DANNY AINGE TO OFFER JAE CROWDER QUALIFYING OFFER, ADDS: ‘WE NEED TO HAVE A BUSY SUMMER, AND WE WILL’

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DANNY AINGE TO OFFER JAE CROWDER QUALIFYING OFFER, ADDS: ‘WE NEED TO HAVE A BUSY SUMMER, AND WE WILL’
04.30.15 at 12:23 pm ET
By Mike Petraglia  
 



Danny Ainge speaks Thursday at the team practice facility in Waltham. (Mike Petraglia/WEEI.com)


WALTHAM — The Celtics surprised a lot of people by finishing the season with a six-game winning streak, ending up with the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. But the work to improve on that encouraging ending doesn’t stop with a four-game sweep at the hands of LeBron James and the Cavaliers.

Far from it.

Now, according to the team’s president of basketball operations, the hard work really begins. How does he and his staff go about improving upon a 40-42 mark through the NBA draft and added space under the salary cap?

“I feel like we need to have a busy summer and we will have a busy summer,” Danny Ainge said Thursday. “Hopefully, we can get some things accomplished that we need to. I think we need to upgrade our talent level on our team and at the same time, I’m very excited about a lot of the individuals that we have.

“Actually, all of the individuals I thought played the best basketball of their careers in a lot of cases. So, I’m excited about the players that we have. At the same time, I feel like we’re not at the same level as a team like Cleveland, and we found that out.”

Ainge confirmed one of his moves already on Thursday when he announced he will extend a qualifying offer to Jae Crowder. By extending a qualifying offer to Crowder, the Celtics would make him a restricted free agent.

The key to the summer will likely be how Ainge and his staff handle the extra spending space afforded by the expansion of the NBA salary cap. The Celtics currently have $40.4 million committed to salaries for 2015-16. The current cap number of $63 million is expected to grow to about $66 million next season but could explode to $87 million in 2017. The reason: A brand new nine-year, $24 billion TV deal.

But while the Celtics will have more money to spend, so too will the other 29 teams, creating tremendous cap competition this summer.

“Yeah, that’s a factor,” Ainge admitted. “I think that’s a factor for every team going forward and trying to figure that out and use the cap wisely. We’ll be responsible in how we utilize the cap.”

The pool of potential free agents is impressive. LaMarcus Aldridge, Marc Gasol, Tyson Chandler, DeAndre Jordan and Paul Millsap. All are big men and all could fill a void for the Celtics.

“It all depends,” Ainge said. “It just depends on who’s available, who you can get. We need to use it wisely. We haven’t haven’t ever had cap space I don’t think in the history of the Celtics, for sure, since I’ve been here. We need to use that space wisely. We can’t just spend it because we have it.

“We don’t know any of that yet. We’re not allowed to talk about free agency until July. So, we don’t know any of those. There’s speculation. We’re anticipating that that could be the case, that some people might opt for shorter term deals but we don’t know that. Every player is unique and different.”



bob
MY NOTE:  Not much in the way of "news" here.  What would have been news is if Danny said he was NOT going to extend a qualifying offer to Crowder.  That would have been the end for Sam too, I think he would just turn toes up when he heard that.  I don't think the qualifying offer is going to be enough, though.  Crowder is now on GM's radar and he'll get some decent offers.  I expect, unless the numbers are through the roof, Danny will match them.  Since Crowder will be a restricted free agent with this qualifying offer matching is all he'll have to do.

It's also nice to hear Danny say "we need to have a busy summer". It's all very good to say nice things about your players but I don't want to hear him say "I really like our team now". We need upgrades, it's out there now, so be ready.


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Right Bob, no new news here.

Ainge's moves this summer will very likely dictate the next big step in the post Pierce-Garnett re-build project. He does need to have a 'busy' summer. I think that he needs to add at least 3 'rotation' pieces without losing the team momentum that was so well built this season to get to 50 wins, middle of the pack in the East and a first round playoff victory in 2016.

wide clyde wrote:Right Bob, no new news here.

Ainge's moves this summer will very likely dictate the next big step in the post Pierce-Garnett re-build project.  He does need to have a 'busy' summer.  I think that he needs to add at least 3 'rotation' pieces without losing the team momentum that was so well built this season to get to 50 wins, middle of the pack in the East and a first round playoff victory in 2016.

clyde,

I think Danny has 'rotation' pieces up the wazoo. What he needs is a starter that can hold his own against his counterpart on his off nights and can dominate them on his good nights. That would reduce our starters' usual +/- deficit, at least.

The easy part of Danny's job is done. He has cleared away dead wood and pieces that don't fit long-term or into Brad's system. He has accumulated assets. He has picked up some very, very nice complementary pieces (e.g. Crowder, Jerebko, IT). Now comes the hard part, and that's upgrading the starting 5. Teams tend to be chary of trading away legit, quality starters.

Then again, that's what Danny did with Rondo and Green, and it has turned out pretty well for us.


bob


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One reason to retain both Crowder and Jerebko is that they could very well be the Celtics' best one-two defensive punch against Lebum James; and, like it or not, Lebum's team du jour seems destined to be a major roadblock for any improving team.

Sam