Danny Ainge: A world of possibilities.

[sarcasma]

How hard is this guys job gonna be. He will be at the center of everything involving player movement this summer. Here are some random things to consider.

1. Trade Ray Allen or keep him?
2. Trade or buy into the first round?
3. Resign Big Baby and Leon Powe or not?
4. Waive Pruitt or keep him?
5. Which player does he give the MLE to?
6. Which player does he give the LLE to?
7. Resign Rondo now or next year?
8. Which player/players can he get for Tony Allen, Scalabrine, House(no trade claus?), Walker, Giddens and their expirings?
9. Keep Bill Walker or use him for extra salary in a trade?
10. While stlll managing the luxury tax.
11. While still keeping tabs on the summer league.
12. Resign Marbury or let him go?
13. While still coming off of a heart attack.
14. While still beating Cleveland to whichever big name can be had for their main expirings ...Cleveland>>Ben Wallace $14,000,000...Boston Ray Allen $19,766,860.
15. While still entertaining blockbuster deals for Ray Allen And Rajon Rondo. My take on the Phoenix rumor... Danny has a "pair" and isnt afraid to make another huge deal. Remember Al Jefferson, traded while value was sky high.....Rondos value is sky high. The main thing that could give this trade some legs is the fact that Rondos agent is playing hardball and wants a max deal.....you dont give Rondo a max deal!!! Amare is a beast, Danny loves him as a player, and a KG/AMARE/PERKINS front line would be one of the greatest of this era. Who do you double team?? If Danny has say...Andre Miller ready to sign with the MLE, he does this deal and we win the championship next year. Rajon Rondo is my favorite player hands down, but he cant shoot, and he is 7 years into a college/NBA career. Orlando and Cleveland has shown us SIZE WINS in this league...SIZE and spread the floor with shooting, and of course some defense helps. If the trade is Amare/14th pick/Barbosa for Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo, you at least sit down and look at the numbers and evaluate. We could win 18 with Rajon and a healthy team, we could win with Amare/Barbosa and a healthy team.
There are so many possiblilities this summer for Danny Ainge, its doubtful he'll get it all 100% right. He had to of learned his lesson after last summer.

What I would do if I were Danny....
1. Use the MLE. My order of preference...
A. Ron Artest
B. Rasheed Wallace
C. Ben Gordon
D. Shawn Marion
E. Antonio Mcdyess
2. Use the LLE. My order of preference...
A. Anthony Parker
B. Chris Wilcox
C. Radoslav Nesterovic
D. ZAZA Pachulia
E. Grant Hill
3. Offer Big Baby 3 years $9,000,000 or let him walk..extreme hardball/lowball with Big Baby. His height is a liability, I watched every game this year. He cant block shots and is not a post player....Mydyess can hit the outside shot better, and at least used to be able to block shots. Big Baby CANNOT make more than KENDRICK PERKINS who makes $4,250,000 next year.
4. Resign Leon Powe to a 2 year minimum deal, team option 2nd year, as a reward for his hustle and character. I know he's injured, but you have to reward him somehow.
5. Waive Gabe Pruitt. He just hasnt gotten it done and I've been rooting for him since the beginning. His shooting is all hype, he doesnt drive....plays good "D" though.
6. Use the expirings of Tony Allen, Brian Scalabrine, Gabe Pruitt (if he isnt waived), J.R. Giddens, and Eddie House (no trade claus??) to land a solid player on a long term deal. The team could get a solid rotation player with all these salaries added together.
7. Sign one project/veteran for the league minimum. My order of preference...
A. Ronald "Flip" Murray
B. Robert Swift
C. Matt Barnes
D. Desmond Mason
E. Walter Hermann
8. Bye bye Mikki "less would be" Moore.
9. Offer Steph Marbury veteran minimum or let him walk.
10. Keep Bill Walker.

If Danny follows my plan, we win some championships. Like I said earlier though, getting this summer 100% right is pretty much impossible with all the probabilities.

