SQ14 #8 Roster Games (or Other Forms of Self Abuse)

If you are a glutton for punishment, spend a lot of time thinking about the current roster, about which you (or even Danny Ainge I fear) can do almost nothing.  At some point my OCD, or perhaps my database background, drives me to shuffling my basketball cards, figuring out new ways to stack them, revise old ways to organize them, alternate ways to reorder them.  On good days it leads me to feel like I almost got a glimpse of some elusive insight.  Other days, far too often,  it just leaves me mired in the fog.

I offer some of my permutations, see if they spur any useful thoughts for you.

C’s salary by position:
PG RR 12.9   MS 3.3   PP 0.8  total PG 17.0
SG AB 7.2  MT 8.6  JY 1.7              SG 17.5
SF  JG 9.2  ET ~3.0  GW 10.1          SF 22.3
PF  JS 1.4  KO 2.1  BB 6.9               PF 10.4
C   TZ 1.7  VF2.1  JA 3.8                  C   7.6
Trade chip KB 5.3  CJ 0.9  CB 0.8    TC  7.0

Or if you cut it to two per position and most likely to be here next year:
PG 16.2  SG 8.9  SF 12.2  PF 3.5  C 3.8    total $44.6M

Say the NBA just (hypothetically) announced an expansion.  The last time (2004) each of the 29 NBA teams could protect a maximum of eight players.  So, which are your eight?  In some respects this “ordering” of the roster is kind of like writing for a newspaper column--excising from the bottom up yields the least loss of value.  In this case that is some weighted formula of current value, future potential, current salary, current contract length, and scarcity of comparable skills.  Here is an attempt with something of a weighting rationale (scale --, -, 0--, 0-, 0, 0+, 0++, +, ++) :
RR--skills ++, salary +, contract expiring -, scarcity +, future potential 0
JG--+, 0, -, +, 0
AB--+, 0, +, +, 0
MS--0+, +, +, +, +
JS--0+. +. +, 0, +
KO--0+, +, +, 0, +
JY--0+, +, +, 0, 0+
TZ--0+, +, 0, 0, 0+
________________
VF--0+, +, -, 0+, 0+
ET--0+, +. 0. 0. 0

Another approach almost guaranteed to drive you crazy is the reverse exercise, cutting deadwood where the criteria are value on court, salary, contract length.  Once again, my hit list:
Joel Anthony--minimal value, moderate salary, 1 yr left on contract
Gerald Wallace--slight, big, 2 yrs
Brandon Bass--fair, moderate high, 1 yr
Marcus Thornton--mixed, high, 1 yr
Perhaps Thornton should be above Bass but Brandon’s playing time hurts the development of Sullinger and Olynyk.  One would think Bass would be the easiest to move, but apparently the Warriors were unwilling to take him with Boston getting only a TPE and one of those highly protected (unlikely) 2nd round picks.  Wallace probably can’t be moved without Danny having beastiality pictures of the opposing GM. 

I’m sure Ainge would like to have at least three of these roster positions open, but it just doesn’t look likely before camp.  During October we can hope some other team’s misfortune creates opportunities.  Until then we can be sure that a large portion of the Celtics fans pounding on ESPN trade checker will be including one or more of that deadwood list.

Clean House
For the real blow-it-up fan(atics)--keep only young’uns:
PG Smart, Pressey
SG Bradley, Thornton
SF Turner, Young
PF Sullinger, Olynyk
C Zeller, Faverani

Some lists are shorter when stated in the negative.  Players who can not play more than one position:
Rondo, Pressey, Bradley, Thornton,
Hey I didn’t say the others could play two positions well.  I’m crediting each of our power forwards with playing at the center position, although not always with distinction; but I’m still not including Bradley as a PG.

Got a Roster Game Perversion of your own that you would like to share?  Did any of these exercises give you a flash of understanding?  I’d welcome any light you could shine on the subject; it might even cut through the fog.

Just 56 days until training camp.
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