Do we need to give out a max contract this summer?

[greg683x]

until we land any player of note whether through the draft or trade, we're going to have to overpay someone to come here and hope they can live up to the contract.

The Boston Celtics can land free agents, but not the way this team is built right now.  No player that other teams are willing to pay the max for as well, will be willing to come here.  I really feel we're that undesirable until this franchise has a face. 

[chambers]

How can DeAndre Jordan not be our top choice and an obvious max contract candidate? The guy averages 13.5 rbg and 2.5 bpg with 70% FG (also throw in 1 spg). He is currently 26 years old and is a 7 foot human trampoline with actual basketball skills. So he can't shoot free throws - oh well. If we got him to man the middle, we would no longer need to care how stubby or fat KO and Sully are.

The thing is, if we are going all in on DeAndre, we also need to go for Dragic or Butler. If both are re-signed by their current teams, maybe we could convince PHX to trade us Bledsoe.

I am not crazy about going all-in this offseason - I thought we might be able to maintain our cap flexibility by taking on contracts for next year, but Danny is obviously trying to get all the expirings he can. If we aren't going to use our TPEs, then these guys seem like the ones with most upside.

I like jordan but at this stage of our rebuild i think we'd need some other guaranteed top 20 players before spending that kind of $$$ on a guy who may dog it if hes on a team of rookies.

I wonder what a crew of:

Bledsoe
Start
Butler
Sully
Jordan

With Olynyk and our Picks
Would look like ?
We'd Smart to become a top 10 player which is somewhat plausible I guess.

[byennie]

I don't know about max deals, but maybe we get a couple of guys like Draymond Green and Whiteside for a reasonable amount TBD ($20M annual combined if Whiteside proves himself the rest of the way?) Golden State and Miami are both looking at $70M+ cap numbers and most likely can't ante up.

The core becomes Smart / Young / D Green / Sullinger / Whiteside and we still have Bradley, Olynyk, Zeller, Turner and all of our picks as bargaining chips, plus max money room in 2016. At that point Sully and Zeller become S&T candidates as well.

That lineup would be worth a look... you've got great defense with Smart, Green and a rim protector in Whiteside. Bradley becomes much more valuable off the bench. And you still have room to get a #1 option in F/A or by trade. We'll just say Durant for Sully and a million picks, for dreaming purposes:

Smart / Young / Durant / D Green / Whiteside

[Moranis]

You do what you do every summer, sign players that make sense to sign for the state of the team and contract.  Period. 

That said, I would love a guy like Greg Monroe.  Excellent interior scorer and strong rebounder.  Not the best defender in the world, but ok, and no real deficiencies.  Sign him to play center and I'd be fine with that. 

[colincb]

Interesting topic

UFAs   with age by start of 2015-2016 season. Based on their ranking at Hoopshype

LBJ 30 - change unlikely, franchise face
Love 27
Aldridge 30  - change unlikely, franchise face
MGasol 30 - change unlikely, franchise face
Dragic 29
Rondo 29
Wade 33  - change unlikely, franchise face
Jordon 27
B Lopez 27
Jefferson 30
Ellis 31
Milsap 30
Hibbert 28
Deng 30
Knight 24
Affalo 30
West 35 - Too old
JGreen 29
Asik 29
Matthews    29
TChandler 33  - Too old
RLopez 27
DGreen 28
LWilliams 29
Bass 30

Left out names that seem extremeluy unlikely like Jamal Crawford, Duncan, and Manu.  Tough to see how any of the premier RFAs like Butler and Monroe end up here as their teams will match. For the same reason that this year may be a bargain for teams to sign up teams, it is also less likely to inhibit teams like the Bulls  and Clippers who are conservatve in their spending. Bulls may ditch Gibson, but it's more likely they won't since the cap's going up for 2016-2017.

