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July 4, 2009
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Celtics Stuff Live took to the airwaves for a 3+ hour drafrt night show that included many of our favorite guests. Sean Grande, Steve Bulpett, Marc Spears, Scott Souza, Greg Dickerson, and Eric Weiss joined us for another successful draft night show. While the Celtics remained quiet on the trade front (as Danny had warned us), there was plenty to discuss with our honoreed guests since there were more than a few rumors coming out the week leading up to the draft. Not only that, but top conferene rivals Cleveland and Orlando made moves to potentially improve their teams for next season. Kevin Henkin joined Justin and Jon for the night and we had a good laugh at the run on point guards in the first round, owned and operated by the Timberwolves.
The 58th pick isn’t getting anyone excited anytime soon, especially in a draft that has been labeled among the worst ever. Thankfully, Danny Ainge isn’t that boring and despite his protests to the contrary, his history has not been one to sit on his hands while all the other GM’s get to have all the fun.
Ainge has a lot of "chips" at his disposal and in case you have cruised around the internet lately, the blogs and message boards have noticed. Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen are two of the most commonly used names in conjunction with trade rumors and those rumors will only grow the closer we get to Draft Night. To sort it all out, Celtics Stuff Live was pleased to have the legendary Mike Gorman on the broadcast in his first post season appearance of the year. Mike again reiterated that it is unlikely we’d see Ray or Rajon traded, but that the real strength of Danny Ainge is that he listens to any and all offers. While this may lead to a lot of chatter, the results have been pretty good.
While Mike was not all that enamored with the free agent class of this summer, but he noted that the global economic slowdown may keep prices of free agents down which should only help a championship contending team like the Celtics.
To wrap the show, Jon and Justin looked ahead to Thursday night’s draft and Celtics Stuff Live’s Draft Night show from 7:30 until things start slowing down. Join us at Comcast Sports Net and Celticsstufflive.com.
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The offseason is upon us at Celtics Stuff Live, but we "break" for no one and that includes the minor fact that the Celtics won’t play another game for nearly four months. Already we have seen the first trade rumor of the summer which I believe was titled "OMG!! RAY AND RONDO TO PHENIX FOR AMORE AND BARBOSA!!!" Or maybe not, but you get the drift… this won’t be the first rumor of the summer, that is certain. To help us weed out the good stuff this evening, Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald joined us to chat about all things Celtics through what should be a potentially pivotal period for the team as it looks toward Banner 18 and beyond.
Steve displayed some disappointment that the team felt it was necessary to keep the media and the fans in the dark regarding Garnett’s injury status, but it didn’t appear that he’s ready to throw hands with the "Wycster". We broached the subject of the Ray/Rondo rumor and Steve noted that the team is going to listen to everyone, but indicated that the team made the deals it did for Allen and Garnett to win as many championships as it could with them as key players on the Celtics. Fast forwarding to the present, Celtics are resolved to keeping Rondo in uniform for his entire career, and that neither the team nor Rondo’s agent are looking at maximum contract money in a deal. Certainly good news for the Rondo fans, like myself, out there. However Steve mentioned the team seems much more committed to building around Pierce, Garnett, and Rondo than Ray.
Who can offer Glen Davis a decent contract?
Technically, any team can. But I’m ruling out any team at or over the luxury tax threshold. I doubt any team will want to pay double for most players, including Glen Davis.
That leaves an amazing 16 teams (I threw one more in). These teams are below the estimated luxury tax threshold (projected around $70 mil) going into this next season.
That is as important as being under the cap in this case, because Davis can’t be offered more than the average player salary, which is the same as the MLE, and all will have that available. The question remains whether he will get an offer for the full mid level amount. It would not be a complete surprise if he does, but he most certainly will get offers of value leading up to that amount, even in a bad economy.
I’m surprised at how many teams have started to get their financial house in order for bigger game in 2010. The current economy has tanked the investments and wreaked havoc on the net worth of many current NBA franchise owners. Offers will be far more prudent in general, I believe.
Just who might make Glen Davis an offer? How much might that offer be? What would be a better situation for Davis, if any?
Here are the teams with a few comments. I don’t pretend to know any more about this than you do. The Celtics are non-committal at this point whether they will match any offer.
Marc Spears joined Justin and Jon for a Memorial Day weekend show to recap the season and look ahead to the offseason. Justin and Jon pushed the Ray Allen discussion as a possible means to creating cap flexibility and building depth, but Marc squashed that line of thinking and was pretty confident nothing would happen this summer.
Financial considerations being paramount in this recession and central to the discussion around offseason maneuverings, Marc felt that Bill Walker was a likely and able candidate to fill a major need; a back-up for Paul Pierce. This spawned Jon and Justin’s one standing gripe regarding Docv River’s coaching, an unwillingness to play rookies, both during the interview and afterwards.
Finally, Tom Thuibodeau is making the head coaching interview tour and Marc was not so sure that Tom would secure employment outside of Boston for next season. With many capable coaches vying for few opportunities, Marc puts Eddie Jordan at the top of that list and the CSL guys were in agreement.
While the tail end of Marc’s interview devolved into a discussion of his being a renaissance man, apple picking in Maine, and the potential public access documentary starring the esteemed Globe writer and a Maine lobster, die-hard listeners will certainly enjoy this show.
Only 24 hours removed from a Game 7 blowout loss to the Magic, Jon and Justin sat down to dissect the playoffs and the offseason in a snapshot. Both echoed thoughts from earlier in the year when injuries began to manifest, that young players (especially Bill Walker - as you know if you’ve been listening) would have benefitted this team in short minutes by reducing the load on Paul Pierce and Ray Allen heading into the postseason. Of course, some of that is to be excused when considering that everyone was assured (including team personnel) that KG would be ready to do battle.
The show shifted to the offseason dealings and set the table for the overlying concepts that will define success between now and October. Ray Allen, his expiring contract, and his future with the club were discussed at length - as was who will and will not return to the team in ‘09-’10. Glen Davis was a big prt of that discussion, as was Stephon Marbury, and looped into the conversation was Rajon Rondo who is due a significant contract if the Celtics want to avoid losing him the following year.
Combine this with some great calls and the angst freshly coarsing through our veins and you have a great show. Enjoy!
It’s been 24 hours and Big Baby is still the talk of Celtics fans and the league as the rotund forward transformed the team from potentially being down 3-1 to tying their series with Orlando at 2 with a pair of games left to play at home. For some sports shows, that would be enough analysis to keep them full until Memorial Day… not Celtics Stuff Live.
Jon and Justin spent a lot of time talking about the man who made the pass to Baby on that play, Paul Pierce, and his effort on Sunday night in the context of his ability to come through when the Celtics need him most for his entire career. A fantastic email from John in Boston took this point to the next level in discussing Rajon Rondo’s absurdly KG-like line and Justin made the point that we may be seeing the next Paul Pierce in the form of the former Kentucky point guard.
Be certain to follow us on twitter and Facebook and tune in to our next show on Friday when some guy named Mike Gorman makes his return to the bright lights of Celtics Stuff Live.
