The Roster is Just About Set

The Celtics roster (graphic from hoopshype.com) has just about taken form. All but one of the 15 slots is filled, and the Celtics have reached an interesting part in this off-season. Here's what I think about where we stand.

• The only position the C's may add would be a backup PG. However, I would think Eddie House could handle the backup duties for now, and if he can't we could always find a PG via the FA wire or by trading one of our expiring contracts for one. To put our roster to the max of 15 players would put us in the same possible roster crunch that we were in last year when we had to pay to give away Patrick O'Bryant and Sam Cassel to get Mikki Moore and Stephon Marbury.
• Another question floating around is unsigned second round pick Lester Hudson. He broke his finger during the summer, but is a very intriguing prospect. The C's and Pacers waited weeks to find a third team that could take a Celtics player (Tony Allen, Brian Scalibrine, or JR Giddens), probably because they wanted the flexibility to sign Hudson.
  
• According to NBA.com. The NBA's luxury tax starts at $69.92 million. That means the Celtics are roughly $14.3 million over. They must pay a $1 tax for every dollar they go over, so it will be a hefty hall we paid to lock up the bench (roughly $11 million for Sheed, Baby, and Marquis). We have to give props to Danny Ainge for acknowledging the weakness this team had and to Wyc Grousbeck for opening up his wallet in tough times this offseason.

Many teams have improved this off-season, but this roster after all of the additions is better than any in the NBA.

_________________________________________________________
OK, I am sending my computer out tomorrow to get fixed. I will post when I can.