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[Roy H.]

Currently, the Celts are capped out for next year, having a $73 million payroll for a salary cap that will be around $60 million.

However, theoretically, the Celtics could clear some decent cap space if KG retired.  (This is more of a thought exercise than anything else, so feel free to nit pick).  Here's how:

(All salary info found here:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AodNvAy3ZYZmdGE3NDBqMElRUXh2REN4Q3pZRG1TU1E&gid=4)

1.  KG formally retires.  His $12.44 million comes off the books.

2.  We waive Pierce.  His salary counts as $5 million against our cap.

3.  We "stretch" Jason Terry's contract over 5 years.  His annual cap hit is $2.14 million.

4.  We "stretch" Brandon Bass contract over 5 years.  His annual cap hit is $2.67 million.

5.  (I'm not sure if this is allowed:) We "stretch" Pierce's contract over 3 years.  His annual cap hit is $1.67 million.

Under those circumstances, we'd have 6 players under contract, totaling approximately $31.4 million.  Add in $6.5 million in dead money for waived players, around $2.5 million for "incomplete roster charges", and say $1.5 million for a draft pick.

Assuming a $60 million cap, that would leave us about $18 million in cap room, and a $2.575 million room exception.  Does anybody think it's worth it?

EDIT:  Also, we could actually clear a small bit more, if we decided to waive Terry or Green.  We'd be limited to carrying around $9 million in dead money.

[Who]

Just trade Pierce and Terry. No need to waive or stretch their contracts.

People will offer expiring contracts for those two. No need to take a cap hit at all.

[LooseCannon]

Probably not worth it unless you get a Top 10 NBA player.  I'd rather imagine a scenario where Pierce retires at the end of his current contract and Garnett decides to hang it up a year early at the same time.  At that point, Terry and Bass become expiring contracts with trade value.

I think the team should value being flexible until it determines how well Rondo will recover from his injury.

[slamtheking]

I don't think it's worth it from the standpoint of who's left to draw in a FA worth that kind of $?  no KG, no PP and Rondo's out for decent portion of the season with no guarantee he'd ever return to the level of player he was pre-injury.

[Chris]

Currently, the Celts are capped out for next year, having a $73 million payroll for a salary cap that will be around $60 million.

However, theoretically, the Celtics could clear some decent cap space if KG retired.  (This is more of a thought exercise than anything else, so feel free to nit pick).  Here's how:

(All salary info found here:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AodNvAy3ZYZmdGE3NDBqMElRUXh2REN4Q3pZRG1TU1E&gid=4)

1.  KG formally retires.  His $12.44 million comes off the books.

2.  We waive Pierce.  His salary counts as $5 million against our cap.

3.  We "stretch" Jason Terry's contract over 5 years.  His annual cap hit is $2.14 million.

4.  We "stretch" Brandon Bass contract over 5 years.  His annual cap hit is $2.67 million.

5.  (I'm not sure if this is allowed:) We "stretch" Pierce's contract over 3 years.  His annual cap hit is $1.67 million.

Under those circumstances, we'd have 6 players under contract, totaling approximately $31.4 million.  Add in $6.5 million in dead money for waived players, around $2.5 million for "incomplete roster charges", and say $1.5 million for a draft pick.

Assuming a $60 million cap, that would leave us about $18 million in cap room, and a $2.575 million room exception.  Does anybody think it's worth it?

EDIT:  Also, we could actually clear a small bit more, if we decided to waive Terry or Green.  We'd be limited to carrying around $9 million in dead money.

Can't we use the Amnesty on Pierce?

[PhoSita]

Just trade Pierce and Terry. No need to waive or stretch their contracts.

People will offer expiring contracts for those two. No need to take a cap hit at all.

Agree -- we could have even more space if we make every effort to trade Terry, Bass, and perhaps Pierce for expiring contracts.

The former two have decreased in value a lot this season, but I think other teams could still value them as supporting players if they don't have to give up much.

[rondohondo]

I don't think it's worth it from the standpoint of who's left to draw in a FA worth that kind of $?  no KG, no PP and Rondo's out for decent portion of the season with no guarantee he'd ever return to the level of player he was pre-injury.

You can also take on a max salary player in a trade . We wouldn't have to match salary , meaning we could do a trade like

Minny sends: Kevin Love
Boston sends: Bradley and/or sully , plus picks

Makes it much easier to make trades

[Jeff]

Roy, when you get the kinks worked out on this, I'd love it if you did a front page post on it.

cheers

[Kane3387]

We could use Amnesty on Pierce. But if you go that route then you should just trade him. Or at least work out a buyout, so he can choose his destination.

Question:

How many times can you "stretch" a contract?

[Who]

Question:

How many times can you "stretch" a contract?

Not 100% certain ... but I think it is a percentage of your cap. You can do it as many times as you want up to that percentage. And I think the percentage was 25% of your cap.

So 25% of $58 million would be $14.5 million.

[Roy H.]

Probably not worth it unless you get a Top 10 NBA player.  I'd rather imagine a scenario where Pierce retires at the end of his current contract and Garnett decides to hang it up a year early at the same time.  At that point, Terry and Bass become expiring contracts with trade value.

I think the team should value being flexible until it determines how well Rondo will recover from his injury.

I agree that this is the way to go.  In the event that KG didn't retire, he'd have an attractive contract to move, if that's the direction we went.

[Roy H.]

Question:

How many times can you "stretch" a contract?

Not 100% certain ... but I think it is a percentage of your cap. You can do it as many times as you want up to that percentage. And I think the percentage was 25% of your cap.

So 25% of $58 million would be $14.5 million.

It's 15%.

[rondohondo]

I don't see any reason why Danny wouldn't do this if he doesn't trade them first . We are 3 years past the 3 year window we had with KG and PP leading us. We have to move on at some point .

[Roy H.]

Can't we use the Amnesty on Pierce?

We can.  However, that has to be used after July 1, after which point Pierce's contract will be fully guaranteed.  Under that scenario, it would cost ownership $15.3 million, rather than $5 million.  Is that extra $10 million worth $1.67 million in cap space?

[PhoSita]

Probably not worth it unless you get a Top 10 NBA player.  I'd rather imagine a scenario where Pierce retires at the end of his current contract and Garnett decides to hang it up a year early at the same time.  At that point, Terry and Bass become expiring contracts with trade value.

I think the team should value being flexible until it determines how well Rondo will recover from his injury.

I don't like the idea of hanging onto Terry and Bass until the last year of their contracts.  Terry's value, at least, is not likely to increase over time.  Bass's value may or may not increase.  Depends on whether he gets back to where he was last season or not. 

Anyway, those guys are vets who will block young players from getting minutes.  If it's at all possible to trade them for expirings or younger players on shorter contracts before the trade deadline or this summer, the team should do it, in my opinion.