Option route: C's can be choosy

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

PHOENIX -- Ahhh trade deadline week, where one hour the Boston Celtics are said to be content with the moves they've already made, the next they're aggressively shopping their entire roster. One hour the Celtics are sellers looking to shed contracts and add to their draft pick surplus, the next they are buyers willing to sacrifice future assets and pay the luxury tax to add the right player.

Here's what all the noise should tell you: (1) It's trade deadline week and (2) The Celtics have options.

There is no worse fate in the NBA than to be a rebuilding team at the mercy of a bunch of ping-pong balls. Often teams in the NBA basement have uncloggable payrolls and mismanage their draft picks, either trading them away for marginal talent or misfiring on high selections. It fosters a vicious cycle in which teams struggle to claw their way out of the cellar.

Make no mistake, there is no guarantee to how quickly Boston will turn things around. But even as the Celtics emerge from the All-Star break with a 19-35 record, there's optimism about the team's direction because Boston has positioned itself to hit the accelerator on the rebuilding process with the moves it has made over the past eight months.

All of which allows Boston to be a bit choosy at this week's trade deadline, something that most rebuilding teams don't often have the luxury of being. The Celtics are a trade chameleon, able to be buyers or sellers depending on what other teams are willing to part with. What's more, there's little urgency on Boston's end to make a deal. The Celtics have already engineered two January swaps that cleared a bloated contract (Courtney Lee) off the books and swapped two players with no future here (Jordan Crawford, MarShon Brooks) for more draft picks. Boston can always wait until the summer to further overhaul its roster if it finds nothing to its liking before Thursday.

We already offered a trade deadline FAQ last week, but as the Celtics navigate deadline week, here's a breakdown of the assets they have at their disposal (most of which seem more likely to be used this summer):

" DRAFT PICKS: The Celtics have as many as 17 picks over the next five drafts, including as many as 10 first-rounders in that span. Under this collective bargaining agreement, draft picks have grown in value and Boston has the luxury of utilizing its stash not just to pick young, cost-efficient talent, but to facilitate deals to bring in established talent. It's hard to part with draft picks, especially when you only typically have one first-rounder each June, but Boston's surplus allows Ainge to shop more aggressively.

" TRADE EXCEPTIONS: The Celtics have two exceptions, one worth $10.3 million as part of the Brooklyn summer blockbuster, and another worth $2.1 million from the Lee-Jerryd Bayless swap last month. Both are good for one year from the time of the trades and, with Boston around $800,000 away from the luxury tax line it yearns to avoid this season, it's unlikely that they'd absorb additional salary at the deadline. Many exceptions go unused, but that's still $12.4 million in potential salary the Celtics are capable of taking on in deals without having to worry about salary cap constraints.

" EXPIRING DEALS: Teams are always looking to shed cap space in future seasons and the Celtics have two expiring deals in Kris Humphries ($12 million) and Bayless ($3.1 million; remember that Bayless cannot be packaged in a trade, though he can be dealt individually before the deadline). Looking ahead to summer, both players would also be potential sign-and-trade assets if Boston was unable to retain them at a reasonable price tag.

" BOGANS' CONTRACT: The final two years of the $15.9 million contract that excused veteran guard Keith Bogans inked this past summer to facilitate the Brooklyn swap are nonguaranteed. That means a receiving team could take on his deal this summer, then immediate chop $5.3 million from next season's payroll. But if a team wanted to beat the rest of the league to that savings, it could acquire Bogans before the trade deadline, pay him instead of any outgoing talent, and then gain the surefire savings in July.

" THE DESIRABLE STAR: The Celtics will at least listen to offers for the services of Rajon Rondo. While we maintain that it will be hard for any team to reach Ainge's lofty price tag, that hasn't stopped Rondo from dominating the early batch of rumors during deadline week, with reports suggesting the Kings and Raptors have at least inquired about his availability. Tread carefully with all Rondo rumors. It's prudent to remember that some teams, trying to appease their fan base by suggesting they courted a superstar, might suggest they "inquired" about Rondo when that might have been the briefest of phone calls.

