The best options for filling the current hole is from the FA list rather than a trade. The top 2 candidates that would be great to get are Sheed and Mcdyess. If Danny can’t get one of those, Gortat, Anderson or Pachulia are decent fallbacks. No reason he shouldn’t be able to get one of those 5 players.

The players we’d want in a trade aren’t realistically obtainable with our disposable trade assets—→expiring contracts of bench players. I don’t see Foster or Brooks being moved for expiring deals.

The option of waiting on the waiver wire isn’t really an option. The C’s need that role filled from day 1, not 3/4 of the way through the season. Camby would be a nice pickup but we need him sooner rather than later and Danny can’t afford to play the waiver wire merry-go-round again this year when the good players end up going elsewhere and we’re picking up a Mikki “don’t come around here no” Moore level of player.

I wanted him last year, this year and next year. He is everything I want in a reserve big man.

http://www.celticsblog.com/2009/5/3/863784/in-hindsight-someone-we-couldve

McDyess would be my prime target. I don`t know how much he wants but bi-annual exception might be enough. Then I would like to add a true center. I like Pachulia but he will probably command too much. If we can get Sheed for the MLE I would do it, if not Wilcox for around 3-4 mio…

Of course, in the end it all comes down to the money. I don`t want to use our MLE on some average guy. If we can`t get a good big man then I would sign our long lost son Robert Swift for the minimum. He has length and he has shown in flashes that he can be a solid player…

Rasho won`t come to the celtics. He didn`t get along with KG in MIN and he really prefers a more “international” environment. Since we don`t have any international players on the team he wouldn`t feel too comfortable here, IMO.

TOR is the primary target for him in the NBA but it is also very likely that he returns to Europe like he mentioned just a few days ago in an interview.

Sonebody here probably has a partial handle on how much money these free agents can expect to obtain. And if so, then I’d like to hear about it. Because if we’re just going to compare apples to oranges, then I don’t know why Marcin Gortat wouldn’t be the guy to get.

i’d like to take a shot with robin lopez. he had a good motor and was good defender in college. i know i know, he’s not a vet. i’m saying as a throw in another deal.

Brad Miller

are always going to get good money as long as they are competent. That said Jeff Foster is who I want, always have. McDyess and Foster and we are in business!

McDyess, Joe Smith, Wilcox, Gooden, Shelden Williams and Chris Andersen are power forwards, not centers. Andersen is way too skinny to defend good post players. Wilcox and Gooden are both knuckleheads.

The available FA centers, in order of talent are
Sheed
Gortat
Za Za
Rasho
Swift
Elson
Mikki Moore

Swift is injury prone, and Elson is a journeyman like Moore.

The first three guys on the above list are worth every penny of the MLE.

As for trades, I like Collison alot but he’s really a power forward too. Nice, fundamentally sound player though. Channing Frye is a marshmallow and Darko seems incapable of living up to his potential. Same with Kwame Brown

Camby would be nice, but almost certainly out of our price range. I think DeSagana Diop or Robin Lopez (the Lopez twin in Phoenix) would be more realistic trade targets.

You might be able to get Jeff Foster in a Ray Allen deal with Indiana. The deal would be Ray for Foster, Marquis Daniels and Jarrett Jack (although the Pacers would probably insist on the Celtics taking Tinsley instead of Jack). The deal is complicated by the fact that Daniels is untradeable at the moment (team option for next year hasn’t been exercised). Also, I think the Celtics could get more for Ray from a team like Charlotte.

McDyess is perfect and anyone else is a distant 2nd of the usual suspects…..but while he & KG share the same agent they are not friends,in fact the opposite…Sheed and Joe Smith are his buddies…but $$$$ talks so it won’t matter

Are you saying that they do not like each other? I have not heard that. But as you say, it is about money and opportunity to win anyway.

This is why DA wants the 2nd pick to snag the underdeveloped but who’s potential could be Hakeem Olajuwon which is Thabeet.
He can play backup minutes behind KG and Perk since he would be a rookie. I know he he far from being polished but he is 7’3" which already has a good sense of Defense…He is perhaps even far more developed than when Perk entered the league.

Problem though is how do we get him without givin up RR.

Thabeet is about a million miles away from Olajuwon. Hakeem had real skills. Thrabeet is just big. He’s a major project who could very easily flop.

We already have two guys who can play pf. we need a BIG who is strong and long and can back up Perk. We already have Powe, Baby and Scal. no more 6’9" or shorter guys.

I realize the problem is its slim pickings

I like McDyess, but am not sure how much he has left. He would be a great influence in the clubhouse. I wouldn’t be quick to rule out Mikki Moore. He definitely didn’t get it done this season, but with a training camp he could be better. He’s got ht, energy, can open the floor a bit and can score under the basket. None of the other choices listed impress me that much. Perk is just so important to us. I know we are looking for a backup, but I think a backup should at least be able to compete with Perk for the starter’s role. No one listed here, and not that many in the league fill the bill. We could probably toss 15 mill to the LA guy (Bynum-?FA).

Isn’t Odom a FA this summer?

“Our team needs are no big mystery. Doc himself laid them out in detail. We need veterans, and we need depth at center, small forward, and point guard.”

