Ainge Playing With Fire???

[Celtics_85]

If you look at what Ainge is doing right now looking at free agents and not wanting to sign them for more than two years leads me to believe he wants to make a splash in the free agent market in 2010. If you look at our payroll right now you will see that our cap will be 44 million with only Garnett, Pierce, Perk, and Rondo (RFA) under contract for that year. This would be the only good time for an impact FA to step in for the future along side Rondo for this team, and to lure them we still have Pierce and Garnett to make their chances of winning a championship look better.
I don't truely see this as a bad idea this year, but what would that mean next year when Powe, Davis, and a few others become FAs. How do you give them more than one year contracts to stay under the cap enough to make this happen without putting this team in jeopardy?
I would love to see this team be able to compete for years to come, but this does look like Ainge would be playing with fire. Maybe we make a splash in 2011 when Pierce's number comes off the books and sign some of our FAs to two year extensions, but what does the class of FAs look like in 2011, I'm sure not as good as 2010.

[canman1971]

Ainge is doing exactly what he did last year. He is not going to overpay some role player. He will wait, and in August when guys are scrambling for jobs, he will get who he wants at his price. No unrestricted FA that is available is really worth more than a one/two year deal.

[sully00]

He very likely will not have to give Powe or Davis to more than one year contracts, their qualifying offers, to keep them. Teams are pretty reluctant to sign guys to offer sheets below the MLE value. It ties up their exception money during FA as they are frequently matched.

What happens with Carl Landry should be telling about Powe and Davis' value in RFA.

For Boston to be players in FA then Pierce will have to be extended at lower money in 10/11. He would have to sign an extension simliar to KG's.

But just as important as FA is the fact that Ainge has to manage the Lux Tax. He has to get a dollars value for every fifty cents he spends.

[BillessuR6]

Ainge is doing exactly what he did last year. He is not going to overpay some role player. He will wait, and in August when guys are scrambling for jobs, he will get who he wants at his price. No unrestricted FA that is available is really worth more than a one/two year deal.

This is exactly what I wanted to write...Agree 100%!

[Celts17Pride]

Danny Ainge is probably going to try to sign TA & House to reasonable contracts and that's it. Sign the two rookies (Giddens & Walker) and then go into the season and see what he really needs.

The roster would be (in no particular order):

PG - Rondo, Pruitt, House
SG - R. Allen, T. Allen, Giddens
SF - Pierce, Walker
PF - Garnett, Davis, Powe, Scalabrine
C - Perkins, O'Bryant

That's 14 players with Giddens & Walker being the two most likely on the inactive list. If you sign someone else who goes on the inactive list? Scalabrine would do it for the playoffs but not the regular season. So unless there is a trade to free up more spaces this is the roster I am expecting for the opening game.

The Celtics would not have used the MLE so they could give someone later on a pretty good contract.

[Fencer reregistered]

Ownership is willing to spend more than most -- hence their uncomplaining move into luxury tax territory.

That's the good news. The bad news is that above a certain level, they HAVE put Ainge under orders to be a penny-pincher.

Oh well. Things could be a lot worse in that respect than they are.

[Celtics_85]

I don't think it is so much the money issue as it is to stay competitive the next couple of years and really try for one of the best free agent classes in a long while in 2010 to keep this organization on top. Posey could have had the MLE for the next two years if he didn't want more years than he did, so I don't see where they are so strapped. Sure, we don't need to overpay for a free agent, but Danny won't do more than two years with a team option for the third year which keeps us open to the 2010 free agent class. This has to be the best way to keep us on top as like I said earlier, we still have Pierce and Garnett that a top free agent can come in and play with, along with Rondo and maybe Perk if he isn't traded doe that extra cash needed.
The nice thing is if it doesn't look good next year of this happening then we have a ton of expiring contracts including Ray to replunish the talent level sooner. This wouldn't be a bad idea either as a second option if we truely want to be a dynasty type team again.

[ParticleMan]

Ainge has never made a big splash in FA and it's unlikely he ever will. That's rarely a good plan because FAs are almost always overpaid and end up as cap albatrosses. the best way to use FA is to find a guy who is somewhat undervalued and can fill a particular role, ala Posey or House, and then don't pay them more than around $3mil per. I believe Posey is the most expensive annual salary FA he's ever signed. I don't expect him to be using the full MLE on someone. I was actually surprised he offered it to Posey, if even for just 3 years.

So no, he's not gearing up for a big capspace run. He's being intelligent about finding the right guys at the right price. The trouble with winning is everyone looks better on a winning team, and they all want to get p-a-i-d. it's better to be smart and try to plug gaps than panic and overpay. we should be very happy we have our starting 5 under contract for at least 1 more year. that's more than most championship teams.

[Jimmy103]

I thought the exact same thing when I heard he re-signed TA and House to 2 year deals...2010

Hopefully by then Rondo will have emerged and Ainge will make a splash in 2010

It's a storied franchise, hopefully it'll be a highly competitive franchise, and there will be 3 stars (KG/Pierce/Rondo) in place to help the incoming free agent succeed.