Celtics' trade problems

[nickagneta]

As the panic that has gripped Celtic Nation grows because our beloved team has now officially looked mortal and had their winning percentage fall to an unfathomably low level of 85%, we have all, of course, decided to put on our Danny Ainge hats and are attempting to find the best way to make a trade that will bolster this team's one weakness, their bench.

But, as they say at NASA, "Houston, we have a problem!" And the problem isn't necessarily one that you would think it is. The problem isn't even with this team. The problem lies with who the other teams want to trade. Jeff, being our fearless leader here at Celticsblog and the very diligent and thorough trade-rumor-seeker-outer that he is posted a fanshot on some of the names that are rumored to be available around the league. Brad Miller, Corey Maggette, Raymond Felton, Samuel Dalembert, Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes to name a few. Well, what do all these players have in common? That's easy, contracts that the Celtics really can't afford to trade for, with the possible exception of Felton who only makes about $5 million a year for the next two years. But even with Felton the team that ends up trading for him is probably going to have to eat Adam Morrison's contract or give up a low priced quality player in return.

And therein lies the rub. The Celtics don't have the dollar values on contracts to be able to trade for the players that are available. Most of the aforementioned players make close to $10 million a year and due to the restrictions that the Celtics are held to because they are over the cap, the Celtics really don't hold assets that they can trade that will land them a difference making player. Here are the Celtics player's that would be available to be moved and their salaries:

Scalabrine - 2008: $3.2 million, 2009: $3.4 million
T Allen - 2008: $2.5 million, 2009: $2.5 million
Davis - 2008: $711,000
Powe - 2008: $797,000
House - 2008: $2.6 million, 2009: $2.8 million 2009 being a player option and 2008 a Bird Rights restriction so the player has to approve any trade.
Pruitt: 2008: $711,000, 2009: $729,000
Giddens: 2008: $957,000, 2009: $1 million, Team Options for: 2010: $1.1 million, 2011: $1.9 million
Walker: 2008: $542,000 2009: $736,000 Team optios for the next 2 years at less than $1 million a year each year
O'Bryant: his contract has been reported as different amounts depending upon who is doing the reporting but it's somewhere between $750,000 and $1.5 million for each of the next two years with 2009 possibbly being a team option.


I didn't include any of the starters as I feel Danny isn't going to be dumb enough to do that and I didn't include Sam Cassell because I feel that he will probably just retire if the Celtics traded him because he just doesn't want to be going anywhere else. So, you can see where the problem lies. If the Celtics have interest in any of the better, higher priced talent on the market, they just don't have the contract values to make a trade.

Say, for instance, the Celtics had interest in Samuel Dalembert. The Celtics would need to send about $10 million in yearly salaries back. Taking just the highest salaries, regardless of who the Sixers would want, the Celtics would need to send Scal, Tony Allen, House, Giddens and O'Bryant just to get the one player, Dalembert, in return. There just is not a team out there that can or would be willing to do a 5 on 1 trade because most of those players or some of their own would need to be released out right or bought out first. And this doesn't even take into account whether or not the five players above would even generate enough interest around league to perpetrate such a trade. And then you have to consider what has really been accoplished. The Celtics would need to send virtually their entire bench away in a trade just to be able to get one player in return. Such a move would only cripple this team unless Danny has the ability to sign some other vets right away.

So what is most likely is that if Danny does do a trade it is probably going to be for a very minor to mid level talent that has an affordable contract. Most of those guys are probably going to have some baggage attached. Or Danny is going to need to get creative with a multiple team trade. Or Danny is just going to do what he did last year and sign an aging veteran that is not currently attached to a team who wants one last shot at a ring or a veteran that gets bought out of their contract.

[housecall]

First off TP for posting this vital info...next thing is i was recently watching "Celtics Now" with M.Holly interviewing Danny to see if i could get any insight on what he is planning down the road...Holly did ask Danny about the posibilities of adding some new players before playoff time and when was he planning to make a move if he was going after a player(s). Danny said"including himself,a few other scouts for the Celtics are flying all over the "world"looking for  possible players .He brought up the overseas search more than usual in his conversation with Holly...after listening to him,i started to wonder if there were someone in particular they were looking at?My questions for you Nickganeta are,what are the possibilites of bringing a player from overseas this time of the season,and second,do you know of any players overseas they might have their focus on at this time?
  One other thing i picked up on in their conversation was,Danny said the trading or adding player negotiations usually don't get real serious quote:(heat up)until the month of Feb..

[Vermont Green]

Yeah, there is an overseas player that could help us, Bonzi Wells.  Baggage? Yes, but a proven vet who could help the second unit.  I have no idea his contract situation but I would think he has a contract he could get out of for the NBA.  I know this Chinese league is probably below even NCAA in talent but averaging 48 points!

Basketball bad boy Wells notches 52 in China win
3 days ago

BEIJING (AFP) — Former NBA bad boy Bonzi Wells scored 52 points and hauled in 14 rebounds as he continued his spectacular start in Chinese basketball's top league, leading Shanxi Zhongyu to an overtime victory.

