Celtics busy on phones as trade talks pick up

CSNE

A. SHERROD BLAKLEY

BOSTON — While no deal is imminent, the Boston Celtics are making and taking their share of calls to see what is available via trade and just as important, what other teams think of their players.

While most of the attention regarding Boston's future has been focused on free-agent-to-be Rajon Rondo, he remains a player that teams are still very much in wait-and-see-mode about as far as making a pitch for him.

As reported earlier by CSNNE.com, Jeff Green's stock continues to rise in the eyes of a number of NBA teams.

He has been the Celtics' most consistent player this season and is poised to be one of the top players available this summer if he decides to opt-out of his contract and become a free agent.

Other Celtics whose names have come up in recent weeks as potentially being on the move soon are Brandon Bass and Marcus Thornton who are both free agents this summer.

Boston would love to unload Gerald Wallace's contract which has $20.2 million over the next two seasons remaining, but that would be difficult to do considering his lack of production at this point in his career and the amount left on his deal.

The Celtics like Detroit's Greg Monroe, but multiple league sources told CSNNE.com that the 6-foot-11 big man is "highly unlikely" to be traded.

By signing a qualifying offer last summer, Monroe has the right to veto any trade offer that the Detroit Pistons would consider.

But if a deal came along that was to his liking and he decided to not use his veto power, Monroe would have to forgo his Bird rights which would limit the amount that potential suitors could pay him because in losing those Bird rights, teams could not go over the salary cap to acquire him.

Monroe is expected to stay with Detroit for the rest of the season and see what his value is as an unrestricted free agent this summer.

The Celtics aren't the only team looking hard to get a deal done sooner rather than later.

Yahoo Sports! NBA writer Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted earlier today that, "Among most active teams on phones: (in no order): Celtics, Pistons, Suns, Timberwolves, Hornets, Clippers, Pacers, Nets, Nuggets, Rockets."

112288

it's almost like CHRISTMAS!!!!

Until they get a defensive intimidator in the middle, the Celtics have no valid way to evaluate the potential of this team or any of its parts.

fAn intimidator (1) who would make it more difficult for opponents to use the pick-and-roll with abandon against the Celts and (2) whose defensive rebounding could be the linchpin to a more uptempo attack.

There are other holes to fill, but they take second place to the need for the right guy. The more attractive trading assets Danny uses on other types of players, the less likely it is that we'll weel Mr.Intimidator soon.

Sam

SAM,

We may be waiting a while for such a center.

Slim pickings out there.....wonder about the Euro League?

112288

sam wrote:Until they get a defensive intimidator in the middle, the Celtics have no valid way to evaluate the potential of this team or any of its parts.

fAn intimidator (1) who would make it more difficult for opponents to use the pick-and-roll with abandon against the Celts and (2) whose defensive rebounding could be the linchpin to a more uptempo attack.

There are other holes to fill, but they take second place to the need for the right guy.  The more attractive trading assets Danny uses on other types of players, the less likely it is that we'll weel Mr.Intimidator soon.

Sam

we all agree for the most part.

the question is where is that guy?

no one is trading away a LEGIT NBA Center with good to great defensive skills PERIOD. they are too hard to find to trade one.

MAYBE HIbbert could have been had last off-season (though there was no serious talk of Bird looking to move him), but I can't think of any others.


Gasol in the off-season as a Free agent?

Stand in line and like I showed in other threads there is NO CAP space to sign Gasol (or any other top dollar FA) next season.

so we are left with the draft.

I haven't looked that closely at the children coming out in this years draft, but I can say with pretty good confidence that their is not ONE Defensive center who is a game changer in thier diapers for next years draft and if there is one we'll need one of the top three picks to get the kid.


so we need a defensive Center...great.


doesn't make it possible right now.

Frankly , we got LUCKY that Cleveland was do desperate to dump salary for Love that we got Zeller!

Ya, you are right.  Now I must suggest Perk as an interesting plug and play for a few years.  Remember how he battled Howard where Howard could not score on him.  He could come cheap although not this year.....and would help in keeping Rondo here.

112288

There are teams like Minnesota who have more than one qualified centers on their rosters. It's Danny's job to pry one loose and to make the money work in a trade. He has proven creative, on both scores, in the past—just not with an intimidating center. If they want to give me Danny's salary, I'll be happy to call around and see if I can make other teams listen to me. I'm not bullish on free agents because, especially where big men are concerned, they're very likely to land a retread will spend more time in the trainer's room than on the floor. As for the draft, I could only hope the Celtics would be as fortunate in landing a productive center as they have been in the past five years. NOT!

Sam

112288 wrote:Ya, you are right.  Now I must suggest Perk as an interesting plug and play for a few years.  Remember how he battled Howard where Howard could not score on him.  He could come cheap although not this year.....and would help in keeping Rondo here.

112288

I'm all for bring in back Perk...

In fact consider rondo- smart green-- bradley- sully- k.o your core and then work at bringing back the old gang...

Kg- pp- tony allen- perkins and big al...

Use every pick we got for next few yes except the Brooklyn ones and make it happen. We'd get a new two year window and a retooling once the cap explodes...

So New Orleans wasn't able pick up Asik on the cheap? There's no such thing as impossible, and there are creative ways to get deals done, including multi-team trades.

Sam

New Orleans had the room to absorb Asik's salary.

either we didn't or Ainge didn't think Asik was worth it.

you got me on Dieng at Minny...I'm on record as saying he is the guy we need in the middle.

not so much Pekovic, he's not much help on defense I am afraid.

so yes we COULD try to pry Dieng from Minny ( I bet that will cost a WHOLE LOT of assets tough) and some here are on record as saying he's not worth much already.

I did forget about Cauley- Stein in the draft I have to admit. He could be a nice piece for us....after about 2-3 years of NBA seasoning.

on another note and for what it's worth:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources--celtics-rajon-rondo-212808679.html