With the Celtics laying low this week and resting up for the playoffs, my attention is wandering. I've been reading a lot of mock drafts, and I'm curious what rookies you guys would be excited to see drafted by the Celtics next year. Here is a poll with the names of some players that might fall to us.

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This will be short and sweet. We've argued a lot on this forum about what the market value of Garnett and Allen will be next year, what would constitute a "hometown discount" if they stayed, whether they would be valuable to us as a rebuilding team if we resigned them, and so on.

I'm asking this question: How much is a quality rotation player in his mid-thirties worth in NBA free agency?

Here is a first approximation.

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1. Kevin Garnett for JaVale McGee and Rashard Lewis

The Wizards will do this if Kevin will do this. Don't worry, he'd retire before he'd waste a year as a bullet. They might do it anyway... If you think McGee could be something with the right coaching and the right team, you might be in favor of doing this (I don't).

2. Ray Allen for Michael Beasley and Luke Ridnour/JJ Barea

Assurances would be required, of course, that Beasley could be retained. MInnesota might look at this and think Rubio-Love-Allen-Williams-Milicic is a playoff team. I hate this deal.

3. Ray Allen for Enes Kanter and Raja Bell or Paul Pierce for Enes Kanter + Raya Bell and all of Utah's garbage

The amount of muscle on the Jazz is ridiculous, and Bell is a liability. The Jazz probably wouldn't take this deal, but they'd have to think about it. They are a playoff team this year and next year, but they have enough young pieces that you can't really call it a window. Either way, this is a horrible idea and it makes me want to punch you right in the nuts for suggesting it.

4. Paul Pierce for Luol Deng

This is a great win-now move for the Bulls and a solid, young piece for the Celtics. I would rather eat a burrito stuffed with live bol weevils.

5. Ray Allen for Mo Williams and Eric Bledsoe

This gives the Clippers the floor spacer they need and it gives us someone who might have a future at the point. The idea of Ray for so little makes me want to drive thumb tacks through my eyelids.

6. Paul Pierce for Danilo Gallinari and Al Harrington

Harrington and Gallinari are both disappointing, but Harrington's contract is probably reasonable enough that the Nuggets turn this down, window or no window. Still, they'd probably think about it. I would probably think about throwing myself into a tank of alligators.

Feel free to add your own realistic and desperately depressing suggestions in the comments. So help me god, though, if one more person suggests something like Jermaine O'Neal for OJ Mayo because it works on the goddamn ESPN trade machine, I will find you and I will pull you into the alligator tank with me.

I don't understand why anyone, except for possibly Dell Demps, has a problem with what went down Chris Paul. These are the facts as I understand them.

1. The Hornets have exactly 30 owners.

2. Each one of them also owns another basketball team. That means that no major decision whatsoever regarding the Hornets could be made without conflict of interest.

3. Collusion is a nefarious word for joint decision making. What do you call it when 30 people with a jointly held asset have an internal power struggle before they decide what to do with it? I would call it "management."

4. A critical number of those owners either (a) thought that the Hornets could do better than the Lakers offer, or (b) did not want the Lakers to have Chris Paul.

5. The owners who thought (a) were absolutely correct.

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With Chris Kaman going to New Orleans in the Chris Paul deal, the Hornets find themselves with two very good defensive starting centers, a very weak group of forwards, and no one to run the point. Though Eric Bledsoe would have been a better building block for the Hornets, I think that they accepted Chris Kaman either as a tradable asset or as a replacement for Emeka Okafor.

As we all know, acquiring a starting-caliber center is a very difficult thing to do. At present, the Celtics have a few assets that many of us have identified as tradable- the expiring contract of a possibly serviceable Jermaine O'neal, young combo guard Avery Bradley, and of course the highly-valued (or is he worthless?) Jeff Green. MIx that up with two rookies that we are trying to get excited about and one Rajon Rondo who we apparently would just love to move in a 3 team trade that brings us back a new PG with some shooting ability.

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Following the discussion in another thread, I'm curious what you all think will be the final purchase price for the #1 pick in next year's draft. More specifically, what do you think it's worth in players/picks and what do you think it will ultimately go for if it comes down to the Rams trading it away.

I'm sorry to post yet another article about Andrew Luck, but the subject has gotten almost Lebronian. It's too fascinating to stop talking about. I am not advocating pursuit of Luck by the Redskins, nor do I think it's a realistic consideration.

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We all know the routine by now.  Who will join the Redskins and become the highest-paid player at the history of their position this off season?

