I don’t see how this is possible? I would only do this to get Lebron or Wade… but if either is not going to resign, why not try and trade for them now?

but won’t we have the ability to offer Ray Allen a max-contract, because we hold his Bird Rights?

Ray’s contract ends. Cs renounce or trade Rondo. Paul opts out and accepts a longer deal with lower money.

Great owner… stay off the airwaves. There is no way this is possible.

Even if it were possible through sneaky backchannels, why broadcast this so early and clue everyone in?

but noone wanted to play with me. :-(

It´s from the ugly “Trade Pierce instead of Sugar Ray” thread

DISCLAIMER: This is just for the sake of argument, not something I propose they should do.

Someone said:
“Plus, as has already been mentioned, Ray is worth more right now, as he has the expiring contract..”

This is a huge misconception, imo.

If you make a trade, you´re looking to win the trade, which simply means you get more value in return than you give up. It is correct that Ray (and his contract) has more value, but can we get more value in return?

Ray Allen has value as one of the best wingmen in the league and as an expiring contract.
Paul Pierce (only) has value as one of the best wingmen in the league.
Of course, the term “value” is relative, since it completely depends on what you want to accomplish, and we have absolutely no clue what Ainge´s masterplan looks like.
Additionally, if you trade Ray, you´re only using one half of his value. The receiving team will most likely either look for an elite wingman or an expiring contract, not both. Ray´s expiring contract only means more possibilities for trades, not better trades in general.

I say if we trade Pierce, we could get more value in return than we give up (not counting the intangibles).

Let`s say we trade Pierce for a young player, a Draft Pick in 2010 and a big expiring contract. To Utah, for example, who have the Knicks` 2010, or the Clippers, who have the Wolves 2010 pick. We´d have a team of KG, Ray, Rondo, Perk, a high Draft Pick in an allegedly stacked Draft, and a boatload of capspace for the summer of 2010.

Tell me we´re not “the” top destination for a young superstar who wants to win a ring.
Initially, I wanted the Celtics to stay away from “the summer of 2010”, and loot teams that want to shed salary, but I´m not so sure about that anymore.

Anyway, if I was Danny Ainge, I wouldn´t trade Pierce, either (because I do count the intangibles).

What frightens me about him saying or thinking this is that it’s only feasible if Rondo doesn’t sign an extension this offseason. We cannot, cannot, CANNOT trade Rondo unless we get a legitimate, young All-Star back in return and have them locked up for a while; we aren’t trading Rondo for cap space, and you can’t renounce him on the small, small chance you could convince Wade to sign here.

If he’s dreaming dreams of LeBron, that means he’s not interested in re-signing Rondo.

Whereby he opts out and as Roy said immediately re signs a longer deal in which he is given the priveledge to retire as a Celtic using longer guaranteed but obviously a significantly smaller amount..say 10 million for about 6 to 8 yrs.

I’m thinking we are overanalyzing here. My guess is that Wyc simply has no clue. And yes, he is starting to talk too much as well. He needs to stay behind the scenes a bit more.

Or they could trade Pierce for an expiring contract and then just let Ray Allen play out his deal. Sure it’s doable.

IMHO that comment was directed at the agents for players like Wade and LeBron James, not to the fans.

I take it more along the lines of Wyc not really understanding the financial aspects and trying to drum up fan interest in the team.

that said Ray has more value, as he is an expiring contract…and I stand by that. Teams would rather have Ray as an expiring contract than Pierce with an extra year and much more money. Sure we could trade Pierce for an expiring contract, but that would just be stupid and totally limit any chance of winning it all this year.

If we are going to go all in for a player, hopefully it can be for Chris Paul. I guess I would love Lebron here, but as of right now, we would have to blow everything up and just hope that having KG would be enough for Lebron to choose Boston- which is taking a big chance, when our window is already so small.

I getting a strong feeling like a Ray Allen trade is likely. His value, because of that expiring contract, is sky high right now. He represents the best chance we’ll have to pick up a younger star in the next couple of years. I remember hearing last year that Portland turned down trades for a number of star-quality players that Portland because Raef LaFrentz’s contract was worth more to them than another player. Some teams are in dire financial situations and desperate to shed payroll.

The possibility of Paul Pierce opting out is interesting. If he sees himself as a Celtic-for-Life, maybe he would take a backloaded, cap-friendly contract. That situation would have to be handled very carefully.

  This seems like about the only way we’d be able to do it, unless they did something like give Ray a 1 year deal and get rid of him and/or Pierce.

and I imagine it was thought through before he brought this up.

One thought re: Pierce: they’d have to trade him to an LA team (hello, Clippers?) to keep him and everyone happy as a long-time but not quite career-long Celtic. If they decided that was the best piece of the puzzle, I’d imagine they’d work extra hard to include the Clips, whether in a three-way or whatever.

Why would Wyc just go on the air and say something totally stupid? He may have a big mouth, but I don’t think he doesn’t get how the salary cap situation works- especially since it’s his money.

Blake Griffin anybody? Come on, they would have to go for it…but I think there would be a lot of angry Boston fans- at least at first…

i like what wyc is saying. as for the salary scale put up by RB, i am not an expert, but it looked to me as if 2010 means NO MORE RAY ALLEN, and hence a lot of room will open up.

it is nice to think that MAYBE bosh or dirk or even lebron (though i do not like him as person at all) might at least be realistic targets of the celtics.

The team would need to trade Perkins and rescind their rights to Rondo. That would create enough cap space to sign a max contract player.

WYc and Cuba are both very smart businessmen and also market their teams the same way using different styles.

Wyc and his father are VC’s and have made millions with IPO’s. They know what they are doing. But he is also keeping the Celtic excitement going by talking about thing like max contracts. That’s his marketing genius. He has already increased the value of the franchise by the way he is running. That demonstrates his brilliance.

