Mailbag Answers: Pre-draft offseason edition - Part II

pigott17 If we do acquire a second round pick(s) what postions do we address and what players are best suited?

There seems to be a few bigs that are all in the same range in the first round where we're picking. If Danny is happy with any of them, he might just trade back into the first round - picking up a 2nd round pick in the process. That way he could secure a big man prospect and still pick up some talent later in the draft. I think the second round would be a great place to finally pick up a backup point guard.

C. Butler Why didn't the Cs pick up ex-C Delonte West when Rondo got injured? Being a ex-C twice he could have fitted in with out a lot of hassle? Delonte looks like he really likes playing for Doc.

Well, I think the non-signing (given our circumstances) speaks a lot to how they felt about Delonte. I'm sure they care for the guy, but it seems that at this point they just didn't trust him to keep it together. Danny takes chances on guys with talent and has with Delonte twice. The fact that he knows him and still passed speaks volumes.

fredrock34 If we are trying to compete next year I think Danny needs to take a chance on a young player with high upside like Tyreke Evans. Do you see Danny making a strong push for him?

Danny has been rumored to be enamored with Evans for a while and I think he's probably a good upside kind of guy that needs some good structure and teaching. I'm sure he's made calls and may again make calls to Sacramento (once they get a new GM). It all depends on the direction the new regime out there wants to go. Sounds like the new coach wants to emphasize defense, so maybe they'd be interested in Courtney Lee? Who knows?

crazyness@analltimehigh If you could go back and redo any 1 draft pick in the last 5 years what would it be? Would it improve the teams chances of a 2nd title?

Great question. I think it is hard not to look at the J.R. Giddens pick and wish we had gone with any number of guys including Nikola Pekovic, DeAndre Jordan, or Omer Asik. Any of which might have made life easier on Garnett and may have even spared us the Shaq signing. Maybe one of those guys would have been a decent enough Perkins replacement and we wouldn't have been destroyed on the boards in 2010 Finals. You never know.

CELTIC36 I have read many articles about how Danny cannot re - sign Paul Pierce for a lower salary. Recently, I have read that there are a few ways that Danny can get that kind of contract in place. Last year Danny got KG to agree to a lower salary. Is there any way that Danny can sign the Truth to a new lower - price tag?

This was one of the most common questions in the mailbag. I'm not the biggest expert in this stuff, but the short answer is that it is very, very, very unlikely to happen because even if all the parties agreed to the deal, the league might still step in and block it from happening. It was different with Kevin Garnett because he was a free agent. Pierce isn't a free agent, he just has a partially guaranteed contract. The bottom line for Pierce is that if Ainge can pull off re-structuring his deal, then he's a legit wizard.

winbos Jeff is there any part of you that would like to see Danny sink the ship? Trade/cut Peirce and Garnet in order to start building for the future. This scenario would also involve releasing Doc from his contract.

Only in some circumstances would this be something I'd consider Basically if KG decided to hang up his sneakers and the Celtics didn't have any options to get better right away and Pierce went to management and said "please let me go to a contender," then sure, I could see wiping the slate clean and starting over. And if you are going to go that far, you might as well "shoot the moon" and clear the deck completely. Find someone that will give you a 2014 lottery projected pick and filler for Rondo. Give heavy minutes to Melo. Trade Bass and Lee and cut Terry. Hope for lottery luck. Third time's a charm, right? (By the way, there's a Red Wedding analogy in here somewhere but I'm not sure I have the stomach to paint that picture)

With all that said, there's about a 1% chance any of that happens and that's fine with me.

Thanks for the questions everyone. We'll have to do this again sometime soon. Perhaps after the draft.