Kyle Lowry stays in TOR

[DraftSmart33]

Averaged 12 and 7 on a pretty bad team.  Chalmers was 9 and 4.  There PER was about the same with a slight nod to Chalmers.

[indeedproceed]

Lol Pat Riley is running out of options!

The best option in Pau Gasol is still out there.

I don't think Pau would be their best option. Not if he isn't capable of defending the rim anymore, and he hasn't looked like that guy for a couple years now.

[Who]

That is a fair contract price. Maybe all players are not going to get inflated deals this summer. Maybe Ainge and Co just overpaid.

[Who]

Lol Pat Riley is running out of options!

The best option in Pau Gasol is still out there.

I don't think Pau would be their best option. Not if he isn't capable of defending the rim anymore, and he hasn't looked like that guy for a couple years now.

Pau and Bosh would be a great combination. Both players can go high-low. Give opponents lots of different looks and would be very hard to defend against. Well worth doing.

I thought LAL should have traded Bynum for Bosh back in the day. A Bosh, Pau and Odom big man trio would have been amazing. The versatility. I think LAL would have won another couple of Championships if they made that trade back in 2009/2010.

[saltlover]

Good for the raptors. I want to see them win a championship in my lifetime. Toronto fans have heart.

Props to you man. Glad to see you can appreciate other fan bases. It's nice to see. TP.

I hope this is an indicator to Rondo about what his market value should be apprx.

Rondo's market value will be determined by what other teams are willing to offer him next year, which will in part be determined by how much cap space is floating out there and how many point guards hit the market.  But as a four-time All-Star (so far), Rondo has that star cachet that Lowry lacks, and that in and of itself is valuable to teams.

(In short, someone's offering Rondo the max.  Jury is out as to whether that will be the Celtics.)

[Yoki_IsTheName]

That is a fair contract price. Maybe all players are not going to get inflated deals this summer. Maybe Ainge and Co just overpaid.

Fixed it for you.

They did overpay for Bradley. I mean Lowry coming in this Free Agency had the season worthy of a big payday, worthy of an All Star bid even though he did not make it. And yet he got Ty Lawson money, in Toronto. That's great negotiating on the FO side of things for T-Dot. Absolutely fair price. Compare to our FO here who are just throwing away cap room.

[bhbf08]

That is a fair contract price. Maybe all players are not going to get inflated deals this summer. Maybe Ainge and Co just overpaid.

He didn't overpay.  Avery is worth that on the market.   Would you rather have Meeks?

[Birdman]

Imvery surprise he re-sign with Toronto but im glad he did..i thought Lakers or Heat..i say theres a lot of players doesn't want to play with the big 3 in Miami..alot of egos there

[Yoki_IsTheName]

That is a fair contract price. Maybe all players are not going to get inflated deals this summer. Maybe Ainge and Co just overpaid.

He didn't overpay.  Avery is worth that on the market.   Would you rather have Meeks?

No, I'd rather not sign him if that's he's worth, which he's not.

[bhbf08]

That is a fair contract price. Maybe all players are not going to get inflated deals this summer. Maybe Ainge and Co just overpaid.

Fixed it for you.

They did overpay for Bradley. I mean Lowry coming in this Free Agency had the season worthy of a big payday, worthy of an All Star bid even though he did not make it. And yet he got Ty Lawson money, in Toronto. That's great negotiating on the FO side of things for T-Dot. Absolutely fair price. Compare to our FO here who are just throwing away cap room.

Guys like Courtney Lee get 5 mil deals.  Is Bradley better than Lee?   They didn't overpay for Bradley.  How much did you want him to make? 6 Mil?  And when he's scoring 16+ this year .... you don't think he's worth more than 6 mil?  Plus, we have his bird rights so I know that has affect on cap and what not, so it's not like we had 8 mil to go spend on a FA.  This deal makes plenty of sense. 

[bhbf08]

That is a fair contract price. Maybe all players are not going to get inflated deals this summer. Maybe Ainge and Co just overpaid.

He didn't overpay.  Avery is worth that on the market.   Would you rather have Meeks?

No, I'd rather not sign him if that's he's worth, which he's not.

Ok, great.  So then everyone is crying because we lose Bradley and don't replace him with anyone.  Basically Danny is in a lose/lose with the fans right now. I understand that since we haven't brought in a big name, but you guys are dead wrong on Bradley. 

[Yoki_IsTheName]

That is a fair contract price. Maybe all players are not going to get inflated deals this summer. Maybe Ainge and Co just overpaid.

He didn't overpay.  Avery is worth that on the market.   Would you rather have Meeks?

No, I'd rather not sign him if that's he's worth, which he's not.

Ok, great.  So then everyone is crying because we lose Bradley and don't replace him with anyone.  Basically Danny is in a lose/lose with the fans right now. I understand that since we haven't brought in a big name, but you guys are dead wrong on Bradley.

