How Boston Can Help Houston Land Melo

[nickagneta]

Like the deal for Asik. Would not do the deal for Lin. Let Houston nab someone else to give them that type salary cap relief for Lin or overpay by the C's by nabbing Parsons as well. Otherwise, I would only go after Asik.

[Roy H.]

Like the deal for Asik. Would not do the deal for Lin. Let Houston nab someone else to give them that type salary cap relief for Lin or overpay by the C's by nabbing Parsons as well. Otherwise, I would only go after Asik.

I doubt Asik is going to be available in a straight salary dump without Lin attached, and we definitely wouldn't get him along with other assets.

[BballTim]

Like the deal for Asik. Would not do the deal for Lin. Let Houston nab someone else to give them that type salary cap relief for Lin or overpay by the C's by nabbing Parsons as well. Otherwise, I would only go after Asik.

I doubt Asik is going to be available in a straight salary dump without Lin attached, and we definitely wouldn't get him along with other assets.

  Asik's an interesting case. Does Houston really want to pay him $15M to play 15-20 minutes a game when he's all but guaranteed to leave at the end of the season? Also, how many of the owners that do whatever they have to to avoid paying luxury tax will want to pay Asik $15M for one season? I wouldn't be too surprised if Houston kept him but I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to move him either. I also wonder about how high his trade value would be based on his poison pill contract.

[Roy H.]

Like the deal for Asik. Would not do the deal for Lin. Let Houston nab someone else to give them that type salary cap relief for Lin or overpay by the C's by nabbing Parsons as well. Otherwise, I would only go after Asik.

I doubt Asik is going to be available in a straight salary dump without Lin attached, and we definitely wouldn't get him along with other assets.

  Asik's an interesting case. Does Houston really want to pay him $15M to play 15-20 minutes a game when he's all but guaranteed to leave at the end of the season? Also, how many of the owners that do whatever they have to to avoid paying luxury tax will want to pay Asik $15M for one season? I wouldn't be too surprised if Houston kept him but I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to move him either. I also wonder about how high his trade value would be based on his poison pill contract.

I think they'll move him.  I just anticipate that either 1) he'll be attached to Lin, or 2) Houston will require a positive asset to trade him, at least in the off-season.

[nickagneta]

Like the deal for Asik. Would not do the deal for Lin. Let Houston nab someone else to give them that type salary cap relief for Lin or overpay by the C's by nabbing Parsons as well. Otherwise, I would only go after Asik.

I doubt Asik is going to be available in a straight salary dump without Lin attached, and we definitely wouldn't get him along with other assets.

There are almost no teams in the entire league that would be able to salary dump both Asik and Lin. I also doubt there are many teams willing to take on $15 million in poison pill salary for one year without some other guarantee either player will be around after that year.

For that reason, Morey can combine the two together in a deal or he can try to trade both for incoming assets but like Morey's self imposed deadline, such a strategy to me will fail. Such a strategy just is assuming too many teams willing to pay a player $15 million to get a $8 million salary relief the following year which is all the team trading for either Lin or Asik is guaranteed to get in the deal.

I think Danny can play hardball with Morey and land more than the OP has suggested. I just do not see a huge market for Lin at his price and with his contract. If he wants it moved, sending them both to Boston with Parsons might be the only way to ensure both deals are done early enough for him to land Melo, if that is indeed Morey's end game.

[Endless Paradise]

When do we break the chains of Lin's and Wallace's contracts though? Asik is cool to have but are you really going to pay him close to max level money? Amassing picks is fun, but it's kind of pointless if you dont cash them in at some point. I don't want to have 7 new first roundrookies the next 3 years.

And if we get Lin I think we move Rondo to.

This offseason is completely unpredictable. I wouldnt be surprised no matter which one of our players get traded.

Lin and Asik expire after next season.

[BballTim]

Like the deal for Asik. Would not do the deal for Lin. Let Houston nab someone else to give them that type salary cap relief for Lin or overpay by the C's by nabbing Parsons as well. Otherwise, I would only go after Asik.

I doubt Asik is going to be available in a straight salary dump without Lin attached, and we definitely wouldn't get him along with other assets.

  Asik's an interesting case. Does Houston really want to pay him $15M to play 15-20 minutes a game when he's all but guaranteed to leave at the end of the season? Also, how many of the owners that do whatever they have to to avoid paying luxury tax will want to pay Asik $15M for one season? I wouldn't be too surprised if Houston kept him but I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to move him either. I also wonder about how high his trade value would be based on his poison pill contract.

I think they'll move him.  I just anticipate that either 1) he'll be attached to Lin, or 2) Houston will require a positive asset to trade him, at least in the off-season.

  That assumes that teams are going to give up positive assets in order to pay Asik $15M this year. I don't think they'd get much more than a pick for that, unless they're taking back salary.

[footey]

Don't know if anyone else has made this point. I think Phil Jackson will be able to convince Melo to stay in NY. He can be pretty persuasive with those rings, and having coached Michael and Kobe and helping them mesh their games in a winning team manner. I feel it is highly unlikely Melo leaves the opportunity to play in Phil's system. My gut.

[JSD]

The Celtics don't even need the TE involved. Why not just renounce players and absorb Lin, Asik and pick with cap space?

