Topic Du Jour: Ray Allen

Keep Ray Allen, renounce his Bird rights, bring in a quality free agent, and then resign him for the MLE exception ;D

I think Ray Allen will be able to serve as a rotation player for a long time after he falls off. He’ll need to take a major paycut to make this happen. The amount of money he asks for directly affects our ability to sign another marquee player in free agency.

Id love to see Ray resign for less money and retire a celtic. It would be nice to have a pure shooter who knows how to conduct himself on the bench.

Don’t think there’s much to discuss Jeff, you laid out every scenario pretty much…

The team will play wait-and-see, not just with Ray, but with their developing youth and the nature of the trade and FA market…if things continue as they look now, Ray has an excellent shot at coming back for MLE money or its equivalent.

Unless Pierce truly does have an opt out in the final year of his contract-have not gotten this substantiated-the Celtics still wouldn’t have more than 7-10 million free for playing the FA market that off-season, so getting a D Wade/Bosh/etc isn’t going to happen without an extremely creative contract structuring and willingness for the star to buy into it.

It more plausible that the team will be looking at developing young stars who have upside but not the market value to tip the cap…trade scenarios are always an Ainge specialty, and Ray should be playing at a high level throughout his current contract, so his next deal should still see him producing requisite to what he’s paid…

…its a wait-and-see…my dream scenario is of course the team managing to sign D Wade and keeping Ray as the 6th man…let’s hope JR Giddens develops quickly over the next 2 years and that Tony Allen rebounds to old form…sign-and-trade city baby…

ho hm what are we to do this summer !!! boy what a slow summer….

hmmmmm

Keep Ray,
Let Ray go,
Sign Ray,

I’m sure Danny has a few things up his sleeve, much depends on where the Salary Cap falls in a few years as well.

Depends what free-agents will think of Boston as well.

What I don’t want to see is an """"AGING TEAM""" I don’t want to see DEJA VU all over again with the Big Three retiring together and we have no taking there place.

I for one would be like cut RAY LOOSE once his contract expires and bring in younger talent to play alongside Paul and Kevin.

I think it’s too early to be discussing what we should do with him.

Let’s see how his ankles (and the rest of him) hold up over the next year and a half, then start discussing what we should do.

Regarding option 4… if he was traded that quickly after an NBA Finals MVP worthy performance, I don’t think he’d be jumping over any chairs trying to desperately get back to the Celtics the next offseason.

I think it depends on how quickly the other bench wings develop. If Giddens ends up being really good they could afford to let him go and try to use him as trade bait. I DEFINITELY think they keep him through this entire season. I like the idea of signing him for the MLE after his contract up and then make a good run at one of the big name free agents as long as the pieces are together to make a run at it.

It’s good issue to be aware of, but it’ll have to sit on the back-burner for quite awhile. For both the Celtics and Allen, it’ll be a free market with a lot of unknowable things factoring into the decisions made on both sides. Some things just have to be played out.

I don’t think it is too early to discuss. Danny needs to plan for this decision. Understanding what his plan is will help us evaluate the moves he makes in the future. For example, clearly Danny is unwilling to sign anyone to longer than a 1-2 year contract right now. Why is this? He is trying to get under the cap for 2010-11? Does that mean that Ray doesn’t get traded when his contract is expiring? If Danny was swapping one big contract for another, getting way under the cap is less critical than if you were trying to sign some free agent off the street. If getting under the cap is critical to Danny’s plan it helps understand the Posey decision better.

I personally think the Ray decision is the key making an extended run. Sorry if this rambled a bit.

TRADE HIM FOR DWADE… Allen is going to be a huge trade chip. I want DWade.

I’ve bought into the idea that making continuous incremental advances is unlikely to ever bring you an NBA championship. Rather, you have to shoot for the top and get one of the best NBA players of all time to be the lead guy in pulling your wagon. Typically, that has to be someone who has already won a league MVP title, like Kevin Garnett.

By that reasoning, the only guy on Jeff’s list that fills the bill is Dirk Nowitzki (naturally, LeBron James would also be welcome). In all likelihood, everyone else on Jeff’s list would only eat up salary without ever producing a title. So when you make your move (and the Celtics wouldn’t for at least two years), you figure everyone on your present squad is expendable as bargaining chips. And that certainly includes Ray Allen.

Surferdad said:
  Ray is an amazing athlete who takes good care of his body. I think he can play another 5 years…

You’re right on. All of a sudden Celtic fans are obsessed with the age of our players. It was great when we had all the young ‘uns. As Surferdad said, Ray is probably in the best shape of anyone on the team and no one knows how long he can play at a high level. Ray is a future Hall Of Famer. Let’s just enjoy having Ray as a Celtic and let Danny worry about the business end. I loved the Ray Allen trade when it was done. Without seeing him play much my thoughts were that he was a spot up three point shooter who didn’t play defense. Oh what a pleasant surprise to see what Ray can really do. He’s a Celtic through and through. A winner and a gentleman.

BillfromBoston’s dream scenario is an interesting idea. Hope any combo of Giddens,Tony Allen, Pruitt, O’Bryant, or Walker really play well and do a sign and trade with some of these guys 2 years from now to bring in someone in a trade like Wade and keep Ray Allen as a 6th man. Although banking on a sign and trade seems like a risky game as you could lose a player for nothing. I’d love to keep Ray as a role player after the next 2 years but even with the first 2 options I’m not sure if we will have enough cap room to go over a big time free agent. The good news is Danny has a good amount of time to figure all this out and the play of Ray and the young players over the next couple years should make the decision clearer.

In 2 yrs bag a Bosh or a Wade; get Ray to sign for the (Posey type discount). Lebron is mighty high thinking but he probably ends up a Knick or may be eating gyros with $40M yr from Greek team. Let’s get #19 then (assuming #18 is already in the bag).

as usual i agree with BillfromBoston. we have a lot of different ways we can take this. much depends on how ray ages and maybe how giddens and walker mature. wade could be a terrific possibility for us. then again i suppose its entirely possible giddens develops into a quality starting guard next to rondo for the future and pushed ray to the bench. i suppose its equally possible walker continues to develop as well and maybe giddens and walker end up major contributors. maybe you resign paul and/or ray for like 10mil each. either way a lot of different ways we can go with this depending on what happens in our backyard over the next 2 years. but i am in wholehearted agreement that rays game barring something unforeseen keeps himself in great enough shape that he could be a solid contributing basketball player for at least another 3 years after his deal is up.

I’d like to see Ray Allen becoming our Reggie Miller, scoring from the bench (especially come Play off time) until he is almost 40. And additionally, I also would like to see Ray Allen beating Reggie’s record of most 3-pointers scored ever while he is playing for the Celtics.

Keep Ray. The Reggie Miller analogy is a good one. He’d also be a good mentor for any decent SG the C’s bring in.

I like Ray and I think the ideal situation for both the Celtics and for him will be:

1. Let him play out his contract
2. When his contract expires, use that cash to bring in a young stud Off guard
3. Sign Ray for the MLE or less on a year to year basis
4. He plays a very critical role in being a Michael Finley type guy off the bench who could greatly contribute to another championship in that role.

The guy has had two max contract already, I think he probably wouldn’t mind taking a pay cut now to maintain continuity in his life, back home where he grew up and still be able make some decent coin. Play less minutes, extend his career while still being a critical role player on a championship contending team.