Roster spots...

[Ed Pinkney]

What are your thoughts on our roster position? As far as I can tell these are the players under contract for next season and we are well over the cap:

Rondo
Ray
Paul
KG
Perk
Leon
Baby
Scal
Gabe

So that is potentially six roster spots to be filled by some combination of:

At least one decent free agent on the MLE (hopefully Posey or Maggette)
A point guard on the veterans minimum (House, Lue, Duhon etc)
Tony Allen
JR Giddens
Bill Walker
A back up big of some sort, either on a one year low salary (Mutumbo, Mourning) or perhaps on a portion of the MLE (like Diop)
And perhaps a free agent or two that comes out of the blue and signs as "everyone wants to be a Celtic now"

PJ will probably retire and I really want them to say sayonara to Cassell and Pollard. And if they could trade Scal for a draft pick so no salary came back I would be pretty happy too.


So what do you think they should do? Many questions that will be fun to see answered.

Will Danny leave a couple of roster spots open like last season? Is there anyone likely to be bought out mid season that would be worth going after? I can't really think of too many players that is likely to happen for except Marbury, and he is too much of a risk to the ubuntu me thinks.

Do we need to make a choice on Baby or Leon or is there room on the roster for the two of them for next season or two? I love them both but perhaps one needs to go to free up the playing time to let them fully develop. Can one of them become a full time 5?

Will Pruitt, Giddens and Walker play up to their potential and give us a bright, post-Big Three future along with Rondo?

What happens to Tony? Could he finally bring it all together, stay injury free, return to the form he showed two seasons ago and become our replacement for Ray in two years?

Which point guard should be go after? House, who played a key role late in the playoffs and has great character and is a great team mate, or someone else?

Who will the back up big be if we sign one?



Put yourself in Danny's shoes and make the decisions.

[GuyClinch]

I think Glen Davis salary is small enough such that they could eat it if he comes into camp out of shape.. I could see that playing out. He already gained like 30lbs during the season - if he gains 30 more during the summer - sayonara..

TA is as good as gone. They wouldn't use him when he was healthy. Doc lost faith in him. As for free agents and such - that's too speculative until a few people sign. Or we at least know what say LA is willing to offer Posey.

Not only that - which each signing needs can change. Say we sign Maggette - a superior player to Posey but quite inferior at outside shooting. Suddenly we need to acquire a shooter like House to compensate I think..

Will Pruitt, Giddens and Walker play up to their potential and give us a bright, post-Big Three future along with Rondo?

Just forget about this nonsense and enjoy the now. No team stays on top forever - its' getting to the top of the mountain that's the goal. If guys like Jefferson, West, Banks, Gerald Green, Gomes and Banks couldn't give us a "bright future" via there play - then why would these late picks? That's just silly.

Maybe we get lucky and some guy goes Arenas for us...but don't count on it.

Pete

[GuyClinch]

Do we need to make a choice on Baby or Leon or is there room on the roster for the two of them for next season or two? I love them both but perhaps one needs to go to free up the playing time to let them fully develop. Can one of them become a full time 5?

If we have to choose - it's easy Powe. Powe in a landslide. BBD does almost nothing better then Powe and many things worse. Right now there is room for two..

What happens to Tony? Could he finally bring it all together, stay injury free, return to the form he showed two seasons ago and become our replacement for Ray in two years?

OMG just stop. Your not going to replace a HOF basketball player with an oft-injured late first round pick that struggles with the mental side of the game. You need to let these nonsense replacement fantasies go.

I have been following the league for many years and these replacement fantasies never happen. It's like this - team gets core of excellent players (sometimes as few as two) - team rises to the top. Team falls..

Jordan was never replacement. Pippen wasn't replacement. Bird wasn't replaced. Parish wasn't replaced. It doesn't happen. The Lakers managed to not fall to the absolute bottom - same with Utah but that's different then finding real replacements..

[Ed Pinkney]

Relax there champ, I am not fantasising. I am well aware that he was at the end of our bench and was there for good reason. He is a good kid who showed a lot of promise but injuries and the mental aspect/confidence thing has most likely ended his career in Boston. I probably should have clarified that I didn't mean he was going to become a hall of fame player like Ray, I meant could he become a quality starting two guard in this league.