So far I’ve heard names from Jeff Green, Ray Allen, and Brandon Bass to Marcus Camby, Kirk Hinrich, and Jason Terry. With KG taking nearly $9 million less and players coming off of the books, the Celtics will have some money to spend, including the full mid-level exception.

What Is First On The Celtics Itinerary?

According to multiple sources, Jeff Green is almost a lock as the next player to sign with the Celtics. Contract discussions are still on-going between both sides, but there is a great chance that Green will be back with the team for next season.

The Unknowns

Ray Allen and Brandon Bass are two players that may not be returning to the Celtics.

Allen has been offered a 2 year $12 million contract by the Celtics, but he’s in no rush to sign anything just yet. The Memphis Grizzlies offered him the full mid-level exception, and the Miami Heat offered a 1 year $3 million deal.

The question now is, does Ray choose money and a chance to win another ring, just money and have a chance to make the playoffs, or almost taking a veteran minimum and just wants to take his talents to South Beach and have the chance to win another ring? That is what needs to be answered soon, because I think the Celtics will move on if Ray takes his time on this decision.

Brandon Bass is another player that is getting some buzz as of late. Recently he has been in trade rumors involving a possible swap for Atlanta Hawks power forward Josh Smith. The Celtics would have to sign and trade Bass along with a player or two to acquire the All-Star forward. If thats the price they’d have to pay, I’d say its a no-brainer. Bass was good this season, but I don’t think he’s worth a big contract yet.

The New Faces

Right now O.J. Mayo, Kirk Hinrich, Jamal Crawford, Marcus Camby, Carl Landry, Rashard Lewis, Jason Terry, and plenty of others have all been supposed targets for the Boston Celtics.

In terms of need, most of these players fill the blanks the Celtics have on their roster sheet. There really hasn’t been anything concrete on whether there will be any contact with any of these players, but its obvious the Celtics have a lot of interest in acquiring some of these veterans.

The Old Faces

Marquis Daniels, Sasha Pavlovic, Keyon Dooling, Mickael Pietrus, Ryan Hollins, Chris Wilcox, and Greg Steimsma all are free agents. Out of this list, Steimsma, Wilcox, and Dooling are the only players I’d want to see back in green. Those three players were the most productive off the bench for Boston this season.

You could make the case to bring back Mickael Pietrus, but I was somewhat disappointed in his performance all year. I really thought that he’d be like a James Posey, but maybe thats where I feel a bit let down since he didn’t meet those expectations.

Looking To Next Season

In the 2012-2013 season, I want to see a deep roster on this team. Last year, Danny Ainge constructed a team in about two weeks and the Celtics made it to the Eastern Conference Finals. With about two months of time to work on bringing the pieces together, I wonder what he has in store.

CELTICS 110  GRIZZLIES 105

The Celtics came into the night knowing that Rudy Gay could go off at any moment. He did just that in the first half, but could not find it again in the 2nd half as he scored 17 in the first 2 quarters, but only 6 the rest of the way. The C’s remained consistent throughout, never falling too far behind or getting too far ahead, to put themselves in a position where they could use their veteran ability of having been in those situations many times before, to pull it out in the end.

In a complete team effort, the Celtics had 6 players scoring double digits. Scoring was led by Pierce who hit big 3′s throughout, and clutch shots late in the fourth. Rajon Rondo did his work again, both getting to the basket and hitting his jumpers. The night was capped off by Ray Allen, though. For the first time in a very long time, Ray hit an extreme percentage from deep. He went 5-6 from 3, the biggest of which came with the shot clock running down coming off a tipped pass to put the Celtics out of reach with 17 seconds left. I would not expect anything less.

It was a high scoring night not completely because the Celtics played poorly on defense, but because the Grizzlies are simply good scorers. Randolph, Mayo, Gay, and Gasol all put up good numbers for their team, and they all came out to play. They hit tough shots,  maybe some of them were lucky, but overall I can’t complain too much about the defense. Some of the shots hit were with guys right in their face and on their shooting hand. They made the shots, put in 105, but couldn’t stop us on the other half of the court, as we shot just as well. It had the feeling of a game the Celtics might let slip, but instead took on the challenge and won their 11th straight game and stand at 20-4.

(Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)