trade Bass for a wing player on a one year deal, enabling us to still have plenty of cap space in 2014, as well.

Regardless of whether or not we actually make this specific trade, this should be the framework of the type of deal we explore for moving Green.

[LooseCannon]

You talk about a three-man core of Rondo/Green/Max-FA, but it's impossible.  Even if KG/Pierce come off the books in 2014, we'll still have approx $43 in committed salaries for  7 players, and that's not including the two 1st round draft picks we'll have made by then.  Also, Bradley will be a restricted FA in 2014, so when you factor in those three additional contracts, we're over $50m.  Not nearly enough for a max-contract FA.

If you use an optimistic estimate of how much the cap will rise and consider that you may be able to do a salary dump of the expiring contracts of Brandon Bass and/or Jason Terry (who might be old enough to consider retirement a year early), the Celtics are within hailing distance of being able.

The Celtics could have enough cap space that, whether sign and trade or just straight up trade, the team could sned out Terry and/or Bass, Sullinger, and a draft pick or two for a big man who is worth a max contract.  Imagine, for example, stingy Memphis ownership deciding to blow up their team and dump Marc Gasol for a price such as that.

[chambers]

I think its too early to trade Jeff Green and too late to trade a potential 20/10/5 guy for an injury riddled Verajao. Keep Green, let him pad his stats whilst being a full time starter. Then flip him for a top 5 pick in the 2014 draft if we really want to rebuild.
Heck you could try and get two top 10 picks for Rondo and Green in a blow up scenario.
Of course there is the possibility that Jeff erupts in the playoffs this year & his value in the offseason reaches new heights.

Makes me wonder if his playoffs were good enough whether or not you could package Green and Bradley for Demarcus Cousins.
Move forward with Rondo, Cousins and Sullinger as a core.
Id also love to send Avery Bradley to the Bulls for their Charlotte lottery pick if we did decide to blow it up.

[KGs Knee]

Here's the short list of free-agent SF's in 2014:

LeBron James (ETO)
Carmelo Anthony (ETO)
Paul George (RFA)
Luol Deng
Rudy Gay
Danny Granger

[krook]

Varejao

[krook]

MY BACK-UP CENTER

[nickagneta]

Here's the short list of free-agent SF's in 2014:

LeBron James (ETO)
Carmelo Anthony (ETO)
Paul George (RFA)
Luol Deng
Rudy Gay
Danny Granger

DeMarcus Cousins and Greg Monroe are RFA's that year as well.

[LB3533]

Anyone who watches NBA basketball understands the age or era of big men are over.

The league is all about athletic wings and flashy point guards.

Pretty much all the great PFs are all done too or winding down their careers or playing Center.

I don't see how giving up a still relatively young, entering his prime wing player who can hustle, defend, has length and can get to the rim and draw fouls....how is this going to help us in the future if we give up on a player like this.

Jeff Green has also shown he is capable of on offense to play within the offensive flow and still be an efficient offensive player without the need to dominate the ball. Green may not be a spot up shooter, but he can make them just the same.

Dude has shown flashes of clutchness as well.

It's a shame we have not been able to see a Rondo/PP/JG/KG Big 4 for an entire full 82 game season.

I would really like to see that and what those results would be.

[Celtics17]

While I agree with several of your points I have to disagree that 'the age of the big men is over'. If this league had an 'in his prime' Wilt, Russ, Shaq, or even Kareem we would all be talking about those players rather then Lebron, Carmello, or Durant.

You think Lebron is strong and athletic? Wilt would make Lebron look like a kid in terms of size or strength. The age of the big man being dominant in pro basketball is not over rather it's just on hold another few years until another comes along. It's easier, statistically speaking, to find an all world athlete who is 6'8" then it is 7 feet. That is true especially now that all of the baby boom generation has moved on past it's ability to provide the NBA with players and now there are far fewer player to choose from in each generation and dont tell me it's an international game now because Europe has yet to really produce a single dominant big who plays like a big.

