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For the longest time the Cavaliers have been positioning themselves for 2010 - not taking any longer term contracts right up to and including the Shaq signing. With Shaq getting only a one year deal and the Cavs were about to counter-attack those who were going to position themselves by signing 2 and even 3 close to MAX players, by enticing a MAX player to go to Cleveland. It was a hard and fast strategy.
Now we are hearing that the Cavs are close to signing Anthony Parker to a TWO YEAR deal and that they were flirting with Trevor Ariza who certainly would demand more than one year. Now the latest proposal has the Cavs stealing Gerald Wallace from Charlotte in a sign and trade for Wally Sczcerbiak and JJ Hickson. Wallace is under contract until 2012/13.
The projection of a much lower cap after next season may cause the Celtics to re-think things. The expectation that the Cavs will "lay low" the rest of this off-season may be wishful thinking. Orlando just picked up a valuable trade exception in the sign and trade with Toronto - they are not finished. Maybe the Celtics, in dire need of a better version of James Posey should look for a sign and trade with Charlotte (Baby and Scal) for Gerald Wallace. Good grief Gerald Wallace makes $9 million and Hickson makes $1.5 million so to make this work the Cavs would sign Wally to about $7 million.
This will continue to be a wild offseason and the stakes have just gotten higher. Teams like Cleveland may be shifting gears. Teams like Charlotte may be unloading now to avoid the rush when teams desperately want to dump to avoid the luxury tax. How do the Celtics take the best advantage to maximize their window with the Big Three and Rasheed?

If Gerald Wallace is being dumped the Cs have enough contracts to get him w/o Baby being included.

How realistically could GW and PP play at the 2/3 together?

Gerald Wallace isn't being dumped he is being replaced by JJ Hickson who scouts are pretty high on. Wally at MLE money (around 6 mil) isn't bad pick up either.

Basically the Cav's see the same thing I see and that is that LeBron James is a PF. More importantly LeBron has aspirations to do some real special things and to do those things in today's NBA you have to play PF, mainly avg a triple double and be a dominant player on both ends. He isn't going to able to grab the boards or get the blocks he wants if his man has him consistantly pinned on the 3 pt line defensively.

But you want it to be flexible and so you need to pair him with another dynamic forward. They should probably give Hickson a chance first but Wallace is a great fit next to LeBron and Shaq. With Varejao and Parker it actually really remakes their team into something that should be fun to watch as well as really good. It would be scarier if Wallace was better from 3 but he also wouldn't be available if he was.

The thing I don't get is that LB and CHA seemed dead set on moving Okafur to PF and finding him a center not going with a 6'9" PF next to him. But things change.

Fencer reregistered wrote:If Gerald Wallace is being dumped the Cs have enough contracts to get him w/o Baby being included.

How realistically could GW and PP play at the 2/3 together?

I would think quite well. We all got so used to Posey just spotting up and getting pitched out to we assume that is the only way to go - with 3 point shooters. Wallace is not good at three point shooting but he is lethal at penetrating, especially that teams cannot focus on him like they could in Charlotte, And Wallace doesn't need the ball - he's rarely had plays run for him. As Sully mentioned you might be able to get Wallace with expiring contracts without losing Baby, but the overall point is bigger. Be it Wallace or anyone else, does the new thought that the salary cap being down close to $50 million after this season change the Celtics approach? The Celtics now have close to $10 million is expiring contracts. Will the scare of the following salary capchange their approach?

Wally is not a MLE guy. Maybe a $1.9 veterans Bi-Annual.

Yes it is interesting and troubling. Of course the Celtics have one huge chit it seems they are not even thinking about using. RA's expiring contract.

To me that is troubling. $19 million can get you A LOT of pieces and make your team A LOT deeper. I for one will think this off season as a disappointment if they do not move RA for more pieces.

I think we should only move ray if he gets hurt and is thus only an expiring contract. He is just too good. Its hard to get a firm grasp on a players value today because contracts are all over the place, but Ray is only slightly overpaid if at all for what he brings to the table. His numbers are nothing great but he is as clutch as anyone who has ever played the game. Think about that. Games come down to big shots at the end of games. We are not going to be good enough to consistantly have a double digit lead over top leams like the Lakers, Spurs, Cavs and Magic with 2 minutes to go. At least half the time it is going to come down to big shots. Even if you have PP or KG or Sheed shoot the ball, you force a good defender to play right on Ray. He might not be worth his contract to anyone else in the league but he is to us.

The Celtic have enough expiring contracts other than Ray to get things done (House, Scal and TA) but I'm sure nothing is impossible with the new rules. It's a longshot but if Atlanta gets in trouble ask about Joe Johnson. If the Hornets are in trouble shoot for David West. We've already seen some crazy things. If nothing opens up sign a small forward with the $1.9 exception and be patient when teams start to crack as their seasons wear on, they're not going anywhere, and the lower salary cap scare teams to death about abundant luxury tax

celtxman wrote:

Fencer reregistered wrote:If Gerald Wallace is being dumped the Cs have enough contracts to get him w/o Baby being included.

How realistically could GW and PP play at the 2/3 together?

I would think quite well. We all got so used to Posey just spotting up and getting pitched out to we assume that is the only way to go - with 3 point shooters. Wallace is not good at three point shooting but he is lethal at penetrating, especially that teams cannot focus on him like they could in Charlotte, And Wallace doesn't need the ball - he's rarely had plays run for him.

Well a more relevant question is how well can Gerald Wallace play with a backcourt of Rondo, Pierce.

