The likeliest scenario this offseason is FA pickups and moving our expiring deals (Scal and TA at least if not Pruitt, Giddens, Walker and possibly House—→I’d hate to see Walker or Giddens go without giving them a chance to see what they can do) for a better veteran on a longer contract to a team looking to clear long-term salary.

I think Danny keeps the big 3 together another 3 years at least, if not 4. I suspect he’ll let each of them expire and resign them at 1/2 of what they currently make. I don’t see them taking a bigger cut than that. If that’s what comes to pass, Danny might move Ray in that last year of that next contract to either get picks or younger players on longer deals. PP and KG will probably retire Celtics after those next contracts expire.

The only real turnover in the roster from the current starting 5 for the next 4 years or so will be the bench players (and maybe moving Ray/Paul to the bench at the end in favor of some younger winds that developed into starting-calibur players.)

I hate to say it but I do feel the big three will have problems sustaing high level play at a full 82 game season clip and go through another grueling playoff run. I think father time is catching up to these guys and Ainge is smart and he knows it. Now with that being said if he can somehow rebuild our bench that would be great I do appreciate loyalty and I would love to see Allen,PP,KG stay together for another run they deserve it. In my opinion Pierce in the playoffs did not look like the old Pierce. I don’t believe he can carry a team anymore.Don’t get me wrong he can still be good in spurts and have his big games but in the chicago and orlando series he just couldnt take the ball to the hoop effectively anymore.Its like he’s lost some lift in his legs. I think Ainge will heavily explore trading Allen. It only makes sense if the right player becomes available. They will not be able to take part in the FA frenzy in 2010 and teams this summer WILL look to shed money and free themselves up next summer. Celtics are playing for NOW they’re window is even smaller than thought so I really would not be suprised if Ray was moved.

is tied to his expiring contract. I’m afraid Danny would be crazy not to use it and Danny’s not crazy. Should make for an interesting summer.

we need to shore up our bench and hope that we’re healthy next year.I think we need more than a few solid vets though. I think we need a legit 6th man to come off our bench and give our second unit a boost scoring wise. The success of our defense hinges on KG. If he’s there we’re a very good defensive team; without him we’re a poor defensive team. To keep playing this year we needed to score points and that’s where we fell apart. When Orlando and Chicago double teamed Ray and Paul we had no one else to step up. Rondo played out of his mind against chicago but couldn’t keep it going against Orlando. We need a scorer off the bench who can go one on one. I used to think Ray was the ideal 6th man but unless he has something he hasn’t shown I don’t think he has the skills any longer to be a one on one player. Danny had the right idea last year when he went after Maggette- I think he would have filled the role very well but in the end I’m glad we didn’t get him. Ben Gordon comes to mind as a guy who would be instant O off the bench. If we could somehow land him and then add a big like Pachulia or Okur we would be looking pretty good. It’s going to be tough because the Pistons are clearing the decks so that they can throw big money at Gordon. The thing we have to offer though is a chance at a ring. Detroit is going to be rebuilding and it’s doubtful they’ll be in the hunt for a ring anytime soon. Hopefully Giddens or Walker turn into productive players. TOny Allen and Pruitt are gone if we can get rid of them and Moore is clearly gone as well. Marbury wants to start so absent a rondo trade I don’t see him on the team either. Scalo stays because the coaches love him.If we sign Leon that still leaves us with 4 roster spots to fill if we want to get to 15. Clearly there is going to be a lot of action this summer. Other guys who could help: Ariza, Birdman,Von Wafer

I’d love to see Amare with Rondo. I think we’d be competitive for a long time to come. However – it’s just not possible to get a deal done like this without moving Ray.

I think Amare could battle dwight howard – who is the new force in the east. You need a big to win – which is what Kobe and Lebron have taught us over the past couple years.

If Ainge is confident everyone comes back healthy – we remain with the Big 3 and build around them, if he’s not – try to make a deal to keep us competitive.

I wouldn’t watch the Celtics for 3 months. I would be very disappointed that you would trade a star that has spent his entire career somewhere. That just doesn’t happen much anymore and it should.