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After watching for more of last night's game than actually warranted watching, I was curious to see if the Redskins defense is not just horrible, but actually historically bad, as it has seemed to be.  Maybe it isn't fair to pile this on after such a particularly catastrophic loss- but I'm not feeling particularly fair today.  Everyone gets caught with their pants down from time to time, but not everyone keeps their starters on the field only to punt three times when they are losing by five scores.  Nobody's going to make excuses for you when you do that.

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My expert research this morning has revealed that Chad Simpson is either a fictitious, middle-aged seafood entrepreneur or a 5'9,  210-220 lb 3rd-year running back out of Morgan State.  Since Cerrato is no longer in charge, I have assumed the Redskins are presently rostering the latter.  An undrafted free agent in 2008, Mr. Simpson has been toiling away on special teams in Indianapolis for the first two years of his career.  After a five game stint with the Colts practice squad, he began returning kickoffs and took occasional handoffs from Peyton Manning while serving as the team's 3rd-4th string running back behind the likes of Joseph Addai, Donald Brown, Domonic Rhodes and Mike Hart.  He was released by the Colts this off-season, and then picked up and released after a decent pre-season with the Bills in favor of the three-headed monster of C.J. Spiller, Marshawn Lynch, and Fred Jackson.  With the Bills' scrubs, Simpson put up 109 yards and a touchdown on 26 preseason carries.

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UPDATE: the rumor mill is spinning with the following scanario (via http://twitter.com/incarceratedbob)

Haynesworth to Jets, Jets pick + Redskins pick to SD, Jackson to Redskins

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The new settlement between the league and Vincent Jackson will allow him to play in week 5 if he is traded.  The Chargers have until next Friday to work out a trade, otherwise, he will not be eligible to come back from suspension until week 7.

The story is here: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5579273

A bizarre arrangement to be sure.  Here are some facts that I find interesting:

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The Tebow faction was mysteriously absent on April Fool's Day, and Trent Williams ran away with 50% of the vote to secure the #8 slot on the Hogs Haven draft board.

Polling for the #9 slot is now open.  Please vote as though this 1-8 is off the board.  Once again, we are not considering trades; vote your pick according to which rookie you think would be most valuable to the team as presently constituted.

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via images.usatoday.com

According to a story posted minutes ago on SI.com the 33-year old Leaf, who is coming off of stints in the arena league and as a position coach at West Texas A&M, worked out for Redskins staff in Ashburn yesterday morning.  In the story, they say that Leaf has been working out with Michael Gough, who notably designed Brady Quinn's combine and pro day regimen, in order to make his improbable comeback.  

Apparently, Redskins brass were intrigued by the possibility of adding a player of Leaf's pedigree to the already heated quarterback competition brewing in Washington, in spite of a 9-year lapse in the league.  Even more improbably, it seems that Leaf showed some of the form that once made him a heisman finalist and top draft pick in his workout.

According to agent Lee Steinberg, Leaf was scheduled to work out for Raiders coaches this Friday, but has agreed in principle to a deal with the Redskins.  Details of Leaf's contract with the Redskins have not yet been made public, but it is rumored to be in the neighborhood of one year and 1.5 million, with incentives.

Link to the story here. 

FYI, the new Mock Draft is up on Mel Kiper's ESPN insider column.  For non-subscribers, I'll spoil it here

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I'm wondering what the consensus is on our board on this issue.  I asked a few months ago where we thought JC would end up in 2010.  The majority thought he would stay.  In light of the recent talk about Campbell staying or going and how much we can/must upgrade the offensive line, I wanted to poll you on the question of who actually is the best choice.  

My take after the jump.

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The Redskins are, as predicted, scouting college QBs.  This is due diligence- any team in our position would do the same.  Nonetheless, it inspires me to post this poll.

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CarverM prefaced a post today saying "in the off chance the Redskins' FO reads these posts..."  That inspired me, along with the posts from Kurtstack and lallahel to write a rebuilding plan.  With toungue in cheek, let's play a game and figure out what we want the front office to see if they read these posts.

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Observations from last night:

When you add it all up, the Redskins are a horrible football team.  Mosley made the observation that the Redskins are starting three offensive linemen who probably shouldn't even be in the NFL.  What I was surprised to realize last night is that with a functional O-line, this would be a shockingly different team.  If you swapped our O-line for that of, say, the New York Jets, Washington would actually have a wildcard contender again this year.  With Heyer and Williams at the flanks, though, and Jason Campbell under pressure from above to take more risks, expect at least two turnovers per game at the QB position from here on out.

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