yeleven11 wrote:SMTBSI wrote:yeleven11 wrote:With the way Semi and Grant has been playing, and depending on how Langford and Nesmith look by the trade deadline, it seems more and more likely that we keep the TPE for the offseason and if we make a deadline trade, I would expect it to be relatively small (Theis for a wing) instead of one that actually involves a big salary unless someone like Beal becomes available. I think until Beal gets traded, most teams will hold onto their assets
One thing to bear in mind is that it's not absolutely crucial to hang onto that TPE for big-name hunting. If a small deal comes along for depth pieces, it might be worth it just to use up a portion of it.
The reason is that if we want to trade for a big-name piece later on, we, for the first time in ages, actually have the salaries to do it. Smart + Thompson already lets you take back almost exactly as much as the TPE. Smart + Thompson + a young player on next year's salaries begins to get you to a level where you could salary match just about any player in the league aside from the top 10 or so contracts. (And, there's always the chance Kemba could be in the picture as well.)
If you're really big-big-name hunting, losing Smart isn't any kind of deal breaker. So, we can get big deals done any time we want, with or without the TPE. Thus, if a smaller opportunity comes along to improve the team a bit, using part of the TPE, there's no sense in passing it up just to preserve the wholeness of the TPE.
The benefit of holding onto the TPE until the offseason is that we will not be hardcapped and we can actually use the full 28.5m without having to send out salary. Bigger tax bill obviously but there is more flexibility.
On the other hand between Kemba/Smart/Jaylen/Tatum/Thompson the Celtics will have roughly 115 million committed next year. Just filling out the remaining 10 spots with minimum salaries would put the Celtics at or over the tax line (and RWill, GWIll, Pritchard, Nemsith, Langford all will make over the min). So using all of the full 28.5 million makes the Celtics an incredibly expensive team next year, like 30+ million over easily. I just dont think thats a salary level the Celtics will go.
For that reason its not likely to happen. Its more likely we use some of it this year, but still stay below the tax. Maybe just to absorb salary and save another team tax dollars in exchange for an asset. Or maybe an older veteran we may not resign. Then we use whatever remains to improve next years team. Either way, I be shocked if the Celtics use the TPE to add more than say 20 million to next years salary or to go over the tax this year.
