Can Danny?

With the NBA salary cap moving up only 3.72 million dollar, the Celtics are currently around 3 million dollars below the NBA luxury tax for 2007-8.  If we dump Allan Ray, we'll open up a little more room but not all that much since he only makes around 600K.  So for this year, it looks like we might be able to add someone for a couple million, or we have to make a trade.

Unfortunately, adding players in a trade is a tough proposition. Looking ahead one year, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Al Jefferson (if re-signed to a contract starting at 10 million dollars) will take up 45 million of the estimated 70 million luxury tax in 2008.  This leaves 25 million dollars remaining on the cap so for any contracts that the Celtics add this year.  Unfortunately, that 25 million doesn't take into account Kendrick Perkins (4 million), Brian Scalabrine (3 million), Rajon Rondo (1.6) and Gerald Green (2.2).  So while many people think that the Celtics have Theo Ratliff's contract to use as a trade chip, what they have to consider is that if we deal Ratliff and don't manage to move any of our other contracts, we'll only have 5 million dollars left to fill out the rest of the lineup. 

And dumping Perkins and Scalabrine probably won't be easy. There aren't many teams looking to acquire questionable contracts for a guy like Veal or an injury prone big man who's still living on potential like Perkins, and there are probably no teams looking to give up expiring contract (let alone actual talent) for them.  The obvious solution to that would be to combine some of our young talent to sweeten the deal but most of our young talent isn't worth all that much. A Veal and Gerald Green package, for instance, could only bring in a guy worth around 5 million and Green's trade value is questionable at best (and not getting any better with his lackluster summer league performance).  Who are we really going to get for that?  A sign-and-trade for Micheal Pietrus? Another issue is that the Celtics bench is already weak so they can't really afford to make any three-for-one type deals. 

I have defended the Ray Allen trade, it definitely is not without its issues.  The Celtics now have a core of Pierce, Allen, and Jefferson, none of whom were healthy last season, and there contracts take up so much space that it will be difficult to maintain a solid bench to either limit their minutes or fill in if one of them should go down for any span of games.  

The Boston Celtics starting lineup is looking better today than it did this time last year but the question now is whether Danny Ainge can acquire the missing pieces despite the financial constraints his acquisitions have put him in.