Except we replaced him with Marcus Smart, it's not a lose/lose if Bradley walks. Danny should have tested the market and let the offers placed before resigning him. If that's really what he commands in the market, let him walk. We Rondo, we drafted Smart and Young, we have Chris Johnson, we have Pressey. We have a load of guards, so that issue is solved. They are not an all NBA Defender, true, but Smart has the potential to be, if not, still a very good defender.

There's no reason to use that much cap room for a guy who did average 15 a game (on 14 shots BTW, so inflated IMO), who plays GREAT defense and shoot well but is completely undersized for his position and cant do anything else.

They should have done what T-Dot did. I'm not going to go quote a source, this is just me, but chances are they are willing to spend a ton of money for Lowry, but they started in what they think is fair value at $12mil and work from there, and it happened. Danny could have started by looking at what he commands, as he can always match if he really wants to keep him anyway. He's got that and replacements, him deciding all of a sudden to use $8 mil of our cap room is a bad move.

That is a fair contract price. Maybe all players are not going to get inflated deals this summer. Maybe Ainge and Co just overpaid.

Fixed it for you.

They did overpay for Bradley. I mean Lowry coming in this Free Agency had the season worthy of a big payday, worthy of an All Star bid even though he did not make it. And yet he got Ty Lawson money, in Toronto. That's great negotiating on the FO side of things for T-Dot. Absolutely fair price. Compare to our FO here who are just throwing away cap room.

Guys like Courtney Lee get 5 mil deals.  Is Bradley better than Lee?   They didn't overpay for Bradley.  How much did you want him to make? 6 Mil?  And when he's scoring 16+ this year .... you don't think he's worth more than 6 mil?  Plus, we have his bird rights so I know that has affect on cap and what not, so it's not like we had 8 mil to go spend on a FA.  This deal makes plenty of sense. 

Lee is better than Bradley and he gets $5 million. Yeah I said it.

He's not a better defender but he can defend. He stays on the floor a lot more than Bradley does, he's not undersized. He can handle the ball BETTER than Avery. He's more efficient (although by a couple of % but still). Their stat line are pretty similar per 36 (with Bradley scoring 4 points more but shooting 5 more times). And Lee gets $5 mil while Avery gets $8 mil. So, who's not overpaid?

BTW, 15 points on 14 shots, that's not a stat line I'm going to use to determine how good a player is.

[gpap]

That is a fair contract price. Maybe all players are not going to get inflated deals this summer. Maybe Ainge and Co just overpaid.

He didn't overpay.  Avery is worth that on the market.   Would you rather have Meeks?

If Bradley is worth his contract on the market then how come another team didn't make him an equal offer? (or any offer at all for that matter)

[saltlover]

That is a fair contract price. Maybe all players are not going to get inflated deals this summer. Maybe Ainge and Co just overpaid.

Fixed it for you.

They did overpay for Bradley. I mean Lowry coming in this Free Agency had the season worthy of a big payday, worthy of an All Star bid even though he did not make it. And yet he got Ty Lawson money, in Toronto. That's great negotiating on the FO side of things for T-Dot. Absolutely fair price. Compare to our FO here who are just throwing away cap room.

Nonsense.  The number of teams that have $12 million to spend and need a point guard is smaller than the number of teams that have $8-9 million to spend and need a guard.  Toronto's competition was Miami, Houston, Lakers, and maybe Dallas.  Miami doesn't have $12 million unless LeBron leaves.  Houston could, but wants to court Carmelo first, and Dallas is also waiting on Melo, while the Lakers are waiting on Melo and James, because they have delusions of grandeur.  Ostensibly Orlando could have used him, but that's clearly not the direction they're going, or Detroit if they could move Jennings.  Other teams with a lot of cap room, like Atlanta, Phoenix, Philly, and Charlotte have less of a need at that position.  Toronto struck now with a good deal before other suitors willing to pay more emerged, and Lowry took it because it was enough, and he knew that it might be the most he'd get.

Compare that with teams who could make use of Bradley and have room:

Atlanta
Charlotte
Toronto (before re-signing Lowry)
Philly
Dallas
Houston if they missed out on a big name
Phoenix probably
Cleveland (if Utah matches Hayward)
Utah (if they don't match Hayward)
Milwaukee
San Antonio (depending on what happened with some of their free agents, particularly Mills)
Miami (depending on a lot of things)

That's a lot of potential teams who may have considered Bradley a fallback option (since he's a restricted free agent).  It does not strain belief to think that one or more teams would have exceeded the agreement that the Celtics and Bradley reached.  That said, it's also possible that no one would have.  The Celtics might have paid more than they ultimately would have, but Bradley also might have received less than he ultimately would have.  They met in the middle and came to a deal quickly, so both sides could get certainty.

The player to watch is Eric Bledsoe.  He wants a big payday, but the teams that can afford to give it to him might not want to.  His best hope for a max is with the Lakers, or maybe Philly.

[footey]

Do the CBA rules still allow poison pill contracts, like Lin's and Asik's, where the last year jacks up, so that it is more difficult to match? If so, that would be a reason we did not want to wait for Avery to sign with another team.