Celtics interested in Amare

[ssspence]

you wouldn't trade Wallace, Bass and Lee for Amare? Ainge would. No brainer.

Nope. Overall, I have no idea what we'd add with such deal: it's not cap relief, it's not talent, and it's not trade assets.

correct -- except the part about salary relief, of course, which is about 97% of why the Cs would do it in the first place. so you're right -- you have no idea.

the Cs would do this deal in a NY minute.

[Interceptor]

you're kidding yourself if you you think the Cs wouldn't jump at the chance to trade Bass for $16mil in 2015-2016 salary / cap space.

Let's not start off on the wrong foot by telling me what I think.

they could sign Rondo to a max extension AND add a max FA, along with Green, Bradley, Sully, KO, etc and their picks from this year's draft, if they don't flip any of them for more valuable assets first.

Cs could also flip Amare for an asset at next year's trade deadline.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. You need roleplayers for a championship run, and Bass is a really useful one. He is on a fair contract. I am not comfortable relying on free agency for a max level player (look what happened to the Mavs). Sending out Bass for a guy with broken knees is giving up an asset for not much of anything.

[LooseCannon]

you wouldn't trade Wallace, Bass and Lee for Amare? Ainge would. No brainer.

I think the Celtics might be able to get a better return by waiting.

It makes some sense if you think the Celtics won't have a team good enough to try to add an impact player to in the summer of 2014 and if you think the Celtics are better off trying to land an All-Star-caliber player through free agency rather than a trade.  I don't think it makes sense if your plan is to be a big player in the 2014 off-season or if you plan on building the team through trades rather than free agency.

don't follow. combined salaries of wallace, lee and bass are virtually identical to amare's for 2014-2015. wallace and lee are both untradable on their own.

I have a scenario in mind that involves using draft picks to get another team to take on contracts such as Bass and Lee next summer to create cap space to sign a guy for up to $15 million, the way Golden State sent picks to Utah to get them to take Jefferson and Biedrins.  Trading for Amare might kill the flexibility to do a deal like that because of the size of his contract. 

I just don't see his expiring contract as being that valuable of a trade asset because it just doesn't match up with other contracts.  Trading for Amare Stoudemire is basically saying that you are rebuilding and don't care if his contract takes up that much of your cap space because you weren't going to use it anyways.  And if you are taking that sort of long-term strategy, you should be getting picks or young players as part of the deal, and the Knicks just don't have.

I'd prefer to be more flexible.  If the Celtics can be a 30-35 win team and the Nets look old and in decline, a good free agent can think that he can be the difference maker that makes Boston win the division and be in decent position for a playoff push.  If a team goes into blow-it-up mode next summer, the combination of the expiring contract of Bass plus the unguaranteed contract of Bogans can provide the bulk of the trade ballast needed to make a deal for a suprisingly-available All-Star caliber player.

[guava_wrench]

you're kidding yourself if you you think the Cs wouldn't jump at the chance to trade Bass for $16mil in 2015-2016 salary / cap space.

Let's not start off on the wrong foot by telling me what I think.

they could sign Rondo to a max extension AND add a max FA, along with Green, Bradley, Sully, KO, etc and their picks from this year's draft, if they don't flip any of them for more valuable assets first.

Cs could also flip Amare for an asset at next year's trade deadline.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. You need roleplayers for a championship run, and Bass is a really useful one. He is on a fair contract. I am not comfortable relying on free agency for a max level player (look what happened to the Mavs). Sending out Bass for a guy with broken knees is giving up an asset for not much of anything.

I don't see the relevance of a championship run to our current position. And does it makes any sense to talk about being on track to build a championship team because we have our 9th man?

[VitorSullyandKOFan]

C,mon guys if Ainge is offered Amare for those 3 guys he would he take it without blinking it gives us flexibility next year when we could be on the verge of building a competitive team. Lee, Bass and Wallace aren't getting you good assets.

[guava_wrench]

We do not need to jettison salary. We have a ton of picks that are best traded with accompanying salary unless we are far under the salary cap.

Cap relief is not a big deal if we aren't over. Trading for Amare also means finding guys who can actually get on the court.

[Interceptor]

I don't see the relevance of a championship run to our current position. And does it makes any sense to talk about being on track to build a championship team because we have our 9th man?

We're not the Bucks; eventually we need to contend. When that happens, it's better if we already have some of the pieces that we'll need. Bass is not overpaid. His contract is not an albatross. He is not going to prevent this team from putting a contender together.

Bass as 9th man is sort of an insult to his abilities, honestly.

[guava_wrench]

The main reason for taking Amare and ditching salary isn't to be more competitive next year or the year after. It would be to give the minutes to younger guys that we want to develop and who are cheaper. We have a lot of picks coming to us and they will take roster spots.

[Interceptor]

Bass is not preventing our young guys from developing. If anything, he's helping it along. Those picks can easily be used to get rid of contracts if it becomes needed.

[BASS_THUMPER]

Bass is not preventing our young guys from developing. If anything, he's helping it along.

TP!!

[lon3lytoaster]

I'd happily take Shumpert and Amare for Bass, Lee and Wallace. They want to get rid of both, and taking a smaller contract and a decent asset sounds perfect to me.

[VitorSullyandKOFan]

I'd happily take Shumpert and Amare for Bass, Lee and Wallace. They want to get rid of both, and taking a smaller contract and a decent asset sounds perfect to me.

If the Knicks adds Shumpert just to unload Amare he should be fired but I happily take the deal we could trade Bradley for more assets if this happens.

[aporel#18]

The bad part about trading Bass/Lee/Wallace for Amare is that you're giving up decent players for the next Theo Ratliff. It could be a decent piece for a future trade, but I don't think it's fair value.

Now, if you get Shumpert and Hardaway Jr. by including Crawesome and Brooks, that's a good trade for both teams. Knicks get a real bench and the Cs get a young cheap prospect plus some flexibility in 2015 and a decent yet fragile player in Shump.

I'd do it.

[BASS_THUMPER]

dont knock theo

huge in gettin that ring 2008

[lon3lytoaster]

I'd happily take Shumpert and Amare for Bass, Lee and Wallace. They want to get rid of both, and taking a smaller contract and a decent asset sounds perfect to me.

If the Knicks adds Shumpert just to unload Amare he should be fired but I happily take the deal we could trade Bradley for more assets if this happens.

If he fell out of favor with Dolan, they'll almost certainly give him away, I'd think. They're the Knicks, they do dumb things every minute.