Revisiting this subject as Schroder continues to grow in the system and demonstrate how valuable (and destructive to opposing defenses) he can be. Assuming Schroder isn't willing to stick around for MLE money, the key part from the article Fencer linked above is as follows:
Boston’s path to cap space is loaded with obstacles. Essentially, to get to even $20 million in cap space next summer the Celtics have to trim to bare bones of Tatum, Brown, Rob Williams, Marcus Smart, Aaron Nesmith and Payton Pritchard. That would mean having to get off the final year of Al Horford’s partially guaranteed contract, moving the recently extended Josh Richardson, and also dealing Romeo Langford and Grant Williams along the way. All this without bringing back salary that would linger on the 2022-23 books.
The Celtics could move Smart as his four-year, $77 million extension kicks in but, again, would need to limit salary coming back if they desire to get an even bigger chunk of cap space. And even if Boston did all that, would it want to use its one remaining swing of the bat on a shoot-first guard with a streaky 3-point shot who will turn 29 before the start of next season? There would likely be better options to pursue even if the Celtics did open cap space.
Next year's payroll currently looks like this:
Tatum - $30.4M
Jaylen - $28.7M
Al - $26.5M
Smart - $17.2M
Richardson - $12.2M
RW3 - $10.7M
Juancho - $7.4M
Romeo - $5.6M
Grant - $4.3M
Nesmith - $3.8M
Pritchard - $2.2M
That's 11 guys at $149M.
As much as I've loved Al's contribution this year it's hard to see him as a long-term solution, and if we had to sacrifice him to keep Schroder I'd do it. Richardson has been good but Nesmith should be able to step up and fill his shoes. Juancho is an easy decision, though Romeo and Grant are a bit tougher... especially Grant.
Wonder if we could keep Tatum, Jaylen, Smart, RW3, Grant, and Nesmith and still have ~$20M to pay Schroder? By my math those 6 guys would collectively cost $95.1M which should put us about $24M under the cap. Can any cap experts tell me if this possible or would it really require moving Jaylen or something to be realistic financially?