He is also seems very competitive and is clearly someone who wants to win and will do what it takes to accomplish that. So I am willing to listen.

Thought Ray Allen would come off the books next summer? he is at max contract right?

I really wish Wyc would stay out of the limelight. If I’m Danny, I’m starting to get annoyed.

Wyc always tells the people exactly what they want to hear…then he disappears!

Remember, this is the same guy who told us KG would be ready for the playoffs. It`s what we wanted to hear. When it didn`t happen, he disappeared for awhile, then said they knew all along KG couldn`t return.

no matter what, the ‘scenario’ wyc descries involves pierce being willing to opt out and take less dough for the chance to win. based on these comments, can we assume that conversation has been had and at least in braod strokes PP is open to it?

sorry since we’re asking unrealistic questions: what if KG wanted to tear up his deal and take 3mil a year less so D Wade would come play with him? is that legal under the CBA?

No offense to Roy Hobbs, and much appreciation for all the hard work he puts into this blog and the columns, but,

Thinking Hobbs is more in touch or in clue with the Celtics financial situation is somewhat absurd. Thinking that somehow Wyc is a clueless idiot unaware of what’s going on financially with his team is equally silly. Roy has done some great research it appears on the financials of the team, but not everything (in terms of players salaries) is public record, and it has been repeated over and over and over by teams, national media, and the NBA office that the salary cap is not always as crystal clear as it would seem. It’s why there is generally a team of lawyers/accountants to deal with trades and the luxury tax.

I respect Roy and all the work he does, but if it comes down to who knows more about the team’s financials and the salary cap, Wyc vs Hobbs, I think Wyc wins that battle.

As a practical matter, the only way this team can improve significantly is to trade Ray Allen, preferably for more size. Rondo is also a very tradeable commodity.

Pierce isn’t that tradeable any more. Too old and too expensive. Same with Garnett.

The idea that the Celtics could sign a LeBron James after next year is just pie in the sky, and everyone knows it. There are certainly “scenarios” where it could happen. But it won’t.

Oh Brick, you are a funny funny guy. Isn’t Ray Allen the oldest of the big three? Weren’t you the guy spouting at the trade of Allen to the Celtics about the inevitable decline of shooting guards from age 32 on?

No, the Celtics wont sign Lebron, I agree. But this idea that the only way to improve the team is to trade Allen is . . . hey weren’t you also the guy who said you were dropping the Celtics to root for Toronto?

And I thought it was going to be a dull draft night and summer. :)

by opting out…the dude has made lots of money, clearly loves being a celtic, and wants to win more titles. i wouldn’t say its likely (because he’d turn down $20m + for something like $5-8m, though maybe for a few more seasons), but i wouldn’t count it out, either. the big 3 spent enough of their careers losing and making money, and you know that title meant everything to them. i wouldn’t say its that far-fetched that they’d consider taking massive pay cuts to keep it going. likely, no…but not beyond reason, either.

Wyc just threw it out there as a possibility… not that it is definitely going to happen. If they don’t trade Ray Allen, his deal will expire. Then if Pierce-opts out, they will have the option to go after anyone with a max deal. Pretty straight forward right?

I root for laundry, not players. Rooting for players leads to what happened with this team for the past 20 years. If I have the option of cutting bait with Pierce/Allen, and bringing in Wade or Lebron, I do it in a cocaine heart beat. Then you resign Rondo, and tough it out with minimum salary guys, just like the other 20+ teams fighting to get under the cap. Then in 2011, you fill out the roster with the MLE and LLE.

Rondo/Minimum/Lebron/KG/Perk is light years from keeping an aging PP and Ray Allen.

C’s are better off trading Ray Allen at the deadline for younger players/draft picks should Danny want to retool for 2010/11, the idea of the C’s being able to sign a max player is ridiculous. I shudder to think of the rest of the roster would look like after the C’s gutted half the team to get under the cap…

I think Wyc is playing the media by throwing out a smokescreen, a misdirection play. He’s workin’ the crowd. It is the media, isn’t it? Why not turn itself on itself and let it create a media blip, like it is here. Everyone is having fun. Let Wyc throw more bs out there to muddy the water even more so when Danny strikes, everyone was looking in the other direction.

That’s Entertainment!

They know exactly what they are doing.

maybe he just wants to make the point to other gm’s that maybe we want to keep ray’s contract and use the cap relief ourselves to sign a big name FA. Maybe he’s doing this because teams are lowballing us for ray’s expiring contract

wyc says theres a “scenario” under which this could happen, meaning hes not delusional he understand that things as they are know wont allow this to happen, but if you guys trade rondo, get ray and pierce to resign at less money for a chance at more rings, sign lebron, turn paul into the greatest 6th man in the history of the world, AND as a bonus, you get me as a new fan

He geniunely wants the C’s to win again as much as anybody here. I wonder how many are guessing his motivation without even listening to the interview? He was not grandstanding, or drumming up interest in my opinion. He was sharing his hopes/plans for the C’s to get #18. Without too much fanfare he said " there is “A” way that we could offer a max contract in 2010."

Michael Holley realizing he probably wasn’t going to get specifics just by the way Wyc was saying it, asked if a certain scenario “could” work, not if it was what Wyc was thinking, and it was along the lines of not signing Ray and Rondo. Wyc went silent and Dale and Holley joked about it. It was clear Wyc was thinking of something very specific that has been discussed, not just some ill-informed speculation about cap room. He said again, “there is A way it can be done.” If it will remains to be seen, but he at least opened the door that there are more options than people are generally considering when assuming there is zero possibility the Celts could be players in that ’10 market.