Make room for Gordon
Ainge has to move bodies for cap space
SALT LAKE CITY — The Celtics were working hard to make a trade last night, and it’s all but certain they’ll be parting company with a rotation player.
The move is necessary for the club to free up salary cap space to get Gordon Hayward at or close to the $29,700,000 maximum contract for which he is eligible.
According to league sources familiar with the Celts’ negotiations, at least one from a group of Avery Bradley, Marcus Smart and Jae Crowder will be on the move.
Sources indicated the C’s had discussed potential trades with several teams, and they were also looking at the possibility of a signand-trade with Utah that would involve Hayward and Crowder. There would be some cap benefits to the Celts in this latter scenario, but they would need to reap some asset(s) from the Jazz beyond simply clearing the proper space for their free agent prize.
Even after renouncing Kelly Olynyk and removing those without guarantees for next season, the Celtics will still need to clear anywhere between $2-4 million. Some of that will depend on cap holds and how the roster shakes out after the expected trades are made, but roster logjams and pending costs will lead to the loss of a regular from the team that won 53 games last season.
Bradley is scheduled to make $8,808,989 this coming season, and he’ll be a free agent looking for more than that next summer. Smart is on the books for $4,538,020 and, unless he reaches agreement on an extension, the Celts will have to give him a qualifying offer of $6,053,719 to make him a restricted free agent and maintain the right of first refusal a year from now.
Crowder has three years left at $6,796,117, $7,305,825 and $7,815,533. His situation became cloudier with the drafting of Jayson Tatum and Hayward’s decision to accept the Celtics’ pitch.
Also, as much as the Celts know and appreciate what Bradley and Crowder can do, they were prepared to deal them to Indiana with draft picks for Paul George.
Team president Danny Ainge wasn’t in position to get into specifics yesterday, but it’s clear from simple roster math that the Celtics will have to make some cuts and-or trades to get down to the limit, and that’s before they figure out what to do with Guerschon Yabusele, a 2016 first-round pick who spent the season in China with a late cameo for Maine in what’s now known as the G-League.
“We have too many players, no matter what,” Ainge said. “We’re going to have to make moves. That’s obvious.”
As for the problems that creates, he said, “It’s better to have a lot of players you like than a lot of players you don’t like.
“I have a great fondness for our guys. This last year was spectacular. But it’s never fun to say goodbye to a young player that’s developed or a player that you’ve seen grow. At the same time, you feel like you’ve done your job in helping them become the best that they can become.”
Demetrius Jackson was held out of last night’s summer league game here against San Antonio, and while it’s likely the $650,000 he’s guaranteed as part of his $1,384,750 salary for 2017-18 will have to be eliminated as part of this clearing process, team officials insisted his night off was just part of the point guard rotation and that he’ll likely play tonight against the Jazz.
With the need to clear roster and cap space, coupled with the need to acquire a rebounder, the Celtics are working on two fronts that may or may not be separate.
Once they sign Hayward and are capped out, they will likely be looking at cap exceptions to sign a player. In that case, the longer it takes the club to work out the first set of moves could impact what’s left in the free agent pool.
“Every team has to do it,” said Ainge. “Every team has to juggle lots of moving parts. Players have to juggle, too. They have to listen to what’s out there. It’s a challenging time of the year for us and everybody in the league.”
The proper combination of young players and veterans also figures into the equation as both a rotation and a salary structure are considered.
“It’s tough but again it’s something each team has to do,” said Ainge. “You have to prioritize a timeline, and if it’s unclear, you see a lot of mixed timelines.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t have great teams with young players on them, because there have been a lot of those teams over the years. But you also need rookie-scale contracts to build a quality team, just from the standpoint of managing a payroll.”