That almost demands we need Sheed as a starting Center. Putting Sheed at starting minutes at Center with his motor and a Pierce with his miles running around after fast small SGs... we'd want to slow down the pace to a crawl. And at that pace it highlights Gerald Wallace's weaknesses.

celticfan42487 wrote:

celtxman wrote:

Fencer reregistered wrote:If Gerald Wallace is being dumped the Cs have enough contracts to get him w/o Baby being included.

How realistically could GW and PP play at the 2/3 together?

I would think quite well. We all got so used to Posey just spotting up and getting pitched out to we assume that is the only way to go - with 3 point shooters. Wallace is not good at three point shooting but he is lethal at penetrating, especially that teams cannot focus on him like they could in Charlotte, And Wallace doesn't need the ball - he's rarely had plays run for him.

Well a more relevant question is how well can Gerald Wallace play with a backcourt of Rondo, Pierce.

That almost demands we need Sheed as a starting Center. Putting Sheed at starting minutes at Center with his motor and a Pierce with his miles running around after fast small SGs... we'd want to slow down the pace to a crawl. And at that pace it highlights Gerald Wallace's weaknesses.

I'm really somewhat confused about the concern about fitting Wallace in. The idea is that Wallace turns a ripe old 27 in about a week would come to solve glaring problems. It is his energy and defense that will prolong Pierce and Ray Allen who got absolutely no help last year. I'm just trying to follow how the Celtics had to play all of these teams with quick SG's with NOBODY but Pierce and Allen and now the Celtics pick up an athletic defensive player who can absorb minutes playing SG on defense way better than anyone the Celtics had last year and still have Pierce who can guard Kobe but somehow is now overmatched.
Gerald Wallace was not the topic of this thread, but since people would rather talk about this than the overall issue, I'll be happy to oblige. If you put Gerald Wallace on this team for only expiring contracts and re-sign Baby, you can start thinking about a clear path to Banner 18 assuming the team is healthy, regardless of what other teams do to finish their rosters. There will be no holes. With Pierce on the bench you now have that slasher in Gerald Wallace that the Celtics never before had on the court who is a devastating finisher that now opens up Allen who without Pierce struggles to find his shot. With Allen on the bench you now set Pierce loose when he is doubled to get the ball to someone who can explode to the hoop. In addition with the superior shooting ability of the bigs,Garnett, Rasheed, and even Baby you just give the opposition matchup nightmares. If there is a concern over Gerald Wallace it is health, but Charlotte finally seemed to get it right moving him from being wrongly put at PF to SF. The fact that Wallace can guard 3 positions would give the Celtics tremendous possibilities.
I don't think this will happen, but I do think the team needs to take advantage of similar situations and go for it now. Gerald Wallace in age and ability would have been a great fit but there are other scenarios that may continue to open up. When you hear a player's name like this who could help, you have to do the "due diligence" to see what the situation is.

One way we could do a deal for him would be Scal, Allen, Giddens, and Pruitt for Wallace, if they accept that. Otherwise, we're likely seeing Ray Allen in a deal. Something like Gerald Wallace and Raja Bell and one more player (Diop, Mohammed, or Radmanovic) for Ray Allen and two others (probably Pruitt and Giddens).

I wouldn't send out Ray for Wallace, as much of a Wallace fan as I am. That would hurt our chances for a title, so it's not worth it.

I would definitely trade anyone outside our top-6 tho. I like GW enough that I might even throw in a pick, much as I hate to give up picks with Ainge drafting.

Although I like Wallace, I'd much rather do a trade for Outlaw who is supposedly on the block and is only making $3 Mil and some change. He's young, athletic, plays good defense and can fill in for both Paul and Ray.

Then I'd try to sign CJ Watson with the vet minimum as our backup PG. He's a restricted FA, but I don't think GS will match because they just did a trade and got 2 new PG's from Atlanta and drafted Stephen Curry. They would have 4 PG's on their roster. If they would match, I'd do a sign and trade up to $2.5 or $3 Mil and say so long to one of our bench player expirings. Although he's young and still has some PG skills to master, the kid can really score. He's got range beyond the arc too (shots 40% from 3). Good change of pace from Rondo. This kid scored 38 pts and had 9 assists on Deron late in the year.

Havlicek17 wrote:Although I like Wallace, I'd much rather do a trade for Outlaw who is supposedly on the block and is only making $3 Mil and some change. He's young, athletic, plays good defense and can fill in for both Paul and Ray.

Then I'd try to sign CJ Watson with the vet minimum as our backup PG. He's a restricted FA, but I don't think GS will match because they just did a trade and got 2 new PG's from Atlanta and drafted Stephen Curry. They would have 4 PG's on their roster. If they would match, I'd do a sign and trade up to $2.5 or $3 Mil and say so long to one of our bench player expirings. Although he's young and still has some PG skills to master, the kid can really score. He's got range beyond the arc too (shots 40% from 3). Good change of pace from Rondo. This kid scored 38 pts and had 9 assists on Deron late in the year.

I don't know if I'd rather have Outlaw on talent but his far lower salary is certainly appealing. But that is also why Portland would get something in return especailly considering age. Now Tony Allen or Scal or House doesn't get it done especially for Portland a team that is looking to become a championship contendor. The Celtics best shots are at guys like Wallace, Stephen Jackson, Corey Maggette, Nocioni or even old friend James Posey - guys with talent, longer contracts, with lesser teams who are concerned about going a nickel over the salary cap. Posey's length of contract now matches Rasheed's. Go for the gold the next two years - if it doesn't work Sheed can opt out (or be expiring) and Posey is expiring. Things changed as of Wednesday. I'd love to get Outlaw, but saving luxury tax money or hoping a lesser cheaper talent can cut it is the exact opposite of signing Rasheed. I'm OK with looking into a guy like Raja Bell - it just can't be handed to Tony Allen and we'll see what Bill Walker can do, unless you are 100% you can get a better player down the road.