Boston Celtics
7/8 Signed Rasheed Wallace
Rasheed comes to Boston with the express goal of giving them another shot at the title in 2009-10. At this point, Boston is playing a risky game. Bringing Wallace to Boston gives the Celts another key player approaching his mid-30s. Wallace will be 35 the coming season and coming off of his worst season since 1997-98. He’s still pretty good but Wallace did decline slightly in nearly every category and his free throw rate, never a strength, was a career low by far. That being said, Wallace can still play pretty well and, as a role player, should be quite valuable for 2009-10. The price isn’t bad either (a reported three years and $18 million). Wallace doesn’t put the Celtics back up with Cleveland and Orlando but if the older guys are healthy and can still play, Boston isn’t far off.
Cleveland Cavaliers
7/9 Re-signed Anderson Varejao
The reports are not quite clear on the value of this deal Patrick McManamon from the Akron Beacon Journal reported that the deal has a potential value of about six years and $50 million but, without incentives, is five years and $37 million. Through his early 20s, Varejao hasn’t really improved but has held steady and should be able to do the same the next five years. In short, the contract has his value pegged pretty perfectly.