Globe says Cs will try to stay under the luxury tax level

[sully00]

Going into this season with only 4 bigs and Scal proved to be far too little going with 3 and Scal is not exactly upgrading the roster. Signing 34 year olds at the expense of 24 year olds would seem pretty damn stupid anyway you look at it.

[ParticleMan]

Ye, we should first try to sign Baby, but if he asks for too much I think we have other options besides having to go with Mikki Moore. Sheed and Dice come to mind. I don't mind that they're old, given that our window is short anyways. Obviously we have to replace Powe too for next season.

We went into last sesaon with 4 bigs in the rotation plus Scal. That's plenty, but it's just tough when you lose 2 who play the same position. Moreover that happens after the trade deadline (that is, KG and Powe were injured before but we all thought they would be back for the playoffs; Moore was only ever supposed to be a stopgap). I mean that's just plain bad luck. Scal as a 5th big is fine, as a 3rd big it's brutal.

[floyd]

Going into this season with only 4 bigs and Scal proved to be far too little going with 3 and Scal is not exactly upgrading the roster. Signing 34 year olds at the expense of 24 year olds would seem pretty damn stupid anyway you look at it.

Do you really think we're adding 10 + mill on backup bigs next year? If not, then it's an either or proposition bringing back Davis or a pricey alternative assuming he gets big offers. One of those, a scrub vet min, and maybe a hope and prayer that Powe makes a comeback is what we're getting IMO. I'd rather get the best third big possible for next year, age and my intellect be damned.

edit: I suppose the other option would be working out a trade for another quality big + signing Davis. Nice if you can swing it.

[celtxman]

Does anyone really think that the addition of either Posey, Barnes, or Birdman Anderson means this team wins the title? If so you have to admit something your flipping crazy.

Who could Ainge have signed that he didn't that would have helped this team more than House and TA? Tyrone Lue? Mickael Pietraus at 4 years 21 mil? There just was no Posey for 2.5 mil this year and with 3 guys on max contracts and no starting job to offer you are kind of limited in what you can do.

I am sorry anyone who says they thought this team could play as well as they did with no KG for as long as they did is full of ****, the team is built to win a championship with a healthy KG end of story. The Lakers don't win jack without Kobe and the Cav's don't win without LeBron so on and so on.

Leon Powe and Big Baby were just as good as any of the veteran hacks Ainge could have blown 3 and 4 times as much money to do their job.

Do I think that the Celtics could have won the championship without KG - not likely. Do I think the right moves with role players were made with this current team this season - absolutely not. Yes they absolutely missed out on Birdman over Patrick O'Bryant. Yes I believe they could have used $1.5 million (What he signed for in Atlanta in August) of the rest of the MLE to sign Flip Murray. Monday morning quarterbacking? Not even close - I wrote about this in the forum often before during and now after the season. They could experimented with Bonzi Wells. Pierce was exhausted and, as usual Tony Allen was nowhere to be found in the playoffs.
You're totally missing the point. The Celtics did a great job to get as far as they did. But if KG was healthy there is a good chance that the Celtics would have lost to the Cavs and that would have been unnecessary. You and I have debated the merits of re-signing Posey, yet you shrug your shoulders that nothing could be done. I believe they could have done less expensive things, but if not......sign Posey. All I'm asking this too is to turn over every stone to maximize the roster in this shrinking Big Three window. Posey was signed by New Orleans in July. There was absolutely time to do more after it was known he was gone. I'm not harping on the past that will be forgotten with KG's injury. But it's time for management to splash some cold water on their faces and get to work, like they did after they signed KG.

[celtxman]

It is estimated that the luxury tax level will be at $70m. If that is the case, the Celtics are already over the level ($72m in payroll). Therefore, the real question should be: How much over the tax level?

This is the real question. As I outlined in my last post there were things that could have been done with the remaining MLE last year. I've been encouraged by some of Wyc Grousbeck's recent comments. It isn't about spending every last dollar od rthe MLE and going as far over the cap as possible. But a team like this should never make a salary cap decision over an on the court basketball decision and I think they did that last year.