[Al-Haqq]

For all the money he is making I wouldn't mind making those decisions.

But yes it will be tough ... he opted to make the team worse last off-season [not intentionally], obviously in the hope that the Celtics could win again. The decisions he made last off-season better pay dividends by the end of next season otherwise there will be some disappointed Celtics fans.

I expect him to make minimal changes this off-season with 2010 being the key.

[Red2]

I give you props for your all inclusive plan and also for setting forth the daunting tasks that Danny faces. he has a lot on his plate. Some of this could have been avoided if he had done a better job last off-season. Re-signing tony allen was a major mistake. I am fine with eddie and would not trade him. After KG he might have the most fire of any player on our team so I think he is valuable not only for his shooting but for his hustle and energy. You can't have enough guys like him on your team. I also think Scal sticks around. For a period ( pre concussion) he was playing the best ball of his celtic career. the big question with him is not his ability but whether medically he can ( or wants to) keep playing. Tony is gone if we can find a buyer and I agree that Pruitt has used up his chances. I really thought he would turn into a solid combo guard for us but his lack of aggressiveness has held him back. He has skills and is a good defender so if he could ever "get it" I could seehim as a Devin Harris type of guard. But that probably won't happen in Boston. Walker makes the team since we are so thin at the SF position and I think GIddens has a chance as well although the fact that he never made it out of the D league sure seems to suggest that he will have a very short NBA career. he's one of those guys that may never play for us. I agree re Leon- you need to reward him. The only way I don't see that happening is if we made a deal for someone like Stoudemire and we re-sign Baby. In that case Leon would be redundant as there wouldn't be any minutes for him. I disagree re Baby. I htink you have to re-sign him. He along with Perk and Rondo did a great job in the playoffs. Yes, he's undersized but like Eddie he is another huge Heart guy and he's shown the capacity for hitting the clutch shot. COnsidering where he was drafted it's a remarkable story. I would re-sign him and extend Rondo. along with Perk those guys will be the core of the next team

[shackles10]

He's got a lot to do, but so does every GM in the NBA. I also don't think very many of the fa options you've put down are very realistic for the money/spots you've slated them at. Maybe Sheed and McDyess are the only guys realistically available for the MLE imo. I'm not sure any of those guys are avaailable for the LLE. I don't think anyone is available at the min. other than Swift and Hermann. I also think you might as well just change it to bye bye Big Baby and bye bye Marbury if that's what you want to offer them. We are not the returning champs so we can't count on that discount as much, and while we are still competitors we are not the only competitors and we have a shorter window than most of the others. So if a guy can get more money, multi-years, and have more of those years as a true viable contender we aren't even the best option for that guy. In fact, you could argue that if another team has any of those 3 in its favor we're behind them in free agent attractiveness. That being said, we are still an attractive destination, but we're setting ourselves up for a lot of disappointment thinking everyone will take a discount to play here. We do that and we'll have more pathetic off-season signings, and are limited to potential buyouts mid-season. As we've seen, we arent even guaranteed to get the best of those (hello Mikki Moore).

[Papa Irish31]

Danny's hardest job this offseason will be to cover up the mistakes he made last season, namely drafting walker and giddens, and signing tony allen to a two year deal

Danny has to get rid of pruitt, tony, and either giddens or walker you can't have that many guys on your team that have no shot at contributing

no way ron artest comes to boston for the mle, first of all he hates pierce and garnett, he has spoken about it quite publicly in the past, second houston will probly give him more that the MLE to stick around, he fits in good with that team and likes it there

how is big baby not a post? sure he cant block shots and doesnt have great length, but he relies on his strengths to get the job done, i wouldn't let him walk quite that easily, agree totally with resigning powe, it needs to be done

if i was danny, i would find a way to get rid of tony, gabe, and bill or giddens, buy my way into the first round and trade up in the second round, sign a backup small forward, and add to our frontline, i do not resign marbury if one of two things happen, 1. i can get a guy like ronnie price or bobby jackson at the same price, or 2. i get a guy i like in the draft

with my first pick (lets say its the 24th because portland is looking to sell there pick) i take mullins if he drops, orthe guy i like best that is available out of the terrance williams, chase buddinger, earl clarke, dajoun summers, wayne ellington etc. etc.

