By far the biggest story line of the past few days is the possible implosion of this Celtics team.
But I just don't see it. I don't see how it makes sense.
Next season, the C's have Rondo, Baby, Perk, Sheed, KG and Pierce under contract (if Pierce doesn't opt out) for a total of $63.3 million.
Let's get the Pierce "opt out" thing out of our heads. While it's possible the Celtics can pull some salary cap trickery, that's $21 million there for Pierce. I admit I'm no expert on the cap tricks that can be played… but I don't see many players passing up that kind of cash.
Even if Sheed retires, that brings the C's down to right around the top of the salary cap… not nearly enough to make any significant additions.
If you can convince Doc Rivers to give it one more go, then it makes the most sense to give this team one last roll of the dice.
Use your Bird rights to re-sign Ray to a palatable deal… bring Tony Allen back since he's finally accepted who he is… and even give Nate Robinson a chance to be part of this for a full season. Use your mid-level to go after a guy like (here we go) Matt Barnes or Brendan Haywood (or both, if you can split the money the right way). And then use veteran minimum and rookie scale salaries to fill out the roster.
The Celtics were a couple of rebounds or a couple of missed shots from being champs. To so cavalierly say its time to blow the team up is wrong. You need to bring the right pieces in… and you need to limit the Big 3 more than you have in the past. But with the right mix of complimentary pieces, you can make one more run.
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