…goes bang bang bang 3 years in a row trading an aging huge contract for a young star. What if we could land Bosh, Eric Gordon, Lopez or something like that. Those names are just fictional basically but my point is we could keep this train rolling for a while…

Danny’s Big 3 won it all in their first year. No one was really expecting the peak to come that fast. But that is a helluva complimentary Big 3 and the 1 and the 5 in the starting lineup improved more than expected.

This can be over-analyzed ad nauseum but it looks to me like we were one bad KG knee from being in the Finals again. Of course Pierce was worn down and Ray was out of rhythm – they had to carry more load.

The falloff in bench help was again not as bad as the bloviating here suggests if you look at the health factor. Leon went down. Big Baby needed to start thus we had to look down the bench for Mikki instead of look down the bench for Baby. Scal gave us good bench minutes and will next year. I thought he was done for this year so props to his guts. Eddie was Eddie.

If we stay healthy next year we can win it all. I do think Tony Allen needs to find another place to play than Boston (C’mon Oklahoma take your boy back) but I think Marbury will sign for cheap money and backup Rondo for the chance for a ring and he was playing well with Eddie toward the end and playing D as well. That could be an explosive 2 unit back court.

I think Walker, Pruiit and Giddens speculation gets more in focus after summer league. I dream of all three being keepers but one of three is likely and two of three will be great for our team and another Danny miracle

If they don’t bring Mikki back I would understand. But if they do I would grant that they see upside from him absorbing the Celtics style. That’s their call and they’’ll make the right call on that so chill out on Mikki.

Why all this agida about Ray’s expiring contract? A healthy Big 3 w Rondo and Perk (Think Perk isn’t emerging? He has been only playoff big to take Hoeward off his sweet spots) and the bench people we have now wins it all next year. His contract expires next year anyway and the original game plan contemplated that. Celts control re-signing him for lesser money ($5-6 mil) or not. If he is offered $10 mil somewhere else we have his $14 mil off the books.

Celtic tradition is that loyalty is rewarded by loyalty. The 3 should retire as Celtics and as Jeff says we should start now, with the bench, to build around them. Their skills may decline, but they make up for it with smarts. We can’t use this year as an example. If KG wasn’t hurt, if we didn’t have all the other injuries we could still be playing. That can be true 3 years from now if we start building by looking at some players we bring in as future starters. Next year might be our chance to get a good one for the long haul.

Basically, I think the Celts need to do whatever they can to win NEXT season. If we can trade Ray while improving those chances, so be it. If not, then we should keep him and let his contract expire and worry about the next year then.

we should resign Ray after 2010 we may have to use a lot of his money to resign Rondo

Grasshopper found dead in Bangkok !!!

I believe Danny will make a major move before the season begins, he’s holding his cards close to his vest… as McHale you to say…. and Larry would say Danny cheated at cards……

So whatever Danny is telling us at the moment, just take it with a grain of salt that he is materminding something as we speak

Did DA just wake up and realize we are running out of time? Excuse me but he spent the last year acting like we had ten years and surrounding our starters with not nearly enough. I’ll give you that he seemed to get it LAST year. He clearly did. He understood NOTHING this year about the window. So now I am forced to hope he is back to the 2007-2008 Danny. I felt last summer like what he did wasn’t just bad but a disgrace. He sent the lead troops out there with almost no back up. It was a suicide mission. I can’t stand Wyc and all now acting like oh yeah we are going to do the right thing now. We had three year window and they THREW AWAY this year. There was no reason for it. Wyc’s pockets are deeper now? Huh

So now we contemplate trading Ray? Or one of the othjer guys who played themselves into the ground? PP and Ray were about 40% of the effort of a team that took Orlando to 7 games. I just hate this. Ray didn’t screw up, Danny did. DA is responsible the team is out of the playoffs. If we had Peitrus and Anderson wed have taken Orlando and taken Cle

If by some miracle Wyc and DA have rediscovered some significant fiber of competitiveness instead of worrying more about the money, Id hope they would add a GOOD center, a GOOD wing player who can shoort ad play d. and a Good back up guard who can also play d. Guys Like Anderson, Peitrus and D West all fit. How is DA gonna do it? No idea and I have waning faith that he can figure it out.

You know when we fell apart after 86 it was NOT RED’s fault for not trading the big three. Red drafted Bias and later Reggie. Red had it covered but had terrible luck and then the stars caareers were shorted by too many minutes with no bench.

