Celts paid Memphis 1.66 mil to take Fab

[PhoSita]

Yep.  It truly was a complete dump of Melo.  Still a head scratcher to me.

  I don't know their exact salary specifics this year, but getting under the luxury threshold this year will mean a pretty big savings going forward.

Yes, I understand that, and this has been discussed ad nauseum elsewhere, but I just can't imagine that it was vital to make the salary dump NOW.

It's not _that_ vital - but Melo is not that good.

Sure, but if it didn't NEED to happen right away, why pay somebody else just to take him off our hands?

It's hard for me to believe that Danny has so little confidence in his ability to make a deal when he has to that he jumped at the very first opportunity he found to unload Melo just to sneak barely under the luxury tax.

Some people seem to feel that Melo's lack of talent and / or stupidity was contagious or something and it was imperative that we get him off the team ASAP.

[Roy H.]

Yep.  It truly was a complete dump of Melo.  Still a head scratcher to me.

  I don't know their exact salary specifics this year, but getting under the luxury threshold this year will mean a pretty big savings going forward.

Yes, I understand that, and this has been discussed ad nauseum elsewhere, but I just can't imagine that it was vital to make the salary dump NOW.

It's not _that_ vital - but Melo is not that good.

Sure, but if it didn't NEED to happen right away, why pay somebody else just to take him off our hands?

It's hard for me to believe that Danny has so little confidence in his ability to make a deal when he has to that he jumped at the very first opportunity he found to unload Melo just to sneak barely under the luxury tax.

Bird in the hand.

Maybe there's only a 33% chance that Danny couldn't make a salary-clearing deal later.  However, if that scenario came to fruition, it would have hurt a lot more than the $1.66 million.

[Roy H.]

I'm too lazy to look this up or give it any thought, but could the Celtics have waived Melo under the stretch provision?  How would that have affected the luxury tax?

[PhoSita]

Yep.  It truly was a complete dump of Melo.  Still a head scratcher to me.

  I don't know their exact salary specifics this year, but getting under the luxury threshold this year will mean a pretty big savings going forward.

Yes, I understand that, and this has been discussed ad nauseum elsewhere, but I just can't imagine that it was vital to make the salary dump NOW.

It's not _that_ vital - but Melo is not that good.

Sure, but if it didn't NEED to happen right away, why pay somebody else just to take him off our hands?

It's hard for me to believe that Danny has so little confidence in his ability to make a deal when he has to that he jumped at the very first opportunity he found to unload Melo just to sneak barely under the luxury tax.

Bird in the hand.

Maybe there's only a 33% chance that Danny couldn't make a salary-clearing deal later.  However, if that scenario came to fruition, it would have hurt a lot more than the $1.66 million.

Yes, I understand your point.

I just have a hard time believing Danny would think it likely that he couldn't make a deal when necessary.  The only conclusion I can come to that makes sense is that he truly valued Melo so little that any sort of risk associated with keeping him was not worth it.

So the trade is an acknowledgement that Melo was a bad pick and the team decided to cut their losses as soon as it became at all useful to do so. 

Or, perhaps, having a project with limited upside like Melo made sense when the team was competitive, but now that we're rebuilding and we're developing many more younger players, expending resources to develop Melo into a passable 2nd or 3rd string center no longer made sense.

[fairweatherfan]

You have to take into consideration how much Melo was costing the team in folding chairs.

[Eja117]

So, who was the worst draft pick of the Ainge era?  Banks, Giddens, Johnson, or Melo?

Melo probably ranks last, just because there doesn't appear to have been any overwhelming talent taken behind him.  Still, eating not only his full salary but another $350k is a tough pill to swallow.

Maybe Melo is just kind of the most embarrassing of the picks.

[Boris Badenov]

Yep.  It truly was a complete dump of Melo.  Still a head scratcher to me.

  I don't know their exact salary specifics this year, but getting under the luxury threshold this year will mean a pretty big savings going forward.

Yes, I understand that, and this has been discussed ad nauseum elsewhere, but I just can't imagine that it was vital to make the salary dump NOW.

It's not _that_ vital - but Melo is not that good.

Sure, but if it didn't NEED to happen right away, why pay somebody else just to take him off our hands?

It's hard for me to believe that Danny has so little confidence in his ability to make a deal when he has to that he jumped at the very first opportunity he found to unload Melo just to sneak barely under the luxury tax.

Bird in the hand.

Maybe there's only a 33% chance that Danny couldn't make a salary-clearing deal later.  However, if that scenario came to fruition, it would have hurt a lot more than the $1.66 million.

Yes, I understand your point.

I just have a hard time believing Danny would think it likely that he couldn't make a deal when necessary.

