Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
“We don’t feel like we have a championship team [at the moment]; It’s pretty obvious, we lost in the first round,” said Grousbeck. “We have to see who is with us, we have to see what offers there are for people, we’ve got to decide what to do. It might be a multi-year plan. We’ve never intentionally lost games and we don’t intend to trash things now. We’ve got players — [Rajon] Rondo, [Avery] Bradley, [Jeff] Green, [Jared] Sullinger, Brandon Bass, the younger guys are not going to let us win the lottery anyway. That’s a good roster. We hope that Paul [Pierce] and [Kevin Garnett] are back with them and we hope we can reload along the way.
“I don’t know what will happen, I’ll know more about the plan in early July. At the moment, we just have to see what the options are.”
I love Wyc Grousbeck. He’s a hands-off owner but he’s not uninvolved. He hires people for jobs, sets the parameters, and lets them do what they were hired to do. Behind every successful team, generally, is a good ownership group. And the Celtics have been pretty successful over the past five years.
But there’s also a little bit of wordsmanship here from Wyc.
No, he doesn’t know what’s going to happen. But he knows what he’s willing to do and not do. He knows how much he’s willing to spend and he knows what’s more likely to happen.
It’s like when Chuck takes a date out with a strict $25 cap on the night. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen… but after hitting the Wendy’s dollar menu and the second-run theater…. we can pretty much guess what’ll happen (or what won’t, more accurately).
So Wyc’s spending parameters will set the tone for the summer. Do the Celtics want to be a taxpayer for next season’s team? Or do they want to save a few bucks now, and possibly a lot more in the long run when they avoid a repeater tax, by operating under a self-imposed hard cap of whatever the tax line is?
One minor complication, and it’s very minor, is the actual setting of the tax line. That’s done in July. A decision on Paul Pierce has to come by June 30. The tax line last year was $70,307,000. Chances are good that increased revenues over the past season will bump that line up, giving the Celtics a little bit more wiggle room. However, considering the Celtics are currently committed to $76 million, the new line won’t make THAT big of a difference in the decision-making.
But it could influence some decisions. Some things that weren’t palatable before might become so after the line is set. We will have to wait and see how that all plays out. So Wyc isn’t lying when he says he doesn’t know because other people, as in the players the Celtics pursue and teams with which they pursue trades, will have to say yes or no. But I’ll bet if he ventured a guess, he could get pretty close.
One thing that we know isn’t happening is Doc Rivers coaching the Brooklyn Nets. They asked for permission to talk to him, and the Celtics said no.
Reached late Thursday, Ainge refused to comment on the Nets’ interest in Rivers and reiterated that he expects him back on the Celtics’ bench next season.
“Doc has told me he’s coming back,” Ainge said bluntly. “I talk to him almost every day about our team and what we are going to do moving forward.”
I’d like to say that will end speculation about Doc’s future, but it won’t. I know Doc hasn’t come out and said it himself, but the guy is taking a little break from the media and trying to be a normal multi-millionaire enjoying the spoils of being rich person. He was in Boston yesterday… so we’ll hear from him soon enough.
Related links: WEEI: Report, Nets denied permission to speak to Doc | CSNNE: Grousbeck: “multiyear plan for a championship” | Wyc: Indications are Doc’s returning
The rest of the links:
Herald: Sullinger’s a class act | Sullinger lets Rivers & co. breathe | Globe: Sullinger takes steady approach to rehab | CSNNE: Let’s play a game of Celtics “would you rather” | ESPN Boston: Sullinger ready to work his way back | WEEI: Sulllinger: I’ll be 100% by September
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