[Rosco917]

Paul Millsap.  Durable.  Good defender.  Great passer.  Adequate 3 point shooter.  Character guy/hard worker.  Reputedly a great locker room guy.  Career 50% shooter.  5 FT's per game.

4 years / 50M would be a bargain.

I like him too, but he's almost 30 years old. I think if we did sign a player, age should be taken into consideration. Sign good younger talent that fit into to rebuild.

[Fafnir]

Certainly not.

There are some young guys who'd make sense to get on a max deal potentially, but more than likely we sign some players we think are bargains to much smaller deals.

[Donoghus]

I probably wouldn't.

I'm guessing they're going to stick to the smaller end stuff for this summer.  Then start making moves for the '16 trade deadline/summer '16.  I don't see the cap situation getting too bogged down this summer.   The current phase of the rebuild is going to last at least another season.  Then I think you'll see Danny start trying to cash in on some of these so-called "assets".

[Celtics4ever]

I wonder what a crew of:

Bledsoe
Start
Butler
Sully
Jordan

They sure as heck, won't win a title.  They would be decent and make the playoffs though but lose.

I hope DA is more patient than this idea.

[Donoghus]

I think Ainge is smarter than to make the old Knicks type moves of "clearing out cap space and immediately spending it away like a drunken sailor on mediocre talent". 

I can't imagine he's making all these cap clearing moves right now just to go out in the offseason and immediately spend it all away.  I think he's going to try and remain flexible for the time being.

[JBcat]

If we could sign Jordan for close to 15 mil a year and Love to a max that would be a start. Jordan could help hide Love defensively.

I also like Dragic or Reggie Jackson too. Either one would fit our rebuild, and maybe another asset for down the line.

[Evantime34]

Do we need to offer a max contract? Absolutely. I would be upset if they didn't make a run at one of the really good young restricted free agents.

However, I don't think we will be able to sign someone who deserves a max contract so my answer to the thread's question is no we don't need to give one out.

that being said, if we can get a max free agent to sign here. It would be huge. With how many picks we have, we could add a max free agent, trade for another and still have extra picks to build through the draft. Anything we can do to add to the team without giving up assets would be huge.

[RRNoLookPass]

not interested in any upcoming FAs unless their last name is Durant or Aldrige

 

If Ainge sits around passing up every FA besides Durant or Aldridge, he's gonna have one helluva time trying to assemble a team.

why do you need to sign a FA unless it's a real good one??

I trust CBS with developing and Danny with the draft.

Aldridge and Durant are not the only "real good" players in the NBA.

GMs cannot just assemble an entire team through the draft...it doesn't really work that way...not even with the amount of picks Ainge has at his disposal.

You always have to sign some FAs to fill out a roster, even if it's just by signing a few FAs to low level contracts to fill out the bench.

[tarheelsxxiii]

You guys realize that the Celtics are not the only team with knowledge that the cap will be rising? The max guys will not be available to us because we cannot outbid for them over their original teams, most of which are better situations than the Celtics. The best chance for the Celtics is to slightly overpay for a guy nobody is expecting to be good. This means forget about Butler, Green, Monroe, Jordan, Millsap, etc.

Celtics would have a shot at the tier of guys like DeMarre Carroll, KJ McDaniels, Enes Kanter, Reggie Jackson, Kyle O'Quinn types if they give a strong offer over other suitors (including the original team).

Spot on. TP.

[chambers]

I wonder what a crew of:

Bledsoe
Start
Butler
Sully
Jordan

They sure as heck, won't win a title.  They would be decent and make the playoffs though but lose.

I hope DA is more patient than this idea.

Well I think that team is closer than you think. I said at the bottom of that starting 5 that Smart would have be a top 10 player.
  But if you agree with most pundits that Golden State are title favorites then the listed team is pretty nasty in a  7 game series vs GSW and the other starting line ups in the east.

In fact I'd rather sign Hibbert over Jordan and let Sully stretch opposing PF's away from the basket to let Hibbert utilize his post game.