Danny Ainge says he has had conversations with Ray Allen about Allen’s future, and — despite a report saying Allen is leaning toward signing with the Miami Heat — believes the sharp-shooter is still open to a Boston Celtics return. (ESPN Boston)

“Yeah, I think Ray’s open to coming back,” Ainge said. “But, listen, I don’t know. I won’t even get into details with talking to players other than the exit interviews and Ray was getting rehab here, and we’ve talked. So I have a feel of where his head is, but I’ll know more in July.”

“I have had conversations with Ray, yes,” Ainge said. “Not contract-specific, but just sort of what his hopes and future [are], what he thinks about our team and would he like to come back and all those types of things. But I haven’t had any more specifics and on July 1 we’ll talk more to Ray.”

Allen has said his biggest concern this summer is job security. He doesn’t want to be mentioned in trade rumors every week or two, and he definitely doesn’t want to re-live what happened at the 2012 trade deadline, when he was reportedly told to pack his bags before ultimately going untraded and remaining with the Celtics. In mid-April, Allen was asked by the Boston Herald how he would react if Ainge offered him a one-year deal this summer.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” he said of the scenario. “But I don’t want to go into this season, like I have in past seasons, worrying about whether I was going to be traded or not. At this point we want to ride it out, take this thing to the house, and not have the instability of not knowing whether today or tomorrow something is going to happen.

“For all of us, you deal with that over the course of your career, but wherever I end up after this summer, that has to be the No. 1 mandate. At this time I owe it to my family to be ultimately selfish, because I’ve been a very unselfish team player, and I’ll always do that. But when it comes to myself and my family, I have to make sure that I don’t rock their worlds or put them off kilter in any fashion.”

Do the Celtics have any chance to keep Allen? If he values stability more than anything else, probably not. Ainge isn’t likely to stop fielding offers for any of his players, especially considering that the 2012-13 Celtics could very well remain in a state of limbo between rebuilding and maintaining status quo. The Celtics’ best chance of keeping Allen is to convince him that his history with the team is worth a little uncertainty regarding where (and when, and if) Ainge will send him packing. That, or overwhelm Allen with money, since most teams likely to pursue the two-guard won’t have as much cash to spend as Boston.

Two surgeries are better than one? Not exactly, but in this case Avery Bradley requires a second operation “shortly” to fix his other shoulder. (Boston Herald)

The first phase of Avery Bradley’s shoulder issues may be complete, with the Celticsguard recovering from May 30 surgery on his left shoulder. The second phase — surgery on his right shoulder — is scheduled to begin “shortly,” according to a league source. Though not as serious as the condition of the left, which popped out of joint four times during the playoffs, the right shoulder was damaged in part as a result of Bradley attempting to compensate for the pain in his left.

The delay between surgeries is designed to ensure Bradley regains motion in his left shoulder before the right one goes under the knife.

The Celtics are hoping he’ll be ready for the start of training camp in early October, when the team is scheduled to play exhibition games in Istanbul and Milan.

Bradley’s development requires him to be locked into a gym, by himself, with a basketball, and shoot jumpers and work on ball-handling all day long, seven days a week. Instead, with both his shoulders recovering from surgery, he will be resigned to running on the treadmill and otherwise trying to remain in shape without using either of his arms. For a 21-year old who still requires plenty of refinement, losing a summer equals missing out on a chance to climb the next two rungs on the ladder toward stardom.

Also, Bradley playing as long as he could with his shoulders both destined for surgery tells me everything I need to know about what’s inside his chest.

The Boston Celtics are entering an offseason maze.

They have four players currently under contract for 2012-13. Kevin Garnett is pondering retirement and his decision figures to be the first domino to fall. But even Garnett’s choice will only begin to define an offseason which will require Danny Ainge to fill 11 roster spots while deciding whether to continue with the Big Three era past its expiration date or fully commit to rebuilding the Celtics around Rajon Rondo.

