NBA Trade Rumor: Celtics may trade Gerald Wallace with a pick (Exit Interview)

I've really grown to like Gerald Wallace the last couple of years.  He works hard, he's dead-blunt honest, and he's become like another assistant coach on the sidelines.

Of course $10M a year is a lot for a glorified assistant coach and end of bench player.  But that was the price that Danny decided was worth paying in order to complete the trade brought over a boat load of draft picks from the Nets.

Ainge later added many more picks to his future stash and might end up using one of them to send Wallace on his way.

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Gerald Wallace remains the lone veteran contract Boston would like to move and sources say the Celtics would be willing to part with one of the half dozen or so first-round draft picks they have amassed to move him this offseason. Wallace will be entering the final year of his contract and is owed $10.1 million.

Obviously this would be a straight salary dump.  The Celtics could send him and the pick to the ever-tanking 76ers and free up an additional $10M in cap space this summer.

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Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie has repeatedly absorbed contracts ($25.8 million worth in 2014-15 and $12 million for the waived JaVale McGee next season) to accumulate first- and second-round picks.

This has always been an option but it was never really worth it before because we didn't have any immediate need to clear cap space.  There might not be an immediate need for it this summer either.  If we miss out on the larger free agents early in July, there won't be any need to clear the maximum amount of cap room possible.  So the Celtics might be better off holding onto Wallace and the pick.

After all, Wallace's contract expires at the end of next year.  That's not nearly as valuable as it once was, but it at least gives you an option to match salaries if there's a team out there looking to offload a surly star.

Of course another option is to use the Stretch Provision where you gain some immediate cap room and stretch the hit out a few years.  Given the way the cap is going to skyrocket in the future years, that might be an even better option than giving up a pick.  But it all depends on how much money the Celtics want to free up and how quickly they want to clear his money off the books.

So it is entirely possible that Gerald Wallace has played his last game as a Celtic.  Or maybe he'll be back for another year as the highest paid assistant coach in the league.