A 100M Celtics payroll would include Ray Allen, Nenad Krstic, and someone whom they brought in for the mini MLE of $3 million. Because he was so popular here, I'll say Stiemsma. We also can offer Pietrus 20% more than the vet min in this scenario, so perhaps he stays. We can keep Joseph and Christmas if you like, but they're cheap, so we might as well pay vets that Doc will actually play. So we should keep Daniels. We'll also assume that Dooling still retires, but that we replace him with a point guard currently available, since now we don't have Terry, and do have Krstic and Stiemsma. I'll pick Jannero Pargo, because the Wizards just signed him and I've always been a fan of the Pargos. But to get to $100 Million, he really just would have had to throw money at the Celtics players he chose to re-sign. If you think Jeff Green is making too much now, just imagine that.
Here's an example of what it might look like:
Pierce -- $16,790,345
Garnett -- $16,000,000
Allen -- $12,500,000
Green -- $12,000,000
Rondo -- $11,000,000
Bass -- $9,000,000
Krstic -- $9,000,000
Stiemsma -- $3,000,000
Dooling -- $2,200,000
Bradley -- $1,630,800
Pietrus -- $1,622,167
Sullinger -- $1,306,920
Melo -- $1,254,720
Wilcox -- $854,389 (salary actually higher, but the league reimburses vet mins)
Daniels -- $854,389 (see Wilcox)
Pargo -- $854,389 (see Wilcox)
Total: $99,868,569
I like our real team more, but this team probably lets KG stay at the 4 for most of the game, and keeps Ray and Pietrus, so I suppose that an argument could be made for this one. Still, it's not appreciably better (arguably worse, because once Dooling retires we really have no one behind Rondo) and costs about $26 million more.
The thing this team could have is a lot of expiring contracts to trade away in the next 2 years, to pair with draft picks and young players to get stars. For instance, suppose Green were getting paid $12 million for this year only (because he's getting paid $12 mil, and thus doesn't need a long-term deal.) Now you can trade him to Atlanta with Sullinger and/or Melo and/or pick(s) to Atlanta for Josh Smith, and Atlanta doesn't have to take on expensive, long-term obligations. (Why, I'm not sure, because we've got KG playing the 4, but you could.) But signing players just to trade them away is a risky endeavor in team-building, and more likely than not to blow up in your face.