Free Agent Centers

[Inside-Out]

gotta disagree there - I think locking up Dalembert would be a big mistake - he's like a poor man's skinny Perkins and would kill any chance we'd have at cap room in the next season - if we were going that route, we'd have just kept Perkins

Gotta disagree with this entire line of reasoning, popular though it is around these parts.

There is no ring for "most future cap room." 

The team needs some solid pieces for the long haul, not just stars.


As far as Dalembert as not willing play within a system, I'm fine with Doc earning his massive salary and reputation as a supposed great coach w/personalities, etc.  He's clearly the most talented, experienced, and physically the best of the second-tier bigs available, and I suspect he would be a pretty good complement to BBD (and his T-Rex arms...). 

[cman88]

sure theres no ring for "most future cap room" but, we are possibly looking at a complete overhaul after this season(although a strong possibility that KG/RA sign on for less)

no point in wasting cap space for an "ok center"

id rather take a flyer on 1year deals for Kwame Brown and Pryzbilla and rotate between JO/kwame/pryz to keep them healthy

[Jeff]

Inside-Out, I understand the sentiment, but you don't flush the next 3-4 years to patch a hole with a band-aid guy that will be overpriced the day we sign him (and has been for several years already)

[Chris]

Inside-Out, I understand the sentiment, but you don't flush the next 3-4 years to patch a hole with a band-aid guy that will be overpriced the day we sign him (and has been for several years already)

And a band-aid thats currently on recall because so many other people got infections from using it.

[erisred]

Jeff is right about the tiers.

I'm not enthused about *any* of the choices, but the C's need, at least, two legit centers to play behind JO...and probably to play ahead of him when he gets hurt again.

IMO, we can forget Dalembert as he will command the entire MLE for multiple years. Danny won't do it!

Przybilla doesn't like the C's, he won't sign with Boston. He wants to sign with Portland and he probably will. Besides, he is too snake-bit to take a chance with.

Brown has warts for hands, but he should be available for a price Danny will pay. Kwame rebounds, plays defense, eats space and stays on the court. He just can't catch the ball. He's flawed, as a #1 pick, he's a bust, but as a backup center he's very serviceable! I'd be happy if Danny can add Brown.

I like Jason Collins if we can't get Brown. I don't think he's as good at anything (besides catching the ball) as Brown, but he's not a lot worse than him at anything either. Collins would be a serviceable backup center.

Aaron Gray and Spenser Hawes are good 3rd center targets. I think both are restricted FA's and neither might be obtainable, but they would certainly be worth Danny investigating. 

[Inside-Out]

Inside-Out, I understand the sentiment, but you don't flush the next 3-4 years to patch a hole with a band-aid guy that will be overpriced the day we sign him (and has been for several years already)

Not sure on the flushing by signing a guy to a role-player contract...

...but the idea of "overpriced" raises something that I think I remember Danny talking about early in his GM tenure:

Free agency is for suckers.

Not his exact words, of course, but by definition, it's a bidding war, with the "winner" earning the right to pay more than any other team would.

The version that seems to have been attempted the last few years is to sign ring chasers on a discount, but I don't really believe anyone has taken a real discount since Posey, and then only for one season.


The view from my Lazyboy reclining sofa is that the only real way to build a team without praying - any paying - for a free agent is through the draft by developing guys to play (Rondo) or trade (Big Al et. al.).  

Putting a skeleton team out there, again, in hopes of a future savior via cap space just makes less sense to me than signing a guy like Dalembert and gunning for a title in '12.

Trying to sell a "contender" with one-legged rotation players, guys who get injured in the shower (Przbilla), guys with T-Rex hands (Kwame), old guys with perpetual conditioning issues (Shaq, Sheed), or worse, old guys that were never all that great anyway (Foster) sounds more like a band-aid approach to me.  

And with the consensus growing that the Elder 3 are no longer superstars at both ends, their minutes need to be watched, etc., the rest of the roster will need to be stronger.  No band-aids.

Kwame...Pryzbilla...Foster?...Jason Collins...  

As though a couple of minimum-contract signings will assure our place as contenders.  Folks, there's a reason they're all cheap!

I'm not a real Dalembert fan, but signing a guy for more than a year and paying their actual value seems better than putting out something other than the best team possible now, while we actually have several stars, for the sake of saving precious cap space, seems short-sighted.


The best, ideal, dream option isn't to poach a star in FA, but to trade for talent (as in the JG trade).  Role players and picks for established talent makes sense to me.  

Locking up JG makes sense to me.  (BBD too, if he accepts a backup role).  

Signing a healthy, mobile, experienced Center with plenty of years left in him makes sense to me.

Playing a mix of old vets and young players, like the 1991 team, makes sense to me.