Exactly the same needs as last year. Can Danny get that done with just the MLE, LLE, and our minor expirings (not including Ray)? Didn’t happen last year. Danny’s gotta have a better off-season this year. I’m glad he’ll be out there “kicking the tires”, as Jeff said. Unusual economic times, so some team might do something crazy. And if Danny can get something like two 15 cent pieces (if there were such a thing) for Ray’s quarter, he just might do it, with the idea being that your starting two might not be quite as good as Ray, but your backup upgrades might be so much better than they otherwise would have been that he feels its worth it (just as an example, getting two of GS’s quality swing guys, like Maggette + Ellis… or some such).

I don’t think a Ray trade is likely, but I’m actually glad that Danny has that chip as something to explore. Then, as has been hashed out here many times, we wonder just how the C’s value Rondo, and how much they want to commit to him for the long haul.

Finally, we know that management wants to maximize this window (though they did a crappy job of it last off-season), but as someone else had mentioned, they might be a little conflicted about falling off the cliff in a year or two, and the only way to avoid that is to trade our huge Big 3 contracts as they expire.

Interesting times are upon us. More interesting than last year, I think, with Ray and Rondo decisions pending.

Zaza Pachulia and Antonio McDyess are my two favourite targets for that spot.

I’m not sure which one I’d prefer. I think Dice is currently the superior player … but Zaza is a legit center and he can be signed and relied upon for the next 3-4 seasons. It’d be nice to have that spot locked up for all that time. It’s also much easier to find a cheap quality backup power forward than a seven foot center, so filling that second big off the bench spot would be a lot easier with Zaza.

I have a question, if the C’s do sign McDyess, who is the backup center with length?

Jason Collins? Robert Swift? Adonal Foyle? Chris Mihm? Jamaal Magloire? Cheikh Samb? Theo Ratliff? Calvin Booth?

Ratliff looks the only player there good enough to be a regular in someone’s rotation. Otherwise you’re looking at a third string center who’s a big drop off from whoever the other second big man is (Powe? Davis?).

McDyess is a decent player, but he’s a 6-9 elbow jump shooter with no post up game, and he doesn’t defend any better than BBD. You want a true center as the backup so that Garnett never has to move over to center and bang with the 275 pounders. You want as little wear and tear on KG as humanly possible.

I’ll tell you another guy I like: Aaron Gray. I thought he would be a bust coming out of Pitt, but he’s proven me wrong. He could give a nice 15 minutes a game backing up Perkins. He can bang and he can score, too.

If the C’s pick up a PF, then they’d have to plan on resigning baby. That makes the positions in need as Backup PF, SF, PG, C instead of C, SF, PG.

To aleviate this, they may be planning on offering BBD his 20% raise, using the full MLE to offer for sheed, and the vet minimum for a SF who can play D and shoot, and a standard raise for pruitt/marbury.

The more i think about the situation, i really think the C’s are looking for flexibility that posey gave them. They’ll be looking for a vet that can play the 3 and 4 and shoot, or a vet that can play the 4 and 5.

There are some players who can provide that kind of flexibility at the 3-4, e.g. Boris Diaw or Gerald Wallace, but I don’t see any free agents who could fill that role, unless Shawn Marion is willing to play for the MLE.

One young player I’ve always liked in Julian Wright. I wonder what it would take to get him from the Hornets.

Gortat is big! I like him a lot, although you couldn’t play him and Perk together.

I like Kamen but he’s to expensive same with Camby.

Brick, I like Wright too but I don’t think he is that good of a shooter. Still like him though.

but I see that guy Pachulia being a good pickup, and maybe even a starter somewhere at some point. He was the Hawks’ Center until Horford arrived, and he was productive. He can actually start in the eventuality that Perkins goes down for some time. He would be great for a backup at 4/5. I’s still want to get McDyess though. That would solidify Backup Center and backup PF.,

i thought pobryant was going to be the rabbit out of the hat. was i wrong. of all the names i’ve heard the 1 i would give the money to is zsa zsa. i like mcdyss but is he a center? i like gray and there must be a bonner out there that we can grab.

Which guys can probably be had for the vet minimum or close to it?

It feels like you either resign Big Baby or blow all or most of the MLE on a big guy, whichever gives you better value, but you still have to sign someone else for depth.

To put it another way, who is out there who might be a candidate for the end of the bench who is unlikely to command more money as a free agent than Mikki Moore?

Then you deal Ray this summer and sign Odom and maybe another shooting guard.

i really feel that we need a center more than a power forward. and if we do the pruitt+ta+scal+giddens for nocioni trade, we have the full mle to use for a backup center

I think what we need is someone who is comfortable playing both 4 and 5; someone as atheletic as Howard but with the skills of Yao.

probably not that cheap, but Camby can be had for a salary dump of TA, Pruitt, Scal and cash.

or Danny could get one of the cheap vets like:

Jamaal Magloire to back up Perk
 Austin Croshere to back up KG or 6th man.

Hornets are in salary dump mode, so perhaps Rasaul Butler for Scal? A long defender, can shoot threes, gives Pierce rest.

You can’t get Camby for a salary dump. His contract is expiring too.

Brickowski was right. We’ve got backup 4s. Good ones too. I was surprised also by Aaron Gray early in the year and then surprised that he completely disappeared when they got Miller. I think the Bulls will hold onto him.
Whatever happened to that guy Tiago Splitter in Europe?

He was drafted by the Spurs last year.

Better money.