Actually I think it's precisely because Danny is looking ahead that he made the deal now.

Supppose Danny held off now and hit the deadline in the same position he was in before the Fab trade, or even worse with another deal in place - but in which he wants to include Fab to avoid paying the tax.

At that point what could an opposing GM extract from us for taking Fab? An extra 2nd round pick? Two future picks? If avoiding the tax saves us money and/or allows us to use the full MLE next year, Danny might be willing to give up a lot and the other GM would know this.

I think Danny made the deal now recognizing that our bargaining power would be substantially lower at the deadline, and we might have to give up even more.

[slamtheking]

So, who was the worst draft pick of the Ainge era?  Banks, Giddens, Johnson, or Melo?

Melo probably ranks last, just because there doesn't appear to have been any overwhelming talent taken behind him.  Still, eating not only his full salary but another $350k is a tough pill to swallow.

Maybe Melo is just kind of the most embarrassing of the picks.

Got to go with Giddens.  Was picked much higher than he was projected.  A number of players taken after him have really panned out as good/solid players in the league.  To me this one's fairly easy.

Banks didn't live up to expectations but was used in a trade to bring in other talent.  He also hung in the league for a while so it's not like other GMs didn't see something there. 

JJJ was a disappointment but to me the biggest issue with taking him was that the C's had their eye on Parsons who's looked pretty good in Houston.  I don't fault them for taking JJJ over Brooks because JJJ looked like he had all the tools but taking him over Parsons was not too bright.  The fact JJJ was dropped from the league before his rookie deal was up speaks volumes.

Melo was just a boneheaded pick.  the majority of people here and in draft boards were saying he's a project at best and a wasted pick at worst.  well, he's confirmed as a wasted pick.  Those picked after him might not be setting the world on fire but a fair number are looking like better players.  I'd still take PJIII, Moultrie, Ezeli or even Kyle O'Quinn over Melo without thinking twice (and that's just the ones off the top of my head)

[Interceptor]

At least Ainge partially extricated himself from the JJJ fiasco, by using his salary to get Courtney Lee in that S&T. And now, hilariously, we get Marshon back.

Still burning about Parsons, though. Plays the same position as Green, but good lord could we use a player like him.

[mgent]

So, who was the worst draft pick of the Ainge era?  Banks, Giddens, Johnson, or Melo?

Melo probably ranks last, just because there doesn't appear to have been any overwhelming talent taken behind him.  Still, eating not only his full salary but another $350k is a tough pill to swallow.

From that lot, clearly Banks. He was picked in the lottery and ended up being pretty much nothing.

Although I'd rank the pick that we didn't make (trading out of the 2006 draft lottery to get Telfair) as possibly worse.

To be fair, at least Banks played 350 games and 5000+ minutes in the NBA (along with 173 playoff minutes).

Melo, Johnson, and Giddens look to all be under 50 games of complete garbage minutes for their NBA careers.  Is that not a much bigger difference than the 8 picks between 13th and 22nd?

And I don't think those are the only decent draft picks Danny has made that have been wiped out of the league almost immediately (Pruitt, Gerald Green)

[Tnerb02]

The luxury tax this year is $71,748,000. Our projected payroll with Fab Melo would have been $72,531,029 (according to shamsports). That would make us $783,029 over the tax which would have resulted in a tax bill of $1,174,543.

Now we do not have to pay any tax so it still saves us money. Also we are now eligible to receive money from tax paying teams which would mean this trade would net the Celtics even more cash.

[Greenback]

These guys were all 1st rounders from the Ainge era and they were all clunkers:

Fab Melo
JR Giddens
JuJaun Johnson
Troy Bell
Dahntay Jones
Gerald Green

[RJ87]

These guys were all 1st rounders from the Ainge era and they were all clunkers:

Fab Melo
JR Giddens
JuJaun Johnson
Troy Bell
Dahntay Jones
Gerald Green

Rajon Rondo
Avery Bradley
Delonte West
Jared Sullinger
Tony Allen
Al Jefferson
Kendrick Perkins

No GM has a perfect track record for the draft. But Danny has found some great value mid-late first round, as well as the second round (Glen Davis and Leon Powe).

[Roy H.]

It doesn't seem fair to hold Jones and Bell against Danny. That was a prearranged deal for Banks and Perk.

[Q_FBE]

This type of deal leads me to believe that we could not trade one or more of Wallace, Lee, Humphries or Bass to get out of paying the luxery tax (and worse yet have the repeater tax burden hanging over heads for the next two years). Donte Green's salary is not guarenteed so probably we cut him and keep a roster spot open.

Danny will have more tools to work with next summer and the summer after that to reshape the roster.

I like the approach Danny is taking overall.