The Celtics have 2 roster spots open and only the veteran's minimum to offer free agents. Danny will do his best but for the time being it is going to have to be other guys on the team stepping up.
Green Street » Jeff Green will miss the 2011-12 season
“We have enough players,” Rivers said. “That’s why we have Sasha and Marquis to play the [small forward.] What it would take us away from is going small. We gameplanned all summer about the small lineup we were going to run with Kevin and Jeff .”
Replacing Jeff Green looks to be an inside job for Celtics - The Boston Globe
Green averaged 9.8 points per game last season and likely would have produced more as his comfort level with the team’s offense increased. But Rivers said the Daniels-Pavlovic duo doesn’t need to replace Green’s offensive contributions. Brandon Bass can provide a majority of the scoring for the second unit. "That’s not a hard one,’’ Rivers said. "I think Brandon’s going to give offense from the [power forward] spot. We’re going to get some offense from that spot if Marquis can post the way we think he can. Brandon and Keyon [Dooling] will give us offense from that spot and maybe some other guys just by making plays.’’
Optimistic as I usually am, I'm not exactly encouraged by that plan. Nor am I sold on the prospect of James Posey coming back to reprise his role (his game has fallen off considerably since he left town).
The team still has the option of trading Jermaine O'Neal, but you'd have to hope to get a starting caliber big man out of the deal. The other problem is that anyone taking on Jermaine is probably looking for an expiring deal and looking to send out a mulit-year deal - which threatens the cap flexibility that Danny is looking to maintain for the summer.
All told, it isn't a great position to be in. Maybe Ainge can pull a rabbit out of his hat, but I'm not holding my breath.