2009 Free Agents

[Cman]

Partial List:

PG
Mike Bibby, Jason Kidd, AI, Brevin Knight, Tyronn Lue, Andre Miller, Ronnie Price

SG/SF
Matt Barnes, Grant Hill, Donyell Marshall, Ben Gordon, Wally Z, Dahntay Jones, Ron Artest, Walter Hermann, Anthony Parker, Shawn Marion, Ime Udoka, Trevor Ariza, Desmond Mason, Mo Pete, Darius Miles, Stromile Swift

PF/C
Lamar Odom, Drew Gooden, Joe Smith , McDyess, Rasheed Wallace, Chris Andersen, Zaza Pachulia, Rasho Nesterovic, Jarron Collins, Jason Collins, Melvin Ely, Chris Wilcox, Theo Ratliff, Marcin Gortat

Mascot
Will Solomon, Gerald Green

[BigAlTheFuture]

I think we should give Will Solomon his own category.


Hall Of Famers
Will Solomon

[Ohio Celtics Fan]

I'll take Jason Kidd, Grant Hill, Wally Z, and Rasheed please.

[cdif911]

I'll take Jason Kidd, Grant Hill, Wally Z, and Rasheed please.

Sounds like the 95 all-star team

[ManUp]

I'd go for Sheed and Hill.

Assuming we resign Baby our bench would be set, IMO.

[bruinsandceltics]

I really wish we could some how get Delonte West back. He would be the perfect bench guy.

[nickagneta]

In a dream world where money didn't matter Joe Smith and Trevor Ariza are the guys I would target for long term and Pachulia, Nesterovic, Sheed, Hill, Barnes and Hermann for short term.

My guess is they go for a long term resign of Baby, offering Leon a qualifying offer, offering Marbury a two year deal, and targeting a combo of two of three of the following with the MLE and LLE: Hill, Zaza, and Nestorovic.

[RebusRankin]

Hill, Jones, Zaza and Rasho would be decent targets.

[KCattheStripe]

In a dream world where money didn't matter Joe Smith and Trevor Ariza are the guys I would target for long term and Pachulia, Nesterovic, Sheed, Hill, Barnes and Hermann for short term.

My guess is they go for a long term resign of Baby, offering Leon a qualifying offer, offering Marbury a two year deal, and targeting a combo of two of three of the following with the MLE and LLE: Hill, Zaza, and Nestorovic.

You'd offer Joe Smith long term money?

[silverb]

I'd take Ron Artest. I don't know if he would be ok with coming off the bench but he would be a nice pick up. He's been very good with Houston and his Defense is top notch.
He comes very affordable too.

[LooseCannon]

I hear there is a fine, young man named Mikki Moore who will be a free agent in 2009.

On a more serious note, here is a full lisdt of 2009/2010 free agents, including restricted status.

There are a few strategies the Celtics can pursue, since I think they will still try to construct a cheap bench.  Their preferred strategy is probably to find a veteran willing to take a pay cut in exchange for a ring.  Another strategy is to seek players who are cheap because of injury concerns.  Then, you can take the Patrick O'Bryant approach and hope to coax results out of an underachiever.  Or look for another Marbury-like situation.

If the Celtics can't find some veteran mercenary ring-hunters, should they try to fill out their bench with high-risk, high-reward gambles or should they go for dependable mediocrity which can soak up minutes?  With a team that will be coming off of an injury-plagued season, it is tempting to opt for the latter, but taking the former course is probably more appealing to Ainge, since he has the fall-back of looking for more buy-outs at the trading deadline.

[RebusRankin]

I'd take Ron Artest. I don't know if he would be ok with coming off the bench but he would be a nice pick up. He's been very good with Houston and his Defense is top notch.
He comes very affordable too.

I'd take Artest at MLE $ too. Not sure he would. 6th man of the year.

[Cman]

On a more serious note, here is a full lisdt of 2009/2010 free agents, including restricted status.

Thanks for the link to the official list.
I figured there was one out there, but had fun going through hoopshype's salaries to put the list together. 

I was interested to see a bunch of names I didn't realize were FAs.

I stand by an earlier statement that how the offseason plays out depends on who DA can get for Tony+Scal.  For example, if he can trade them for Barbosa (again, for example), then I don't think it would be unreasonable** for the Cs to split the MLE between Ariza and Rasho (for example).  Assuming BBD and Powe are resigned, the starting 5 would remain the same, and the bench would be Barbosa, House, Ariza, BBD and Rasho.  Pruitt, Giddens, Walker, Powe and someone else round out the rest of the team.  Not bad, IMHO.



 (**I am trying to be realistic here -- yes I would love it if the Cs could use the MLE on Kidd, Artest and Sheed all at once, but... aint gonna happen).

[Roy Hobbs]

There are a ton of decent players who could help us.  I'd like to see either Grant Hill or Anthony Parker at backup SF, and Rasheed or McDyess at backup big.  If we want a "true" center, both Zaza and Rasho have talent.

Unfortunately, there still aren't going to be any good backup PGs in our price range.  Maybe Bobby Jackson?

It will be interesting to see what the team does.  I think we need to bring back BBD (long term) and Powe (qualifying offer), and part ways with Gabe, Starbury, and Moore (and Tony, if we can find a taker).

[Bankshot]

There are a ton of decent players who could help us.  I'd like to see either Grant Hill or Anthony Parker at backup SF, and Rasheed or McDyess at backup big.  If we want a "true" center, both Zaza and Rasho have talent.

Unfortunately, there still aren't going to be any good backup PGs in our price range.  Maybe Bobby Jackson?

It will be interesting to see what the team does.  I think we need to bring back BBD (long term) and Powe (qualifying offer), and part ways with Gabe, Starbury, and Moore (and Tony, if we can find a taker).

Agreed.  I'd go with Zaza or Rasjp.  I think a true center would be a better complement to BBD and Powe.