[saltlover]

Don't know if anyone else has made this point. I think Phil Jackson will be able to convince Melo to stay in NY. He can be pretty persuasive with those rings, and having coached Michael and Kobe and helping them mesh their games in a winning team manner. I feel it is highly unlikely Melo leaves the opportunity to play in Phil's system. My gut.

I think the reason Phil can convince Melo to stay is that the Knicks can offer him the most money.  Or because he/his wife like New York.  There is no compelling basketball argument that can be made for sticking with NY for four more years if the alternatives are Houston or Chicago.

[JSD]

footey,

The Knicks are still a mess for at least 1 more season until Amare comes off the books. Melo is almost 30 years old, he needs to go somewhere else.

I'm not sure if the Knicks have their own pick in 2015, but they will have a ton of cap space after the season for Phil to go to work.

[saltlover]

The Celtics don't even need the TE involved. Why not just renounce players and absorb Lin, Asik and pick with cap space?

They won't have anywhere near that kind of cap space.  If they did , they could go get Melo himself.

[JSD]

saltlover ,

Shamsports have them around $46 Million after renouncing players and not picking up team options. Add the increase of $5 Million to the cap, that puts the Celtics around $17 million under the cap.

$63 Million* - $46 Million* = Somewhere in the neigborhood of $17 Million under the cap.

* http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24533195/nba-cap-projected-to-increase-more-than-anticipated#

** http://data.shamsports.com/content/pages/data/salaries/celtics.jsp

[saltlover]

saltlover ,

Shamsports have them around $46 Million after renouncing players and not picking up team options. Add the increase of $5 Million to the cap, that puts the Celtics around $17 million under the cap.

$63 Million* - $46 Million* = Somewhere in the neigborhood of $17 Million under the cap.

* http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24533195/nba-cap-projected-to-increase-more-than-anticipated#

** http://data.shamsports.com/content/pages/data/salaries/celtics.jsp

Our draft picks will take up $4-5 million in cap holds.  Unless you want to give up on the prize of our crappy season (the draft picks), we don't have any such cap space.  Also, I'd be disappointed if we just renounced Avery Bradley like that.  Also there'd be another $1 million roster holds of we did release/renounce everyone.

We have a lot of flexibility this offseason in terms of trades, between $8 million of non-guaranteed deals and trade exceptions of $10 million and $2 million.  But we're not going to have cap space of any meaningful amount.  And that's okay.

[LooseCannon]

In theory this is a great idea. The problem I have (as Ainge may also) is that we are spending more money in these back loaded deals which make up a hell of a lot of ticket sales.

The main two issues I have are that we are

1)getting a late first round pick which is nice but at the 24-28 range pretty meh given how many we have. That's it. Asik and Lin for a year while we gift wrap Melo.

2)by adding Lin we've essentially added a scoring wing who will be a Jordan Crawford replacement -only better. We'll also have a rim protector in Asik who will make a huge difference.
This team is too good to be bottom 5 and gain any decent draft pick of our own. We are also too poor to make it out of the first round.

Essentially all we are doing is hurting our 2015 lottery odds and paying the rockets salary of Lin+Asik for them in exchange for a pick in last 4-6 picks in the first round.

If we were to do this deal we'd need a hell of a lot more incentive. That team takes us from the worst team (or bottom 3), to a playoff team or fringe playoff team in no mans land with no benefit because Asik walks.

I don't understand your concern about resigning Asik.  We need a center like him and if we don't spend assets on Asik, we'll have to spend them on someone else.  Resigning a player is also almost always more likely than getting a free agent.  And if Asik walks, the team will suck and get a higher draft pick.

If you think Asik isn't worth signing to a long term deal, that at least makes sense.

Mike

I have no problem with Asik, I have a problem with him being able to walk at the end of the season.

The risk is that he plays for us for one season (as does Lin) and they get us an extra 10 wins, which in turn hurts our pick next season. Then, after hurting our pick's chances/worth and playing his butt off in a contract year, the Bobcats offer him 15 million x 4 years.
Do we match that?
So I'm scared that we end up with a worse first round pick and have taken on Asik and Lin without dumping Green or Bass's longer deals.
Doesn't make any sense. I'll also add that Marc Gasol and Love will be free agents that off season when Asik is...as is Rondo.

Doesn't seem like a good move in a rebuilding year...unless we go after Love or Aldridge and have a star in place.

I think you just have to accept that sort of risk in team-building.  If not for Asik, then for someone else.  Certainly for Rondo, if you see him as a part of the team, because even if he 100% right now wants to be a Celtic forever, it makes little sense for him to sign an extension before next season (unless maybe it is for the maximum), so there is always a risk that things could happen that change his mind.

If you have interest in chasing guys like Gasol and Love in the summer of 2015, then Asik is the sort of guy you would want, since there is no commitment to him beyond next season.  If your goal is to make a big splash next summer, you have to establish Brad Stevens as a good coach that players should want to play for, so the best thing you can do to maximize your chances of getting someone like Gasol/Love as a free agent is to put together a roster that makes the playoffs next season.  It doesn't have to be good enough to be a contender, it just has to have the potential to be good enough to get Stevens some Coach of the Year talk.