Band-aid minimum contracts or yet more short-term MLE's to past-prime, broken players seems like the way to come up just short of #18, despite having 4 all-stars.  Again.

All Danny has done is sing band-aid bigs since '07:  Pollard, PJ, Sheed, JO, Shaq...and the band-aid guys that didn't actually play, like Murphy.  I'm growing tired of the same problem, year after year.

But that's just one guy's the view from the sofa.

[cman88]

dannys looking at rebuilding through free agency and poaching a star player to put beside rondo/pierce.....as long as Pierce/rondo are on the team, the celtics likely wont be bad enough to poach a big al/jeff green who they can trade for stars..

wasting $$ on samuel dalembert is what bad GM's do to "win now"....when they are looking at rebuilding in a year

[Inside-Out]

dannys looking at rebuilding through free agency and poaching a star player to put beside rondo/pierce.....as long as Pierce/rondo are on the team, the celtics likely wont be bad enough to poach a big al/jeff green who they can trade for stars..

wasting $$ on samuel dalembert is what bad GM's do to "win now"....when they are looking at rebuilding in a year

I think we're talking about a different level of $$ than, say, Miami giving a max deal to a near-elderly Shaq for one title.

Still, one [more] title is worth it, IMO.  As we've seen for the last 3 years, winning is not easy or assured.  As the two decades before that showed, even having a shot isn't assured. 

I say go for it when you can.

Of course, my whole thing is predicated on thinking we need a STARTING center, not a backup.  I have no confidence whatsoever in JO holding up.

[2short]

Free agent centers available don't interest me that much, from the grouping I'd say Kwame Brown.  I think trading is a better way to get someone we can use.  How about sign & trade Davis for Chris Kaman (throw in fodder to make it work, bradley etc).  I seem to remember Kaman was trade bait last year.  He's a starting nba center.
side note: our healthy starters with semih looked darn good
we have a very good aged somewhat brittle guy in jermaine and I LOVE the idea of kg playing center with a 70's running style team so one more true center sized guy

[gpap]

gotta disagree there - I think locking up Dalembert would be a big mistake - he's like a poor man's skinny Perkins and would kill any chance we'd have at cap room in the next season - if we were going that route, we'd have just kept Perkins

Gotta disagree with this entire line of reasoning, popular though it is around these parts.

There is no ring for "most future cap room."  

The team needs some solid pieces for the long haul, not just stars.


As far as Dalembert as not willing play within a system, I'm fine with Doc earning his massive salary and reputation as a supposed great coach w/personalities, etc.  He's clearly the most talented, experienced, and physically the best of the second-tier bigs available, and I suspect he would be a pretty good complement to BBD (and his T-Rex arms...).  

Totally agree. I don't understand where or how this "rebuild" and let's "save cap space" mentality got so big here in Boston, but this is or should be the "city of champions." Every year, it should either be title or bust. Save the rebuilding years for the Sacramentos, Charlottes and Memphis' of the world.

[cman88]

I just dont think that dalembert really offers THAT much more than someone liken kwame brown to the celtics....I mean we won games with Semih erden starting, we won games with Nenad Kristic starting.

we just need some reliable centers who can defend. and then focus on adding a scoring punch to the bench

[LooseCannon]

Signing a role player to a long-term MLE contract is generally one of the worst moves that bad GMs make.

I would prefer to look for minimum salary level centers under age 28 who have a low salary more because they haven't had much opportunity to prove they are worth more than because they have had plenty of opportunity to prove they are with no more than the minimum.

There are guys who are the center equivalents of Stephane Lasme and Tony Gaffney, players who seem to be continually on the cusp of making an NBA roster.  Courtney Sims, Rod Benson, Dwayne Jones.

At least some of those guys can be an adequate back-up/above average third-string center.  That's the sort of player who can be a long-term role player on a string of one-year contracts, starting at the minimum with 8% annual raises.  The Celtics have suffered by not finding someone to fill that role and provide continuity on the bench.  Maybe Ainge has been spending too much in a homer-or-strikeout mentality on draft picks.

I would like to see the Celtics sign two centers, with at least one who fits the description I just gave.  As for the other, well, at this point, I might prefer an established mediocrity who is not a health risk over an injury-prone veteran who is better but likely to miss games.

[BASS_THUMPER]

find a dude like Nate and we would never lose a game

[Jeff]

we don't know what the MLE will be - and if any rumors of the negotiations are true, it will be lower or nothing at all

if Sam D. would take $4M a year, he might be worth that, but somehow I think he'll get a lot more than that and I don't think he's worth it

and if there's no MLE, this is a moot discussion

of course, I suppose there's always a sign and trade option, ...if that's an option in the CBA

dang it, just get a deal done guys! (owners/players)

[2short]

Hey what if (big if) troy murphy returns to his indy days, banging, rebounding and hitting jumps shots?  big if huh