I recently started a series of posts about my exploration of an NBA with a hard salary cap and other features.

Here’s how the 2011 offseason in such a hard cap world worked out:

• Boston Celtics Release

  • Von Wafer ($872k)

  • Semi Erden ($1.2M)

  • Delonte West ($1M)

  • Troy Murphy ($1.2M)

  • Jermaine O’Neal (678k)

  • Marquis Daniels ($1.1M)

  • They preferred not to release the last three but are now under the cap. The Celtics’ popularity inflates the jersey sales and all-star votes of their players, forcing salaries upward (those two measures account for 5% apiece of the player salary formula, which is re-calculated after each season).

Draft picks are no longer tradeable in this alternate NBA universe. To account for trades that involves future picks, the NBA awards supplemental first round picks in a one-time-only Compensation Draft.

• Boston Celtics

  • Owed three 2nd. round picks

  • Conversion: Receive the #6 pick in the special supplemental draft (#18 overall)

The Celtics use this pick to select Markieff Morris of Kansas.

The Celtics also grab LaVoy Allen of Temple, using their Atlantic Division locality in the Regional Draft.

Free Agent Signings

C Kosta Koufos

W Gerald Green

Terelle Harris

Gary Forbes

2011-12 Season

• Celtics place Jeff Green on IR before the season starts
• With Ray Allen injured, the Celtics go an abysmal 3-12 to open the season
• At the trade deadline, the 30-25 Celtics are 5th out of 12 teams in a race for 6 playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, but GM Danny Ainge doesn’t like any of the deals floating around and would prefer to watch and learn the new system before making any major moves
• In the stretch run, the brilliance of Kyrie Irving and the Toronto Raptors passes up the Celtics, but the sinking ship of the Indiana Pacers keeps Boston in the #5 seed
• The Opening Round of the playoffs is now a giant double round that whittles the total playoff field from 16 to 4 teams and takes 7 losses to eliminate each team
• Despite getting ahead in the first quarter twice @Indiana, the Celtics wilt and get blown out twice by the youthful Pacers
• The Pacers shocked a lot of people by completing the sweep of the Celts despite two big scoring efforts from Courtney Lee
• Back at home, the Celtics fiercely defended their home turf against Andrew Bynum and Philly for two games in a row, surviving Evan Turner’s big OT
• The Celtics lost two in a row to the Bulls in Boston, though Derrick Rose went down with an injury at the end of the second game
• In yet another home game, Paul Pierce outgunned Rudy Gay down the stretch to keep the Celtics alive at Toronto
• The Celtics at least outlasted the Detroit Pistons in the East playoffs (who were eliminated before this night), but went down to a great performance from Joakim Noah and the Rose-less Bulls in Chicago, for their seventh and eliminating loss.

2012 Offseason

• Boston Celtics release

  • 1 Charles Jenkins

  • 2 1 Ray Allen $4,890,875

  • 5 Kosta Koufos $2,819,521

  • 3 2 Gerald Green $1,890,274

  • 2 3 Terrelle Harris $890,954

The salary cap bites again for the Celtics after a strong comeback season for Kevin Garnett and solid campaigns from Koufos and Gerald Green, causing them to cut both of the former and long-time Celtic Ray Allen due to the 2012 salary adjustments.

Close to the cap, the Celts never got in position to draft a player in the 35-man Regional Draft (they didn’t have a Lottery pick due to being a playoff team), and filled their roster with two free agent signings Chris Johnson and Sasha Pavlovic and one D-League call-up for the league minimum.

Boston Celtics 2012-13 Pre-Season Roster

*in addition to guaranteed salary owed contractually before June 15, 2011.