Ratliff Done For Year

about ratliffs contract
does danny want him to retire on the spot or stick around through the trading deadline?

This probably ends his career too. The ramifications for the Celtics are interesting:

1. He can retire and save the C’s a boatload of cap room, but its room that won’t be available except for retroactively. Ideally he retires before the trading deadline, giving us cap room next year at the deadline. [the cap room might just keep us under the luxury tax which is at least operationally important.]

2. If he is going to retire, up until that point – he’s as good as an expiring contract to a team over the cap. Since none of his salary next year would count against the luxury tax a team over the cap could save as much as Theo’s contract in taxes.

3. Hold on to him for next year – assuming insurance is paying for him, he’ll be a better expiring deal than say Kandi was last year.

im becoming numb to all this bad news..

There goes the season.

I guess Ratliff will join Pierce as the only Celtics getting consistent minutes the rest of the way.

hey but we have his soon to be expiring contract ! who cares about what happens on the court right?

 :’(

It amazes me that this team spend so much time in CYA mode, that they forget about putting talent on the floor. Would you rather be looking at Telfair, Rondo and West with Ratliff in street clothes or West, Rondo and Randy Foye with Raef in street clothes?

Telfair versus Foye … Is there a clear winner here?

We never even really had Theo, except to talk about in the pre-season, so it’s not like we’re losing anything.

But, next year his contract will be an ideal one to move for a quality veteran.

The trade of the pick and LaFrenz for Telfair and Ratliff was about getting rid of a year of Raef’s contract and improving our chances to acquire Iverson. If not the Iverson situation, I’m not sure we make the deal Telfair.

From I’ve read/heard, the C’s were very close to getting him prior to the start of the season and the Sixers really liked West, which would have left us without any PG.

You can’t just look at these trades in a vaccum.

I have had two back surgeries and if they don’t have to fuse anything in his back he will be able to come back next year with the proper rehab. Let the Celtics collect insuranse on him this year.

All of us who weren’t paying the 15 million saved by swapping Raef and Dickau for Theo and Telfair can complain, but money matters to running a team, and 15 million pays for a year of Pierce.

Additionally – we have to see who the second round pick in 08 turns into. There is a good chance that Telfair 2nd round > Dickau and Roy. Everyone who complains that we didn’t get Foye has already exposed their ignorance and/or biad since Minnesota would have taken Foye if they couldn’t do the Roy/Foye deal.

The nice thing about Ratliff is that Rivers can’t play him. If we still had LaFrentz, Rivers would be playing him 35 minutes a night and Jefferson would be on the bench.

It doesn’t make any difference. I wrote him off 2 months ago….

If Ratliff doesn’t get traded for Gasol. Trade him to Miami for Walker or to Seattle for Fortson. :o

raef lafrentz was the worst player ever to wear a celtics uniform. it was painful for the team, for the fans, and for him to be on the floor for the celtics. he did nothing except pocket money here. i stand by that trade to this day. theo has 1 less year. that will give the celtics either the option to trade his expiring contract next year for a nice veteran or let the contract expire (1 year before raef’s) and use that money to sign a marquee free agent.

oh wait, but because theo gets injured the trade is bad??? why? because he did what for us? exactly. stop the whining please. that trade was good for the celtics.

i take part of my comment back. raef wasn’t the worst player ever to wear a celtics uniform. that belongs to vin baker. my apologies. at least we won’t have to pay vinny anymore after this year!

I was belly aching about the #7 draft swap before the 1st pick was cast on draft night so it isn’t Monday morning quaterbacking when I cringe to read this kind of thing. Plenty of would have, should have, could have with the #7 pick.

With some common sense, Raef could have played about 8 to 10 min. a game last year or this year and have been more productive than Doc given him about 24 or so last year. Sure wish we ate an extra year of Raef’s salary and did something different with the #7 instead of getting Telfair.

Sorry to disagree somewhat on some opinons of Raef but I do. The guy is at the twilight of his career and the best you could hope for is to have him go out and do what he can for 8 to 10 minutes a game. Where he helped the Celtics is that a “big” had to at least go out and respect his shot. This opens up the middle for Perk to dominate the boards (which is probably one of the reasons he isn’t doing it this year). It also opened up the middle for Pierce to drive.

Raef was not last year and no longer is a guy who should get 20 min a game. Less is more with Raefa nd Theo regarding playing time. I’ve seen games last year with reduced minutes, where for 8 to 10 minute stretches, the guy played well, boarded, shot okay, hustled etc. On those creeky knees though, too much wear and tear for 24 min.

Doc made the same mistake with Theo. Doc said he was going to play Theo until his “tongue hung out” like a dog. Horrible coaching. It never was a “conditioning issue”, it was a “durability issue”. Having Theo give the same 8 min. a game to him, we probably get at least a dozen games out of Theo this year. It was like trying to take an old dog out and run him in a marathon. Doc helped kill Big Dog Theo’s season by not being a smart coach.

I’ll also stand by my feeling that the #7 draft deal was a “fiasco” for the Celtics. It is very rare that the Celtics draft this high in the draft and have the potential for an “impact player”. Granted, Roy, Foye, Gay, etc whoever we took, may or may not pan out in the long run but the chances are all of these guys are going to have very decent careers and starter material for years.

Telfair in my opinion does not have the “outside shot” or the “defense” to be a bonafide point starter. Ainge made a comment something like Telfair alone would have been something like a top 7 pick if he was in this past year’s draft. I don’t know of any GM or NBA draft scout that would have agreed with Danny.

The saving the one year salary argument was and is a “facade” because most of all our youngsters were and are “locked up” until after Raef’s salary would have expired anyway. The average point hits about 45% from the floor, Telfair is around 40%. His “D” is subpar, and he’s a small guard to boot. He was worth a late first round maybe, early second round, the #7 though was a killer.

I dont understand why guys have to wait this long to figure out they need surgery. Couldn’t he have played in some hard pickup games over the summer and figured out he wasn’t alright? Then got some surgery and been around for the second half of the season? what kind of doctors to these guys have? Why is he so washed up? Hes not 45

I don’t think this will be career ending and he is still a player, next years back up to starting center al!

Hopefully he cans till be around the team to a limited degree to help out with the young bigs

Raef was not powerful enough to play the 5, not quick enough to guard 4s. A classic hybrid. That he was in Boston at all just
speaks to how much Ainge wanted Antoine out of town. So Ainge moved him to get a years relief on his contract. Telfair was the
price he paid for that. That it took a #7 pick was a mistake on
Ainge’s part. He paid too high a price. Portland pays for an
extra year of Raef’s salary, gets the #7 and ditches its 3rd string
point guard. Not a bad deal.