Danny needs to learn from this

Danny is obviously a shooter. He keeps on shooting, even if he misses sometimes.This last year, he came up short. But I think Danny will come up with a much better bench and keep the starting 5. I don’t think some people realize the intangibles that Ray Allen brings. It would be a terrible shame if we had to play against him in some very important games(playoffs).

While I expect the Big 3, and some injuries, this year was an outlier.

The big man rotation was supposed to be Perk/BBD and KG/Powe, with Scal as the fifth big, and POB as a statue. BBD, KG, Powe, and Scal all missed time to injuries during the season (and maybe Perk.) By the second round – only BBD was really healthy. I think we were well positioned to weather one or two concurrent injuries, but losing a player like KG, and the other guys sporadically was too much. The bottom line is – if KG is out there is no title, no matter who is on the bench. (People act like POB was a top guy, he wasn’t he was the 6th big man on the team, and I guess some of the guys DA pursued were at least worried about ending up as fifth men behind Powe and BBD – e.g. Anderson.)

On the wings, I think we were a bit under staffed. The poo-poo platter of Scal for big 3s, Tony for quick 2/3s, and House for shooting suffered too many missed games to be counted on, but beyond that I don’t have great faith in doc to deploy his lineup tactically anyways – it was probably a bad decision. It’s hard to say what alternative there was – I think DA was right to drop out of the Posey sweepstakes when he did, and he offered all he could to Maggette.

I don’t see a problem with the Rondo/House combo at PG. House will never be an elite ball handler – but Rondo’s MPG should keep going up mitigating that risk.

In terms of planning of injuries, I disagree with the usage of moving the rotation bench guy to starter. I liked it better when Ray Allen was injure in 08 – Tony Allen started and Posey staying in his usual role. Or when KG was out, Scal started and Powe/BBD stayed in their roles. I think that aproach works better for the kind of 10 day injuries you are likely to see. If someone blows out an ACL it won’t work, but you can’t work around that kind of injury anyway.

If you can move Ray and maintain or increase the chances of winning now, do it!

 Pruit is no Ray Allen but he is capable of spacing the floor and hitting the three. I am not advocating that he can replace Ray but if we can keep the floor spaced and pick up an all star big man, well, I’m all for that. Then again, you may be able to do the same by picking up Rasheed and keeping Ray.

everyone should be expendable, tho every one should not go. ray is serviceable and works his tail off. moving more than anyone on the floor. pp is the occasional loafer. the 2 i would hate to lose are perk and rr because of their age. i would most like to see tony go and tho he was a mensch this year, scal.

i’m shocked. in the comments so far, ray has been described as serviceable, expendable, disappointing, 1-2 levels/steps below all-star caliber, and delivering diminishing returns on the floor.

ray was better this year than he was last year. i’m not suggesting that he’ll continue to get better with age, but there isn’t much statistical evidence to demonstrate that ray is declining at a rapid rate. i believe that ray is actually defying the statistical averages for players his age and at his position. the guy just dropped 51 in a playoff game (in 58 mins of play).

it seems like people are over-reacting to the Cs getting bounced out earlier than anticipated. why not dedicate the summer to looking for free agents, get the guys out on the floor, and see how it looks? if there are injuries and it looks like the team’s window is indeed closing, then i can understand shopping ray at the trade deadline. but now? it seems too reactionary to me.

I find myself bummed out all over again but our wasted year and missed opportunity. Honestly with a healthy KG and Leon we’re playing for a title right now. I also can’t help but reflect on the fact that Pierce and Allen never got it going together during the playoffs. Our stars had invidivudal moments of greatness but overall their performances were very inconsistent. Was it age or fatigue or both? Maybe it was injuries. SHould we though expect that they will be better next year when they’re a year older? Will KG hold up for an entire season? Heck, will Perkins hold up? Will Leon come back? Lots of questions- maybe too many for anyone to say with conviction that we will win it all again next year. But what’s the alternative? Trade Ray or Rondo or Paul and then what? You’d have other holes to fill and you’d stil;l have a bunch of unanswered questions. One thing I think we can all agree on about this team is that there is no quit in them ( at least there wasn’t until game 7 against the Magic). Also this team has good chemistry. That may not happen if you trade Ray and bring in other guys. I say let’s keep this core group together and give it another shot. If by the trading deadline next year we’re out of it or all banged up then you trade ray and start making plans to rebuild

If you look at the finish and ignore the variables then you’re just finding support for your own conclusions.

