Celtics Have The Tools To Change Free-Agent Approach

It's known as covering one's butt from several different directions.  I believe he's more afraid of being wrong than desirous of being right.  Maybe he felt his Monroe Doctrine fulfilled his responsibility to mention an occasional specific.

Sam

The whole 'Danny isn't good at free agency' crap really is starting to bug me. I started watching the Celtics when I moved to Boston in the late 80s, and I don't think the Cs have ever had any real cap space to play with in that time. Looking at what leftovers you can sign for the MLE isn't really related to what you can do when you make a max offer while also having a young team with a good coach, that made the playoffs last year, and where you can give someone the opportunity to be 'the man' as opposed to having to ride LeBron, Kobe, or Melo's coattails. There are people that should be attractive to.

The 'Boston is cold' argument also bugs me. They're playing from October to April (hopefully later), so they should be indoors most of that time in the gym, in practice, watching video, or playing actual games. And they're traveling half the season. It's not like they're moving here to be road workers. They can go live whatever warm place they want the rest of the year.

Likewise the tax argument doesn't really hold a lot of weight. MA personal income tax is much lower that that in CA, NY, IL, etc. I think the only states with NBA franchises that have zero taxes are TX (3 teams) and FL (2 teams). They might have an advantage in negotiations based on that, but only 5 teams have that advantage.

One disadvantage Boston has for the young rich and single is a crappy nightlife scene. Everything closes early, there aren't a huge number of clubs, there aren't any strip clubs and such, etc. I think that's probably more on the minds of young free agents than the weather.

-V

All good points, Baron.  Especially the one about the minimal financial resources Danny has operated with over the years.  Several times, he was hailed for finding creative ways to make something out of nothing.  I'm anxious to see what he can do when operating from a reasonable position of strength.  Players (at least the non-elite ones) tend to focus on things like playing time, opportunity to be in an impact role, an of course money.

As for clubs, is Howard Johnson's permanently closed?  Howard was a great pole guy in his time.

Sam

BaronV

" I moved to Boston in the late 80s, and I don't think the Cs have ever had any real cap space to play with in that time. "

Regarding your above point.  I have spent considerable time trying to find an answer to the question of available cap space for the Celts over the years with no success. I was able to determine that the Celts payroll each year was at the Cap or higher but of coarse that doesn't show how the money was spent.  My guess would be that they never were in the hunt financially to land an elite player that was still in his prime. My research, as I recall, took me back to the Mid eighties.

swish

Thanks Swish. I didn't do any real research but was just going from memory. I can remember a lot of years where there was discussion about who would be signed with the MLE, but not any real big name free agent chases.

-V

The only "big" fish that we were in the running for and lost was David West.  Even he was not all that big, merely MLE-ish.  He took Indy's offer for slightly more money or years, after saying it wasn't about the money, it was about winning (the dirty rat!!).

He would have kept the window open another year or so (IMO) if he would have signed with us, but in my memory, we never has cap space to chase any real big name free agents.

With a full cap after 2008, Danny was praised for the many ways he added to the core.  It just didn't produce end of season results based on early season projections.  Danny learned from this and now is trying a different approach; start from a core of "utes", add seasoning and then add the final piece (or pieces) to get us over the top.  This may not produce a steady climb up each season, but once we get near the top, it should have a longer window of opportunity!

gyso