Are teams going out of their way to make Danny Ainge's job harder?

“Psssst! Buddy! Over here. Have I got a deal for you! Decent passer, good shooter, under rookie control for three seasons at a bargain-basement rate if you pick him up off waivers before the 48 hour deadline! He just needs to bulk up and work on defense, and three years is plenty of time for that!”

Imagine, if you will, a certain general manager in a dark alley, trying to hustle up some cap space while doing a solid dude a solid. About 2.3 million in cap space, actually, according to acclaimed Celtics capologist Ryan Bernardoni (A.K.A. Dangercart):

If Hunter gets claimed the Celtics will have ~$2.3M in cap space, which could pair nicely with a young, cheap player in a mid-season trade

— Ryan Bernardoni (@dangercart) October 25, 2016

The clock, alas, ran out on such an option this morning, perhaps lending credence to the notion teams have it in for Danny Ainge, but more likely reflects the roster crunches other teams face around the league.

At present, ESPN’s Amin El Hassan’s favorite ex-Celtic (OK, maybe this isn’t true, but he and Kevin Pelton seemed pretty tore up about RJ's lack of interest around the league on a recent TrueHoop pod) will likely end up playing in the NBA D-league, secure in the guaranteed money he'll be taking with him as a consolation prize (a cool 1.2 million). He could also end up playing overseas, where he could put together a solid enough campaign to maybe fight his way onto a playoff roster with a team needing cheap depth on the wing.

That cap space (and, for that matter, R.J. landing elsewhere in the league) sure would have been nice, though.



Hunter photo via www.si.com
Follow Justin at @justinquinnn