The salary cap is pretty meaningless

[walker834]

In the sense people think you have to fill up your salary cap to win and pay max players.  I get some players are worth that and most teams that win usually are over or around the cap. But I don't like facts like that because people don't really take into account why that is or that you don't necessarily have to do that.

The way our team is constructed we have a lot of young big men that are on rookie deals.  Signing a guy like Horford to 25 mil to have him play 35 minutes a game here isn't necessarily winning us anything.

If we can build a better team for cheaper it doesn't mean we are cheap.  Just smart.   I'm not saying we should sign Sully over Horford.  But in that regard it makes sense to sign a guy like Sully over Horford if he is going to be a good soldier.

Horford and Sully are similar in that regard where neither is that high energy a player but can give you scoring and rebounding in a variety of ways. 

David Lee had a big contract. Was a vet. Fans predicted he was our best player. I never bought this. He came here and he really didn't fit.

[walker834]

The cap basically has gone up to 90 mil for teams that like to spend a lot of money or have the freedom to do that.    Teams can basically sign Horford and have him sit on the bench and rot away.   We could do that.  But I'd still rather guys that actually fit in ways.

I don't like that overly though. It's just giving stupid teams the ability to be stupid and overpay players and run their teams irresponsibly.

There basically is no cap anymore. Teams can sign whoever they want or build another way.

It gives an advantage to teams that like to run their teams irresponsibly.  But even that has it's downfalls. You then have players on big contracts rotting away on the bench and and not really being part of the team.

David Lee was this. He wanted to play and was not happy here. Ultimately we need to give what we feel are the best most energetic hard working players a shot.

We need to win from a basketball perspective.  Not a money perspective.

[walker834]

The bad news is in that regard teams are going to overbid for free agents.  Overpay mediocre players and drive the price of players up. 

The good news is the league is still set up where there are going to be a lot of very good players on cheap contracts and rookie deals.  We also have the ability to build our team any way we want and pay to keep players or replace them for other better talent that fits us.

Teams can go out there and pay guys 4 max contracts on their team but every team is going to have cap space and there are only so many players worth that.

The salary cap is relative in that regard.  There are going to be a lot of underpaid and overpaid players in the league though. The cap goes up teams just start paying more.

But from a basketball sense we can still build this any way we want. There is no urgency that way.

If teams were smart they'd more treat the cap that way and just build their teams from a basketball perspective like the cap isn't even there.

Players aren't necessarily a bargain or overpaid.  With the cap as high as it is, it's more just how you are trying to build your team.

Unfortunately a lot of players and teams won't treat it that way and there will be drama and players that think they deserve whatever because they are paid whatever but the celtics just need to protect themselves from that stuff.

[greece66]

Overpaying mediocre and/or declining players is a big no-no for the team at this stage IMO.

We will need some veteran contracts to help us navigate through the regular season but I hope they are either cheap or short (or both  )

[walker834]

That's what I mean though.  With the cap as high as it is it's to our advantage because there isn't a huge value bump in a guy that is underpaid or overpaid with the cap the way it is.  We can get those underpaid guys.

 A lot of teams are going to see Al Horford and be like oh he's worth more because he's paid 25 mil where we have brown who's paid 2 and a better player.    More motivated etc.  Plus we can pay to keep him and pick and choose who we do that with.

Not as much a distraction either.

[walker834]

 I don't want to pay anyone 25 million and having him playing 35 minutes a game unless he is the absolute right player to do that. Why have a guy cutting into other players minutes who give us energy unless he's that good.

Having David Lee here was pointless except it was just part of the process of unloading salary that was due to the big 3.  We traded KG and Paul remaining years and had to take on Wallace.  We got LEe and were able to unload him.

People forget that or completely miss that it took time to disassemble that and trade Rondo.  We now have flexibility and are back at being efficient. These are the picks we got from doing that. 

Why are we now going to overpay for someone unless it's the right guy?

We had a lot of dead weight taking up roster space for a couple years there. Those contracts are difficult to unload and take up roster space.

It was a process and Ainge handled it but I never was down on Lee or Wallace either because I understood it was just a contract we had to unload from moving on from the big 3.  Getting Wallace and then Lee served a purpose and we were able to pick up draft picks in the process. Lee wanted to play and still had some value that way is why we traded for him and we were able to unload him for that reason.

Dallas bit on Lee and then rubbed it in our face like they got the better deal.