I doubt PG will opt in unless he agrees to be traded somewhere. Hopefully he’s helpful to the young wings.

I would check your spreadsheet with Spotrac, they are generally more accurate, as they often have information other places don’t.

I don’t think the plan is to have money, but to have tradeable contracts. Let’s say we wanted to spend up to the 2nd apron next year, you basically have to have those contracts on your team already or use the TMLE.

If we extend Walsh and sign our 2027 1st next off-season, it’s likely we are right at the 2nd apron with a bunch of tradeable contracts.

We can’t add money, but we’d have the salaries to match anyone on the market

This sounds right, and why we’ll be a tax paying/first apron team next year and the idea is to trade Paul George’s salary, not let him go to create cap space. Teams realistically don’t have cap space anymore unless they’re completely hitting reset. This is why you don’t see max free agents hitting the market. LeBron is an exception this year but that’s why hypotheticals have him taking less. There is no more NBA where Kevin Durant goes to Golden State or LeBron goes to Miami for some of the most money in the league.

This year we’ll stay under the tax, next season we’ll try to flip George for an upgrade, possibly extend Walsh and Garza, then in 2028-29 we spend whatever it takes to build the best possible team. Bonus points if we can stay under the 2nd apron, but I don’t think it will be likely if we have Tatum and another star making a combined $130M+ that season.

The entire idea of contending is winning a championship, and I don’t believe the Celtics thought they could have done so with Tatum, Brown, and what they could acquire for surrounding pieces. So after they missed out on Giannis, they took Paul George’s contract to have it be an expiring, took the extra picks, and are fishing for their white whale next season.

Tatum + Brown + a bunch of role players were not going to win a championship in the next 4 seasons. Tatum + someone better than Brown + a bunch of role players in a 3 year window, we have a chance.

This entire thing hinges on who we can flip Paul George for. At minimum, it has to be a 3rd team All-NBA player (top 15-20), which Brown was, but someone that fits better alongside Tatum like a big or PG he can run PnR with. Or needs to be a top 10 player and you can make the talent work.

This is a good resource that I use.

With the current CBA here’s the pathway to contention lately:

• Be above the 2nd apron (what we were in 24’, CLE last year)

• have franchise cornerstones on rookie contracts ( Chet/Williams in ‘25, Spurs this past year with Wemby/Castle/Harper)

• One superstar + collection of role players on value contracts capable of playing at or near a all star level on a given night (Hali + Indy group)

• Be Jalen Brunson who took a huge pay cut to allow the Knicks to stay together and be under then 2nd apron

Now let’s look at some of the 2nd options this past year for teams. KAT is the ultimate Jekyl/Hyde 2nd banana his entire career, and the Knicks won it. Fox was anywhere from passably bad to bad in the playoffs and the Spurs were close. Williams essentially missed the entire playoffs and OKC still got to game 7 of the WCF.

You’re still thinking of ‘we need Jaylen’ to compete with these other teams, but the truth of the matter is that if most teams - even contenders - don’t have a reliable 2nd option up to Jaylen’s standards, than you really don’t. If you pay Jaylen, then the rest of your roster becomes a shell of what they were. Look at the Nuggets these last 3 years. They decided we’re sticking with Jokic and Murray - let the rest of the supporting cast wither away, and have not made it back to the conference finals since. They are what very, very easily could be our future if we extend Jaylen for the full max.

Now once you trade Jaylen, look what you can now do.

• stay under the cap and let the repeater tax reset this year so that the year after you can go over the apron again and try and compete.

• open up minutes and increase ball handling responsibilities to Pritchard/Hugo/Baylor/Walsh. Can PP become borderline all star with more usage? Can 1 to all 3 wings take another step/leap forward to becoming a value contract; useful both as a rotational support piece when we contend again or as a trade asset.

• we are among the best teams in the league in player development. We took Hauser, Kornet, and Queta from D-league, almost out of the league into genuine rotation players. Hauser played real minutes for us in ‘24, Kornet this past year backing up Wemby. Queta will finally get his full year next to JT who has made every center (from Theis, to timelord, to Kornet) look the best in their career. I believe we can take some of our young guys and develop them further, turn them into assets.

This is the optionality that Brad was talking about. This upcoming season is 100% a transition year, but it can answer some important questions. What if PP becomes almost all-star level offensive player? Now you wouldn’t need to go after a big scoring option. What if Hugo becomes a major value rookie contract that you have locked up for 3 more years? Now you’re heading into 27-28 season with a war chest of first round picks, most of your support already set, and don’t need to add anywhere near a ‘Edwards or Luka’ type player.

If we keep Brown, the floor of what we are is higher. I agree with this. We feel at minimum a 50 win regular season team, but come playoffs… the ceiling I think is lower long term. You cap out your potential because 70% of your money is tied to max guys in Tatum (worth it) and Brown (not).

This is the only take

You’re still not getting it. Once PG is gone they can’t afford to replace it with a contract for the same amount. We will not be getting a Luka. We have a Jayson, that’s our one superstar. It’s a “brave” new world and the new CBA doesn’t allow teams like the 2024 Celtics.

Are you aware that OKC traded Lu Dort for 2 SECOND round draft picks. It was a total salary dump. Most players making north of 50M going forward are, ironically, going to be nearly worthless unless they’re the ONE guy.

He is like Rudy Gay imo, Rudy was very useful with the Spurs. I would like to add more talent to this team

I’d rather give guys like Scheierman, Walsh, Hugo, and Harper Jr minutes