" CONTENDER INTEREST: Playoff contenders that phone Boston hoping to pry some established talent at a reasonable cost will likely inquire about the likes of Brandon Bass and Jeff Green. The former seems the more likely of the two to draw interest given his lower price tag (and less remaining years on his deal). The Celtics are under no stress to move either of those players and can again set higher-than-usual price tags without fretting if no one is willing to bite.

" THE ACE UP THE SLEEVE: Jared Sullinger's sophomore emergence makes him an extremely valuable part of Boston's future, whether it's as a low-priced building block or as an Al Jefferson-like centerpiece to land a more established veteran. It's likely that Boston's preference is to hang on to him and continue that development, but having a young talent like Sullinger and the surplus of picks gives Boston an option to investigate another Kevin Garnett-like trade path if one materialized.

Listne, there's no clearcut path back to being a contender, but like punching an address into Google Maps, Boston at least has a few different travel options here. All lead to the same destination, each will feature their own roadblocks along the way.

While many teams GPS directions will be dictated by their lottery position, Boston has operated this season without fear that brief winning streaks will detour their draft position. The Celtics have been scorned by the ping-pong balls in the past and will not rely solely on them now.

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I'm not usually a Forsberg admirer; and, to some extent, this article is pretty much a rehash of what we already know. However, I believe he's done a good job of summarizing why there are myriad reasons not to trade Boston Celtics fandom for that of any other team.

All my life, I've had a strange reaction to waiting for anticipated events to happen. When I played hide and seek as a kid, waiting behind a car to be apprehended invariably caused this reaction. In 1948, when we got a 10-inch tv set, waiting for school to let out so I could race home and watch the Red Sox was sure to trigger this reaction. Taking a trolley and then the subway to shop alone in Boston at age 11, it always hit me about the time I switched to the subway at the Harvard stop. It was automatic in an Army training exercise, whenever I'd be in some foxhole awaiting a mock attack. And, most of all, it reached its apex when the Celtics would call a timeout when they had the ball with a one-point deficit and five ticks left on the clock.

What was this reaction?

I had to take a wicked whiz!

Maybe others have experienced the same syndrome. It didn't matter whether or not I'd already attended to my bladder as little as a half hour earlier. And otherwise, I have always been a dependable nine-hour guy. Get up, take my morning whiz, go to work, come home, and never visit a bathroom in the interim. But, give me the excitement of keen anticipation, and my personal reservoir of waste water would be tickling the base of my molars.

I'd continue posting about NBA trade deadline week, but you'll have to excuse me.

I have to take a wicked whiz!

Sam

sam wrote:I'm not usually a Forsberg admirer; and, to some extent, this article is pretty much a rehash of what we already know.  However, I believe he's done a good job of summarizing why there are myriad reasons not to trade Boston Celtics fandom for that of any other team.

All my life, I've had a strange reaction to waiting for anticipated events to happen.  When I played hide and seek as a kid, waiting behind a car to be apprehended invariably caused this reaction.  In 1948, when we got a 10-inch tv set, waiting for school to let out so I could race home and watch the Red Sox was sure to trigger this reaction.  Taking a trolley and then the subway to shop alone in Boston at age 11, it always hit me about the time I switched to the subway at the Harvard stop.  It was automatic in an Army training exercise, whenever I'd be in some foxhole awaiting a mock attack.  And, most of all, it reached its apex when the Celtics would call a timeout when they had the ball with a one-point deficit and five ticks left on the clock.

What was this reaction?

I had to take a wicked whiz!

Maybe others have experienced the same syndrome.  It didn't matter whether or not I'd already attended to my bladder as little as a half hour earlier.  And otherwise, I have always been a dependable nine-hour guy.  Get up, take my morning whiz, go to work, come home, and never visit a bathroom in the interim.  But, give me the excitement of keen anticipation, and my personal reservoir of waste water would be tickling the base of my molars.

I'd continue posting about NBA trade deadline week, but you'll have to excuse me.

I have to take a wicked whiz!

Sam

sam,

One man's trade deadline is another man's 3 pints of Anchor Steam.


bob


.

Bob,

Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with volume. I have come to think of it as "False Wiz," sort of like false labor. (I'd much rather be cursed by False Wiz, by the way.) Many times, I've succumbed to the urge and visited the toilet (or, in the case of the Army, the next guy's foxhole) only to experience a dry run. Which is what I hope Danny doesn't do this week.

Sam