Heat targeting Ray Allen, but he’ll “most likely return”
Ray: "What, Ant, you don't think I deserve the attention?" Anthony Carter: "I'm sorry, Ray. I'm just jealous, that's all."
The Miami Heat are targeting Ray Allen, but he’s not likely to leave Boston. The Heat could possibly turn to a potential Celtic — Mike Miller — should Allen decline their advances. (Yahoo!)
Miami could become the leader for Miller, especially if Heat president Pat Riley needs a third piece to go along with Dwyane Wade and a free agent forward (Chris Bosh, Amar’e Stoudemire or Carlos Boozer).
Riley has long targeted Boston Celtics free-agent guard Ray Allen for the remaining money beyond the Heat’s two max slots, but he’ll most likely return to the Celtics. Riley loves that Miller can rebound his position, as well as spread the floor and shoot.
Miller could command a five-year deal worth $30 million-$35 million. Miller has also had substantial talks with New York, Chicago and Cleveland.
I like hearing that Ray is likely to return to Boston, but I already figured that. If he doesn’t come back, the Celtics will not gain any cap space… so, with that money, it’s either Ray or nothing. Call me crazy, but I’d rather have Ray.
By re-signing Paul Pierce, the Celtics gave up any hopes of building for the future and saving cap space. Ray is now a necessity.
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Around the NBA, Celtics Blog, Featured | Jay King | July 2, 2010
Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Mike Miller, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen
Ya, and the scary thing is his agent knows it. They could bleed boston dry. I’m hoping he wont though, obviously. Ray’s a class act, and I don’t see him raking Boston over the coals, just because he can.
But ya, the bottom line is, they can’t get under cap if he’s gone, so they’d still just have the MLE to use, which wont be enough to bring in Redick, or any other reasonable RA replacement. They have to get him back, there’s no other choice.
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Ray has a lot of leverage with the Celtics, but not as much as you think. The market will still dictate his final contract, and I’m not sure any team would give Ray more than $10-11 million per year for two or three years. That said, I don’t think the Celtics will re-sign Ray quickly. They will probably try to see what the market is and adjust.
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I think they’ll come to him with a 2-3 year 10mil contract. I don’t think he’ll sign right away though, and he’ll wait to see what the market has, then give Boston a chance to match.
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Agreed. We need Ray.
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Since they didn’t trade him at the deadline last season, Why didn’t they just re-sign him? They knew what the situation would be after the season ended. Had they signed him in Feb., they could have always traded him now if they wanted too. Could they have done that last Feb.?just sign him? Plus the way he was playing before the trade deadline, they could have got him for 2 years 15-18 million.
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There might be rules about when you can and cannot negotiate an extension. I’m not at all positive. But even if they couldve, I’m not sure they would have wanted to commit spending money on Ray. He was ice cold in the first half of the season.
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