Lots Of Interest In Brandon Bass

Brandon Bass was a pleasant surprise last year and one of Danny Ainge's best moves. Now he's a free agent and while the Celtics can offer him more than other teams can, they have limited cap room if they intend to bring back Ray Allen and Jeff Green as well.

Taking care of their own - Boston Celtics Blog - ESPN Boston

Bass' agent said there are a handful of teams in the mix for his client -- Boston's only unsigned starter -- and the question is whether the Celtics are interested in offering the sort of long-term deal that Bass is seeking after opting out of the final year of his last mid-level contract. Crunching the numbers, Boston can seemingly offer something akin to the four-year, $26 million deal that Glen Davis inked before being swapped for Bass in a sign-and-trade last season. But does Boston desire to offer that sort of length or money for Bass, essentially determining that he's the power forward of the future for this team? If not, the team has to investigate potential sign-and-trade options in order to bring back an asset for next year's squad given their cap/tax constraints.

Who are the 6 teams? Marc Spears reported on twitter:

While Celtics FA Brandon Bass interested in re-signing, Pacers, Nets, Mavs, Heat (S&T), Knicks and Hawks intrigued too.

Ideally it would be nice to sign and trade Bass for a legit starting center, but I'm not sure anyone's willing to give up a player like that. I think our first option is to simply bring back Ray, Green, and Bass. But if there's not enough room or someone is willing to pay Ray or Bass more than we want to spend, they'd have to look into the options available.