Corny caption alert: Could Shaq's dance moves be heading to Boston.

Danny Ainge spoke with WEEI today about the offseason, some possible free agents, and the addition of Jermaine O’Neal. Here are some of the topics he touched on. (Click here to read the whole interview.)

To summarize, Rasheed is retiring, Matt Barnes isn’t at all likely, Shaq is a slim possibility, Jermaine O’Neal will help, Kendrick Perkins has a lot of pride in his post defense, Ray Allen was hurt in the playoffs, the Heat are the team to beat and Tony Allen wanted to play a bigger role than the Celtics could offer him. But you should probably read the rest anyway.

On Rasheed Wallace’s retirement - “Rasheed has decided he is retiring. Yes, he’s going to retire.” (Editor’s note: Wallace’s agent won’t say whether he’s retiring.)

On Shaquille O’Neal as a potential free agent - “We’ve had conversations and we’re having ongoing conversations with Shaquille. In order to get Shaquille, it would have to be a sign-and-trade situation, but that door hasn’t been completely slammed, although it’s very unlikely when we sign Jermaine. We have had conversations with the Cavs and with Shaquille’s representatives. I don’t want to mislead you, but I don’t think Shaquille’s that much of a possibility. The door’s not shut, but I don’t think that’s much of a possibility right now, certainly not our top priority.”

On the addition of Jermaine O’Neal- “What was funny is when this whole process started, everybody knew we needed a center, nobody more so than [Kendrick Perkins]. Perk came into my office and he gave me a couple of names and one of the names was Jermaine O’Neal. That was one of the first things I said to Perk was, “Boy, he had a decent year, but he sure struggled for possession in the playoffs.” And Perk said to me, “Don’t hold that against him. Every big man plays bad against me.” Right on down the line, all the guys on the team agreed that he was the best big man available. He’s 31 years old, they played against him, they know Jermaine and I think it was pretty unanimous that he was the guy we would go after. [...] I think Jermaine is younger and I think that Rasheed gave us the kind of performances in the playoffs in stretches that we hoped we would see more in the regular season, but I would hope that Jermaine has a little bit more left in the tank than Rasheed.”

On Matt Barnes’s availability - “The problem with Matt Barnes is that he is a terrific player, he started last year, and he opted out of his contract so I think he has some expectations of making more money than he had than last year. All we have to offer is the veteran minimum.”

On Ray Allen’s cold shooting in the series I want to forget – “Ray Allen got hurt, had a very severe thigh bruise that nobody really talked about in the NBA finals after he had a spectacular game early, in the third game. He had a severe thigh bruise; his legs looked about two inches bigger and all black and blue. Ray had a terrific year, he had his best year of his career shooting inside the arc and then he really stepped up and shot the ball outside the three-point line in the second half of the season, so I’m encouraged that Ray has a lot more left in the tank.”

On Miami as “the team to beat” - ”No matter where LeBron was going to go he was going to be in the Eastern Conference and [his new team was] going to be really good, whether he was staying in Cleveland or New York, New Jersey. The team was going to be built around him and it’s going to be a great team regardless. Three of the top 10 players in the league, including two of the top three, that’s going to be a tough pill to handle. I think they are going to get a supporting cast that can help them win and I think that team’s the team to beat.”

On Tony Allen going to play in Memphis – “Well, first of all, we didn’t let Tony Allen get away. Tony wanted to play, he saw his role here. I think Tony can answer that question more, but we were in the same ballpark, money wise, and we don’t like outbidding [other teams] to keep our own players, but I really believe Tony wanted an opportunity to play more minutes and play a more significant role in the NBA. He’s been playing behind these guys for a while and he wants to show what he’s capable of doing. You got to remember Tony played five minutes in Game 7 and that was the best defensive performance of our entire season. We held one of the top offensive teams to 34 percent shooting. So Tony is wanting to expand his career and play a bigger role and show he can do more than just play defense.”