"Yes, Mr. Reporter. I would love to get the hell out of Washington and play somewhere with an actual chance of winning."

According to CSN Washington, the rumored Caron Butler/Antawn Jamison for Ray Allen and some expiring contracts swap still has some legs.

The latest trade rumor, as reported by Yahoo! Sports has the Wizards and Boston Celtics engaging in trade discussions. A league source confirmed to CSNWashington.com that the Celtics have interest in acquiring both Jamison and Butler, and the Wizards interested in Ray Allen, but additional pieces and details are still under discussion and a deal isn`t on the verge of being completed as of yet.

Still, Celtics Hub’s Brian Robb cautions not to get too excited about the prospect of adding Washington’s two stars:

It might make a lot of sense for this year, but if The C’s take on both of their contracts, that is an additional 24 million dollars of salary for next year for just 2 players.

It doesn’t take a math major to put together the problem from there. Add that 24 million dollars to the 63 million the C’s would have already have committed and that would mean The Celtics would have 87 million dollars on payroll committed to just 8 guys for 2010-11. Grant it, it would be a quality 8 players, but that’s still a lot of dough tied up for a little more than half a roster.

So, let’s cut to the chase here. 87 million dollars is just too much for this team (or likely any team) in this economy. Say the luxury tax goes down to 65 million dollars, a conservative estimate based on earlier reports this season. An 87 million dollar payroll would mean a 22 million dollar luxury tax bill on top of all the salaries which means Wyc Grousbeck and company would be anteing up 109 million dollars a year for their roster. That’s a bigger bill than any team in the NBA is paying this year.

Brian, you are a party pooper.

(Note: I originally gave Zach Lowe the credit for being a party pooper. For now, I’ll have to reserve judgment on Zach’s poopiness. It was Brian who wrote the nice piece.)