Can’t we sign him to an offer sheet that is above what we have left based on a conditional trade? From the tone of your post it sounds like that might not be accurate.

I’m going to start this off by saying that I could be completely wrong in how I am thinking these contracts work, so if I am, sorry. Jones’ salary for next year will be $4.3M with a team option for the next three years after that. In a sign and trade situation I assume the Heat would offer Moon the LLE which would be about 1.9M (the Heat offered Moon a qualifying offer of about 1M to make him a restricted FA, but I doubt that that Moon would sign for that when he could make 900K more). We have four expiring contracts: Ray Allen, Eddie, Scal, and TA: obviously the two that we would get rid of are Scal’s at about $3.4M and TA’s at $2.5M. When you add all of these up the two Heat players would add up to 6.2M and the two C’s would be 5.9M. We’re 300K off at this point. The only way we could make this work is if Moon takes less pay to come to the C’s which isn’t impossible as he apparently wants to be here, but it still looks to me as if it won’t work.

I am assuming Moon would need more than the LLE to sign. If we are willing to spend more than that, I would rather use that money on Baby.
Basically, I don’t want to see us spend for Moon and lose on Baby. If we get Moon for the LLE and Baby for a decent price I say get them both. Or maybe we figure out a trade where it works out.
In my opinion, getting Baby back to be our 4th big is more important that spending more than we have to on a backup for PP. We should be able to get someone for the LLE that can do an adequate job.
I should have been more clear!!!

but I just can’t agree. I love Powe and I wish he could have stayed, but there is a reason Baby got the starts. Statisically, they are about the same, but Baby is a way better defender: it really is no contest. Powe could never start in this league, Baby will some day. He is way quicker on his feet than most people give him credit. The thing that people need to remember is that he was a 2nd year 2nd rounder on a championship team the last year. He is a “DEVELOPING PLAYER” that has great feet, great passing skills, an outside shot that has an up side (something that Powe does not have. Powe would have never taken that shot against Orlando; he would never have stepped out far enough to get that shot.), he can guard the 5 (something that Powe could not do), Baby has a high basket ball IQ, period. He has made rookie and sophomore mistakes, but they have become less and less. Saying that he is overrated because he took full advantage of his minutes is completely unfair. He earned that 4 spot and I believ that he will prove all his doubters wrong. He is big and does not have much vertical, but if that is all you’re looking at then you are missing allot.
As far as Scal, he is a smart player: not a good one, but a smart one. You don’t have to guard Scal, but you do have to stay on Baby, and Baby is a smart player as well. I’m not here advocating for the Celts to over pay Davis, but he has an up side with his age and his growing range. And, in time he will be a trading chip, something the Celtics could use. If they can sign him for a small contract he will be worth it.

I acknowledge the weakness of this post right up-front: PER is a practically offense-only statistic.

That said, Powe’s PER in his three seasons has gone 14.6, 20.9, 17.2.
Glen Davis’s has gone 11.3, 10.7. (Playoffs: 8.4, 15.2)
League average PER, by definition, is 15. Powe has been an above average offensive player nearly his whole career. Davis has been well below average. Even in his recent postseason performance, which blew everyone away, he was merely an average offensive player.

How about defense? They’re both below average. But Powe’s opponent’s production is 16.1, while Davis’s is 18.2. This knocks a chink in the argument that Davis is a much better defender. Of course, defense isn’t all 1-on-1, and Davis might understand the team defense better than Powe (I should certainly hope so, or else Doc’s decision to continually play an otherwise much less effective, less efficient player would make no sense). But my point is that there are no available statistics to support the contention that Davis is by far the better defensive player. Defensive rebounding is often considered a defensive statistic — Powe won there last year 5.9 to 4.0 per 36 minutes.

After the All-Star break, Davis’s production did improve — he averaged 12 points (on 48% shooting) and 5.1 boards in 30.4 minutes. But Powe’s also improved with more minutes: 12.3 points (57% shooting) , 7.5 boards, in just 24 minutes per game.

True, Davis hit that jumper to win that game in Orlando, and Powe probably would not have. But 2 points on an offensive rebound/putback in the 2nd quarter are worth as much as 2 points on a buzzer beater at the end of the game. In the long-run, on average, the Celtics would have a better end-of-game point-differential if Powe received more minutes than if Davis did. Powe is an outstanding offensive rebounder, and finds a way to consistently make points for himself without any plays being run for him. He shoots a high percentage from the field, and he gets to the line astoundingly often.

In terms of per-minute production, Powe’s dwarfs Davis’s. Oh, and as for Davis being such a great passer relative to Powe — per 36 minutes, Davis averaged 1.5 assists, Powe averaged 1.3. An extra 0.2 assists per 36 minutes.

Incase you forgot, Power was out for a long time during the season with a right knee strain. During this time Scal was starting (and playing great, actually). Scal had all those concussions, and Big Baby got way more minutes.

The reason why Big Baby started was because it was either him or Moore. Leon Powe was just coming back from injury at the start of the playoffs, further more the press was asking if he was coming back too soon. Then, he almost immediately blew out his knee.

Regardless, this argument proves my point. We are arguing the who’s better out of a list of average players. The Celtics need an above average wing as their second option, they already have options with bigs. My point has been that BBD just shouldn’t be the priority. Get any big or scal as your 4th big option, but figure out this wing situation.