His first order of offseason business has been taken care of with the re-signing of Coach Doc Rivers.
Next on the agenda for Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge is preparing for the June 23 draft with his team holding the Nos. 25 and 55 picks.
After that, Ainge would like to dive right into free agency beginning on July 1 in an attempt to find help for an aging team looking for younger pieces.
With the contract between the league and its players set to expire at the end of June and no resolution in sight, though, Ainge and every other basketball boss will likely having to wait a while for the free-agent market to open.
The Celtics have plenty of holes to fill on their roster, but they don’t know what the salary cap is going to look like or what a new labor agreement is going to bring to a league that might not be doing business all summer.
That is going to make it difficult for Ainge and his counterparts to formulate a game plan as to how to go about putting a roster together for the 2011-12 season, whenever that may begin.
The last time the NBA had labor issues was 1998 when the start of Paul Pierce’s rookie season was delayed until February and only 50 games were played.
For now, Ainge will size up the potential draft picks and look long and hard at the free agents who will be looking for work once the labor problems are resolved.
“When we learn what the new rules will be and we learn how much money we have to spend and what sort of things we can and can’t do, we’ll be prepared,’’ Ainge said recently. “We’ll be preparing for lots of different scenarios and following collective bargaining conversations, hoping that nothing happens and we can go as is or move forward on July 1st. But we’ll be prepared for anything.’’
The Celtics have little wiggle room under the present salary-cap system. The cap for the 2010-11 season was $58 million and the team was well over that.
Including Ray Allen (who has a player option worth $10 million for next season), the Celtics have committed a little over $70 million to Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Allen, Rajon Rondo, Jermaine O’Neal, Avery Bradley, Shaquille O’Neal and Jeff Green (counting a $5.9 million qualifying offer they will make to him to keep him a restricted free agent).
This will not be the summer when the Celtics can get a high-priced free agent, though only Pierce and Rondo (for a total of $27.8 million) are under contract for the 2012-13 season. A year ago, Ainge was able to sign the two O’Neals, Von Wafer and Delonte West.
“There’s a lot of players out there who are good players,’’ said Ainge, “and we need to improve our team to have a crack at it this year, and we hope to be able to do that this summer.
“We just need to get talent. Scoring droughts have been a problem we’ve had the last couple of years. I think our defense has been consistently good the last few years, but for whatever reason, we have too many scoring droughts at crucial times in game.’’
The Celtics will try to find an athletic player who can score, whether it be through trades or free agency.
They do have one of the Los Angeles Clippers’ first-round draft picks in 2012 (via the Kendrick Perkins trade with Oklahoma City) to use as a chip as well.
Perhaps something could be done on the night of the draft, and if not, Ainge will have to wait and see how everything plays out before the real wheeling and dealing begins.
“Every team’s in the same boat,’’ said Ainge. “We’re just sitting and waiting for those answers. We know some possibilities. We read what you guys read and follow that and we have an owner that can keep us updated on how things are going. You’ve got to be a little bit flexible.’’