Wells scored 13 of his team's 18 overtime points to seal victory over Fujian SBS on Sunday night, wowing a sell-out crowd of 6,000 in his home debut in the Chinese Basketball Association and fourth game overall.

Since arriving this month, Wells has averaged a league-leading 46.8 points a game and the Chinese press has hailed him as a "scoring machine" and the best former NBA player to grace the CBA.

"The coach is giving me a lot of space, in the NBA I was never able to play so freely," Wells, 32, said after Sunday's game through a Chinese translator.

"Since college until now, it has been a long time since I've been able to play this freely."

Shanxi is currently in 10th place in the CBA at 10-9, having won two and lost two with Wells in the line-up.

For much of Sunday, Shanxi's former NBA coach Bob Weiss had Wells playing at point guard and not his usual shooting guard or forward position, resulting in the 10-year NBA veteran also dishing out five assists on the night.

Wells averaged 12.5 points and 4.6 rebounds over his NBA tenure with Portland, Memphis, Sacramento and Houston, a career often interrupted by troublesome on-court behaviour and various run-ins with coaches.

[JBcat]

TP for the good info.
It's a catch 22 situation.   Someone like a Brad Miller could really help our team but does the Celtics FO really want to be saddled with a contract like that for the next few years that could hamper offseason moves and really put them deep in the luxury tax threshold?   Probably not.  I think we need to continue to be patient for another month and see what heats up as we get close to the trade deadline and potential buyouts from guys in the last year of their contracts.

[CoachBo]

Josh Childress?

[guava_wrench]

Josh Childress?

Atlanta still has Childress rights.

[winsomme]

i agree, nick, that the lack of big expiring contracts is a hinderance to making a big splashy move....TP.

i think we can see now the real value of expiring contracts because it makes it very hard to take on the players that teams are often looking to move. and it's a big reason CLE could be a major player with some of these guys if they choose to (with Wally's expiring contract).

one point i would disagree on, and i had forgotten about it until you brought it up, is Sam Cassell.

he actually is perfect trade bait because he has a relatively big one year salary and would most likely be released by the team we trade him to (whatever the package may be) and come right back here (after the waiting period, of course).

that's an extra 1.3 mil that we could add on to a trade to match a salary where we would be losing absolutely nothing.

[cordobes]

Besides the salaries, our bench players don't have much value basketball-wise. Also, 5-for-1, 3-for-1 deals don't make a lot of sense, because there are not a lot of open spots in NBA rosters these days, so in most cases people are basically asking the other team to buy out a few guys in order to trade for one of our players.

The most acquirable over-seas player who's good enough to be used is probably Delfino. Childress has been a flop, so I wouldn't rule out the chance of Olympiacos agreeing to a buy-out, but Atlanta would match any offer for him.

[Andy Jick]

danny is out of assets...any of you guys thinking a GM is jumping up and down at the possibility of taking tony (not too bright), scal (not any good), or BBD (not much potential) off our hands is seeing this team through green goggles.

this is the result of having 3 superstars on our roster...something has to be sacrificed and it's our bench.

[nickagneta]

You know I didn't even think about the overseas player factor but a couple of things will hinder that. First, the players rights can't be owned by anyone on this side of the pond or else we would have to make a big enough proposal that that team wouldn't match because that team still owns him from a restricted FA perspective or we couldn't offer him anything because another team owns his rights from drafting him and he's never played over here. So that leaves player that were only UFA's and then signed overseas that would be willing to take short money because all Danny has to offer is about $3 million a year that's left on the MLE.

Others make other good points here. Yeah, the Celtics bench is limited with little desirable talent but I don't think it will necessarily stay that way or had to be that way. First, if the Big Three stay together for a few more years, Danny could easily use the MLE each year to lock up a talented bench player each year. Second, one of the youngsters could progress and develop into a heck of a role player and become important. So although we have three superstars on the payroll and we traded just about all our decent players away to attain those superstars, I don't agree that it's a given that the bench has to stay thin talent wise that is. For instance, Danny could very well have changed his off season focus and gone after Roger Mason and Matt Barnes. Now this is a hypothetical so don't kill me with the realities of those players not wanting to come here and all that. I'm just saying if Danny had used the MLE on Mason, the LLE on Barnes, and say a vet minimum big not named POB the bench would have been much better and we could have had those players even though we have the Big Three.

I have a question regarding Cassell's salary and trade-ability. If we trade him does his entire $1.3 million get counted towards the numbers used in tallying up salaries or does his subsidized amount get used because that number is closer to $700,000-$800,000? Also, if he were to get traded and threatened to retire rather than reporting to the traded team, does the trade go through anyway? I didn't think it would and that's why I say Cassell would be bad trade fodder because he may already stipulated to the front office that he would retire rather than being traded in his last season as a pro.