[wdleehi]

Anyone who watches NBA basketball understands the age or era of big men are over.

The league is all about athletic wings and flashy point guards.

Pretty much all the great PFs are all done too or winding down their careers or playing Center.

I don't see how giving up a still relatively young, entering his prime wing player who can hustle, defend, has length and can get to the rim and draw fouls....how is this going to help us in the future if we give up on a player like this.

Jeff Green has also shown he is capable of on offense to play within the offensive flow and still be an efficient offensive player without the need to dominate the ball. Green may not be a spot up shooter, but he can make them just the same.

Dude has shown flashes of clutchness as well.

It's a shame we have not been able to see a Rondo/PP/JG/KG Big 4 for an entire full 82 game season.

I would really like to see that and what those results would be.

Really?


How many of those great PGs have lead their team to a title?





And the "flashy wing" that lead his team to a title, spends at least half his time as a PF because he has the size of a PF. 


Outside of him, title teams have a top big man.

Dirk in Dallas
Gasol in LA
KG in Boston.
Duncan in SA




It is a myth that size no longer maters. 


The league is loaded with PGs.  There are tons of athletic swingmen.



A good big man, now that's takes effort to get. 

[Yogi]

Anyone who watches NBA basketball understands the age or era of big men are over.

The league is all about athletic wings and flashy point guards.

Pretty much all the great PFs are all done too or winding down their careers or playing Center.

I would really like to see that and what those results would be.

Kevin Love, Blake Griffin, LaMarcus Aldridge, Chris Bosh, DeMarcus Cousins, Greg Monroe, Josh Smith, David Lee, Serge Ibaka, Al Horford, David West, Amare Stoudemire, Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, Andrea Bargnani, Nene Hilario, Brook Lopez, Dwight Howard, Roy Hibbert, Nikola Pekovic, Pau Gasol, Tyson Chandler, Andrew Bynum, up and coming guys like Kenneth Faried, Andre Drummond, Anthony Davis, Jared Sullinger, Nic Vucevic, Larry Sanders, the "winding down" Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan (have you seen his numbers?) and Dirk Nowitzki... would beg to differ.

[KGs Knee]

Here's the short list of free-agent SF's in 2014:

LeBron James (ETO)
Carmelo Anthony (ETO)
Paul George (RFA)
Luol Deng
Rudy Gay
Danny Granger

DeMarcus Cousins and Greg Monroe are RFA's that year as well.

If we follow my plan, there's a decent chance we'd have room for one from both groups (SF & C).

I'd envision a line-up that looks something like this:

C-Cousins
PF-Sullinger
SF-Deng
SG-Bradley/Lee
PG-Rondo

The key to all of this is finding a way to shed the contracts of Green, Bass & Terry.

[KGs Knee]

Makes me wonder if his playoffs were good enough whether or not you could package Green and Bradley for Demarcus Cousins.
Move forward with Rondo, Cousins and Sullinger as a core.

If the Kings were willing to do a deal like this, I'd jump all over it.  Probably even throw in a 1st to make it happen.

[slamtheking]

Here's the short list of free-agent SF's in 2014:

LeBron James (ETO)
Carmelo Anthony (ETO)
Paul George (RFA)
Luol Deng
Rudy Gay
Danny Granger

DeMarcus Cousins and Greg Monroe are RFA's that year as well.

If we follow my plan, there's a decent chance we'd have room for one from both groups (SF & C).

I'd envision a line-up that looks something like this:

C-Cousins
PF-Sullinger
SF-Deng
SG-Bradley/Lee
PG-Rondo

The key to all of this is finding a way to shed the contracts of Green, Bass & Terry.

Bass and JET would be going into the last year on their deals so they may be movable at that point.  Green has another year after that so to move him he'd have to be playing consistently well.  of course if he played consistently well, we'd probably want to keep him.

I like the line-up but I just don't think getting Cousins or Deng (nevermind both) is possible.