KG’s injury and the subsequent injuries that followed forced heavy minutes and an unbalanced offense onto the court – Glen Davis and Rondo became the 3rd option scorers on the team and there was no low post game or consistent defensive pressure brought by this tired, make-shift unit.

Expecting Ray Allen and Paul Pierce at this stage in their careers to carry a team to the finals was unrealistic – there are rarely any wing dominated teams that make it to the finals to begin with and these two are much more effective playing off of a dominant big man who draws double teams.

Losing KG changed the balance of the team and losing Powe decimated the frontcourt depth all together. The rest of the roster did fairly well, but Marbury’s inconsistent shooting forced Doc to use Ray and Paul more than he’d like. Earlier in the year both Ray and Paul played under 35 mpg while TA and Eddie House filled the guard minutes, allowing Ray to be Pierce’s backup.

If the team gets an effective F/C and backup PG with decent size to allow Eddie to defend 1’s but play 2 offensively the team will not face the fatigue issues that plagued them in the playoffs.

So much has been made about “depth” but the team was not playing heavy minutes during the first portion of the season – they needed a true PG to lead the 2nd unit, but they were managing minutes just fine.

KG’s injury was not predictable and his absence cost this team a shot at the title…there is no need to panic or read into things – the team needs are clear and the team nucleus is sound – the starting lineup is still the best in the NBA IMO.

Getting a McDyess or Rasheed to go along with a veteran PG via trade or, in Marbury’s case, FA signing will be more than enough to provide this team with the depth they need to compete.

If the team has the type of injuries it had this year, no amount of planning can circumvent that.

Whether or not the team pursues wing depth or guard depth will depend on availability, but i’d imagine the team will look for a PG first and allow the market and their own player development to determine the need for a wing.

I hope Ainge is still looking to get a lottery talent in this draft. There are some good players in here that could bring more energy off the bench. I’d love to still see us get the #14 from Phoenix somehow. Johnny Flynn, Omri Casspi, Dejuan Blair, Ty Lawson, BJ Mullens- a lot of good possibilities to be had.

Ditch Powe, Walker, Scal, Tony Allen and Gabe Pruitt.

I can’t believe what I’m reading in the article and in the posts above. Talk about sport being a “what have you done for me lately” business . . .
Three of the greatest players of their generation come together under the jersey of one of sports most hallowed franchises and “unexpectedly” (why was it unexpected) win a title. The next year the centerpiece gets injured and the talk immediately turns to “the sky is falling, the sky is falling,” “Trade! Trade! Trade!”

This year, without Kevin Garnett (MVP, Defensive PoY) and without Leon Powe (a key reserve who was putting up big numbers after KG went down), the media and Celtics fans whined that the Celtics had no bench, that PP and Ray Allen were struggeling, that Rondo was inconsistent, that Perkins couldn’t guard Dwight Howard, that Marbury was a cancer, that Scal is a stiff, that Mikki Moore is the second coming of Mark Blount, and on and on, and yet the Celtics STILL managed to have two pulse thumping, seven game series. Despite all those obstacles they still had a post season most players would give their left testicle for and yet we sit and whine to break up the team and get younger.

This team is winning. It wasn’t whole and it was still winning! Yes, it could use a veteran or two off the bench to help. Yes, it could use a young gunning stud to come off the bench and be an explosive scorer/hustler/defender. But all this whinning about windows closing, and needing to trade off the players who helped last years fun ride away is . . . not just disturbing. It’s sad. Because it’s coming from people who profess to root for the these same players and this same team when they’re winning titles, but not when they struggle through injury and adversity.
No wonder so many pro athletes care less about the fans. We may pay their salary, but the moment they don’t live up to the lofty expectations we place on them, we readily abandon them and call for someone else to take their spots. Nice.

I say we rebuild, I miss those old days. The draft isn’t very much fun anymore when you hold the 58th pick.