CELTICS GREEN BLOG by and for boston celtics fans: A Few Updates on the Celtics and League News

by FLCeltsFan 7:20 PM

First of all, there is a lot of buzz about Rashard Lewis's contract with the Magic. According to ESPN:

Orlando has agreed to a sign-and-trade deal with the Seattle SuperSonics that will allow Lewis to make $126.4 million over the next six seasons, according to NBA sources who requested anonymity. The Magic will send a second-round pick to the Sonics.

He will be getting over 25 million in the 6th year of his contract. Let's put this into a little perspective. The Celtics will have BOTH Paul Pierce and Ray Allen for 106.4 million over the next six seasons. When you look at it that way, The Celtics got a real bargain.

ESPN is also reporting that Gerald Wallace has resigned with the Bobcats for $57 million over 6 years. That is much more reasonable than Lewis's contract.

On FSN tonight, Mike Gorman said that the Celtics are definitely interested in Darko and would offer him the whole MLE (which is $5.356 million for next season). He also said that Memphis has more money than the Celtics to spend and we will have to wait to see if they do offer him more and if he goes for it. Gorman also mentioned that the Celtics have had talks about trading for Camby but they have to see what they would have to give up to get him. He mentioned the fact that Camby has only played in about 60 games per season and that he complains about not getting enough touches and that could be a problem with Pierce, Allen and Jefferson being the top 3 options on offense. Gorman said that there aren't any players available that the Celtics haven't inquired about. He also mentioned that he thinks that the owners wouldn't be set against paying luxury tax if it meant being a contender. He also mentioned that the Garnett talks aren't completely dead, either.

UPDATE: An update to the updates - ESPN is reporting that Darko has agreed to sign with the Grizzlies for 3 years for an amount subtantially above the mid level exception. It was nice to think about for a few minutes, anyway. Now we wait to see if they signed Darko to go with Gasol or to replace him.

Speaking of the Luxury Tax, the NBA has announced the new figures for the 2007-1008 season. The Salary Cap has been raised to $55.630 million and the Luxury Tax threshold has been raised to $67.865 million. The Mid-Level Exception is now $5.356 million. The Celtics payroll right now, before signing their draft picks, is at $63.835 million. Signing them plus using the midlevel exception will put us into the Luxury Tax. Trading Ratliff's contract could help, but then we still need to re-sign Jefferson to at least 8 million of that. Any way I look at it, if we are to bring in players to fill needs and re-sign our talented players, the owners are going to have to spend some money.

Things are heating up with the moratorium on signing free agents over. Some big numbers being tossed around. According to Gorman, we are pursuing everyone who is available that would fill our needs. Keep checking Loy's Place for breaking news as it happens. For now, it's almost game time. I sure hope we play better tonight than we did on Monday.

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