To make the scenario even more confusing, the decision isn’t entirely Ainge’s. Garnett could retire, Ray Allen could walk, Brandon Bass and Mickael Pietrus and Jeff Green and Chris Wilcox and Greg Stiemsma and a few other dudes who may or may not be worth mentioning could all leave for non-green pastures. The Celtics could potentially have a fair amount of cap space, but even that isn’t a certainty due to salary cap holds. Even if they do, the free agency crop is weak.

All of which leaves Boston’s destination (and 2012-13 roster) a mystery, even to owner Wyc Grousbeck. (WEEI)

“I think it’s fair to say when you look at the roster and you see who is under contract for next year starting with [Rajon] Rondo and [Paul] Pierce, and then you see who isn’t under contract — obviously a number of very good players are coming off deals with us including all the way to Brandon Bass and [Mickael] Pietrus and other people opting out or being free agents — the picture is not in place for next year yet. There are free agents available this summer as well from other teams, and there are a bunch of free agents available next summer from other teams, potentially.

“We can let this play out. We want to stay competitive. We want to stay contenders if we possibly can, but we really want to get banner 18, and sometimes you need a lot of luck to get a banner, I can tell you that. But we will see how this plays out over the next couple of years.”

So much could change, or so little. It’s easy to envision Ainge clearing house and starting the rebuilding process ASAP, and it’s easy to envision another year of the Big Three desperately attempting to hang on to their window of opportunity which should have closed years ago. (Though reports seem to agree Allen is pretty much a goner, the Celtics could very well have the most money to re-sign him. Also, there’s a familiarity in Boston which could pull him back in a sixth-man role even though he’ll probably have opportunities to start elsewhere.)

Change is coming. It might come swiftly, or it could begin gradually and take another year or two. But it’s coming, at some point, sooner or later, once the Celtics figure out a direction to navigate their way out of this maze of limbo.

Brandon Bass plans to opt out of the final year of his contract (worth $4.25 million), his agent told CSNNE.com today.

However, all indications are that Bass is hoping to return to the Celtics with a multi-year deal.

“Oh absolutely,” his agent Tony Dutt said when asked if Boston was his client’s first choice. “Without question, he would love to go back.”

An incomplete list of things that would surprise me more than Bass’ opt-out:

• Russell Westbrook wearing something strange to Game 2 of the NBA Finals
• Kevin Durant scoring more than two points tonight
• Ryan Hollins grabbing fewer than 10 rebounds in his next NBA game
• Doc Rivers referencing the NBA gods the first time the Celtics fall by a slim margin to a miserable team next season
• Stephen A. Smith screaming at the top of his lungs during a SportsCenter segment that lasts far too long
• Hearing Rajon Rondo’s name mentioned in trade rumors at some point within the next 365 days
• Chris Broussard encouraging a barrage of Tweets tonight by thousands of people infuriated with ABC’s pre-game coverage
• JaVale McGee making far more money than he’s worth this summer

No, Bass opting out isn’t a surprise. He should earn a considerable pay raise in free agency, whether it comes from the Celtics or elsewhere.

Bosh playing without minute restrictions tonight. "It's put up or shut up," he said.

June 7, 2012 12:37 pm via Tweetbot for iOSReplyRetweetFavorite

@MiamiHeraldHeat

Joseph Goodman

Erik Spoelstra said Bosh will be able to handle a larger load Thursday than he did in Game 5. I guess it’s more “fair” now that Bosh has one game under his belt since returning from lower-abdominal surgery.

“He’s fine. He should be able to play more minutes,” Spoelstra said Thursday, according to Ira Winderman. “He should be able to handle a bigger load. I doubt he can handle his load that he was playing before, 36 minutes, but he should be able to play more tonight.”

I still don’t understand why Bosh stayed silent on the bench Tuesday night when Spoelstra decided to bench him. But oh well.

Doc said Ray's ankle "locked" on him again, needed team doctor to "unhinge" it. Doc says he'll be fine for tomorrow night.

June 6, 2012 3:47 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@DDuggan21

Dan Duggan

Ray’s been a warrior dealing with pain through these playoffs. And just in time, he finally remembered how to hit free throws.