with my second pick i'm hoping to get aj price and allow him to test the waters at the beginning of next year playing backup point, if he fails to impress, i look to add a backup pg at the trade deadline

Next i bring in a versatile forward (maybe even two) who can play the 2/3/4 positions maybe a guy like matt barnes, maybe anthony parker, linus kleiza, von wafer, jamarion moon, rodney carney, rashad mccants, dahntay jones, marquis daniels and i even go after someone who is more of a 4 but can play as a big 3, like charlie v, or hakim warrick

then i add someone who can play center, preferably that has some size off the bench, my first three choices are mcdyess, rasho, or joe smith, although i would consider guys like stormile swift, aaron gray, theo ratliff, sheldon williams, robert swift, chris mihm, and drew gooden

[campybatman]

Boston doesn't have to waive Pruitt. They can simply not pickup his option for next season which would allow him to be a free agent this off-season. They might as well since House won't opt out of $2.8M guaranteed. That means you can expect to see Pruitt ride the pine again if Boston does decide to pickup his option to add insurance for Rondo in case of a serious injury. But, I suppose that if Ainge signs or trades for a veteran point guard. Keeping Pruitt makes sense since Ainge likes to have at least three point guards on the roster. I'm hoping this veteran isn't Marbury. Please trade for S. Blake or sign Vaughn.

[ParticleMan]

C'mon, we're a year away from a title and still have our core together.

Seriously, Danny's job is WAAAAY easier than most other GM's.

It remains to be seen whether he made any "mistakes" last offseason. The only mistake he made, and the reason we didn't win a title, is that KG got hurt. otherwise we were a championship team.

[Dogen]

if i was danny, i would find a way to get rid of tony, gabe, and bill or giddens, buy my way into the first round and trade up in the second round, sign a backup small forward, and add to our frontline, i do not resign marbury if one of two things happen, 1. i can get a guy like ronnie price or bobby jackson at the same price, or 2. i get a guy i like in the draft

with my first pick (lets say its the 24th because portland is looking to sell there pick) i take mullins if he drops, orthe guy i like best that is available out of the terrance williams, chase buddinger, earl clarke, dajoun summers, wayne ellington etc. etc.

with my second pick i'm hoping to get aj price and allow him to test the waters at the beginning of next year playing backup point, if he fails to impress, i look to add a backup pg at the trade deadline

Next i bring in a versatile forward (maybe even two) who can play the 2/3/4 positions maybe a guy like matt barnes, maybe anthony parker, linus kleiza, von wafer, jamarion moon, rodney carney, rashad mccants, dahntay jones, marquis daniels and i even go after someone who is more of a 4 but can play as a big 3, like charlie v, or hakim warrick

then i add someone who can play center, preferably that has some size off the bench, my first three choices are mcdyess, rasho, or joe smith, although i would consider guys like stormile swift, aaron gray, theo ratliff, sheldon williams, robert swift, chris mihm, and drew gooden

Papa Irish31, I believe you've got an Ainge-y way of thinking!

Some practical ideas, and likely to happen unless there is some major trade coming down before the season. If Ainge can move a couple of guys like TA or Giddens and bring in a couple like Kleiza /Moon and McDyess the team gets a great makeover. In that scenario Baby would probably be gone and we keep Powe at lower contract while he recovers. I'd like to keep Baby, but depends on the guy we bring in and the contract.

For the draft, backup SF and PG would be the way to go if Danny gets a low first in addition to the second , but I disagree with your second option on PG--- getting one in the draft means replacing Marbury. I think we need more experience there.