The list is misleadingly deep. Most of those guys have absolutely no reason to change teams and their teams have even less reason not to re-sign them. People want to talk about cap space but that's not really as useful as it used to be because a lot of teams have space now. The rules favor the original team to be able to offer the most money and that's what's going to be happening with a lot of these names except for the top top superstars for whom titles are more important than a little more money at this point of their careers. Obviously those guys are not going to consider Boston anyway.
Also, you can forget about any of the restricted free agents coming off their rookie deal. Drummond, Lillard, Beal, Valanciunas, and Davis are all no-brainer matches for their teams and they won't be unrestricted for quite awhile.
The Celtics are really screwed the next couple years. Their young talent is not good enough to elevate the team to a competitive "up-and-coming" level, even in a historically bad Eastern Conference. Nor is the team so horrible that the chance of getting an amazing pick is very likely. Ainge really needs to 1) find a star in the draft and/or 2) find some totally unexpected hidden gem in free agency.
The delay to the rebuild would be lengthened if another offseason passes and they don't get a star. The team is already full of guys who are OK but nothing special. With no foundational piece on the roster it's really hard for them to have any kind of identity or continuity.
Oh, and they desperately need a big man who can play defense.
cap space isn't just for signing players . We could take on a max player in a trade without the other team having to take back salary, that is very attractive to teams that are selling . We also have a ton of picks and prospects to trade , unlike a lot of teams with cap space .
Danny is in a great position to land a big player at the deadline, draft night and this off-season .
Plus that 12 mil TPE
Right, but I don't see any significant stars becoming available in the near future. Just go over the names that might be available and you'll see that they either aren't terribly exciting or they're bad fits for this team.
The currently composed team is not the right fit for an established guy in his late 20s or early 30s, and the young guys will all be locked up by their original teams due to a rising cap making it a lot easier to re-sign them. That's partly why I said it's not an especially good time to be a team hoping somebody springs free and is available, despite the fact that we should be in a good position to make a deal considering all our draft picks.
I mean, who is really going to be available in the next year or so? Mozgov maybe, since they're committed to Faried and Nurkic (wish we could have drafted him) and McGee is not going to fetch anything. Taj Gibson maybe, since the Bulls will put the full court press on to re-sign Butler. All the Brooklyn players whose diminished production/age/contracts make them risky acquisitions. David Lee due to the Warriors trying to re-sign Green, he's too old to be a fit with us. Kanter could be had for a big offer because Utah is sticking with Favors and Gobert but he doesn't help us at all on defense, though his age is a good fit.
Nicholas Batum might be available if Portland decides the re-signing of Aldridge, Matthews, and Lopez will be too expensive. However, he's expiring in 2016 when practically every team will have cap space. Would Ainge risk acquiring him?
Bledsoe, Dragic, and Thomas is a logjam that Phoenix will eventually have to figure out. However, they all play a position we're supposedly set at, PG. Dragic could play SG but he's scheduled to be a FA and he's not going to want to come here.
Lance Stephenson is a possibility but he can't shoot and that makes him a bad fit for us. I'm not sure how interested Ainge is because I feel like a deal would have happened by now if he was.
New Orleans may decide to shake up their roster but the guy they really don't want, Eric Gordon, is damaged goods. Orlando could lose one of their three FAs in Vucevic, O'Quinn, and Harris. My guess is if one becomes available, it'd be O'Quinn. He has potential but he's not super-exciting.
Cleveland might want to make a change at SG and shop Waiters, but they'd need a SG back. Not sure how desirable Waiters is considering he just made an ESPN list for overrated players. He's basically a one-dimensional scorer and plus he has a bad attitude.
Ilyasova might become expendable in Milwaukee even though the team isn't under any cap space pressure. He's still owed 2 yrs, 16 mil. However, he's injury-prone and we already have two young PFs who need playing time.
Greg Monroe looks destined to re-sign in Detroit now that they've waived Josh Smith. Since they're going to stretch Smith's deal they'll have plenty of space to fit Monroe in.
We could steal KJ McDaniels if we make a massive offer that even Philly will all their cap space decides isn't worth matching. It would definitely have to be a significant overpay though.
That's pretty much it. I looked at all the rosters and cap situations and those are the possibilities I saw. There just aren't a lot of teams under cap space pressure that will be making anybody really great available. There are no James Hardens out there right now, especially with the rising cap making it easy to keep anybody with promise on the roster. With so many teams with cap space, teams like Golden State and Chicago that would have been under cap pressure can now just find willing teams to absorb the contract they don't need anymore (e.g. David Lee and Taj Gibson). So forget about Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler, guys who in the past might have been tough re-signs.
Sure, somebody could become disgruntled and demand a deal (Carmelo if the Knicks strike out in FA, Cousins if he gets tired of losing and throws a fit to end all fits) but those guys are going to veto the crap out of any deal to Boston.
If the Celtics do get involved in a deal, it will most likely be another facilitation job where we help some contender by taking on some unwanted contract in exchange for some asset (most likely a crappy 1st rounder). Sorry to bum everybody out, but that's how I see it going. Don't be surprised if next year JJ Redick, Anderson Varejao, Eric Gordon, or Martell Webster are on the team somehow.
