Honestly, Indiana may not be able to retain Bender after all. I do believe that he is in the last year of his contract and will perhaps want to be a starter in this league. We need a true 7' with a good shooting touch and post up play.

I would like to explore getting Tyson chandler first, that is assuming his back is ok..... then with the wealth of euro players and Hs players in the draft, there will be talent that drops, I would then package our 2nd round pick with othella and try to move up and grab a late first round pick and see if we can get a swingman like kirk snyder or someone like that...

Posted by kam77:

"sign Blount to close to the full MLE"

Celtics resigned Blount already.

Blount has yet to opt out of his $1 million play option for next year but everyone knows he will. When he does he's a FA... Bos hasnt resigned or extended him.

For you fishmike:

http://www.nba.com/celtics/roster/071603_CelticsReSignMarkBlount.html

Lemme check myself:

The date on that link was from last year, so you may be right about this season.

Go after Harrington rather than Bender. Frank Williams and KT for Harrington and filler. Isiah can talk with Donnie Walsh rather than Bird and Frank Williams would be great behind Tinsley. KT would be a better sixth man than Harrington next year because he is very tough inside and will understand his role off the bench.

As for us Harrington gives us that low post guy and he is just getting better and better. We would lose interior defense and toughness so I think we would need to look at a tough minded, rebounding center.

This also allows us to use Sweetney as a sixth man and move Harrington to the 3. We can address our need for a swingman in the second round or next offseason. We can't do it all at once but this would help us tremendously. It's harder to get a talented big man so if the opportunity arises, we have to jump on it and worry about swingmen later on.

As for Bender. He's more of a two guard than center. His natural position is probably small foward but he wouldn't even be able to keep Tim Thomas out of the paint let alone centers.

Posted by simrud:

Just cause Bender had a good 5 minute strech in a playoff game and was blown way out of proportion by the retarded collar comentators who don't know jack sh**t about basketball doesnt make him anything, let alone a real center. He is slimmer then Camby was. He has no jumper. He has no established postgame. He is a project, who has been in the league for a while now, but he is a highschooler, so he has a chance to develop, but he IS NOT a legit 7 footer YET. And if he is a free agent, he might be worse part of the MLE maybe, or the smaller LLE or whatever they call the other allocated sum to sine for less then the MLE.

He has alot of salaries and good players ahead of him. Bender can play. He's not a post up guy though. I think he is more of a Camby type with a decent jumpshot. He's definately a good shot blocker and finisher. He's worth the trouble but as long as Bird is head of the Pacers you could just squash any trade idea.