The following was reported in the Globe by Gary Washburn, and it has me scratching my head.
With Colton Iverson headed to Turkey for this season and Fab Melo traded to the Grizzlies for the nonguaranteed contract of Donte Greene, the Celtics have reduced their roster enough to dip below the luxury-tax threshold and create a potential roster spot for a player such as Shavlik Randolph. The Celtics, in losing Iverson and Melo, have a need for a legitimate center and Randolph fared well for the Celtics in short stints off the bench last season. He was waived before his contract became guaranteed on Aug. 1
A few things. First of all, this presumes that the Celtics cut Donte Greene, which is a pretty safe bet for cap reasons. Greene is set to make around $400K this year and cutting him does open up a roster spot and does put the Celtics below the tax threshold, just barely. That was presumably the point behind cutting Shav, letting Iverson go overseas, and trading Fab Melo.
However, if the idea is to sign Randolph again, I'm not sure how that works out. He was set to make $1.1M this coming year when they cut him. That was the league minimum for a player of his experience. Wouldn't signing him push the Celtics right back up over the tax line - thus defeating the point of all these transactions?
Here's where I push back and admit that I'm not a contract lawyer or a capologist or even all that familiar with Larry Coon's FAQ's. There is something in the CBA about teams getting reimbursed for a portion of a veteran's salary when he's on a vet minimum contract, but I don't know how that plays out against the cap number.
Feel free to fill me in if you know the answer, but I don't really see how this move (alone) gets the Celtics to bring back Shav.