Celtics to Add Troy Murphy

Buyout season is upon us, which means high-priced vets on bad teams agree to take less money than they'd earn over the course of their contracts in order to sign for the minimum with a contender for a shot at a ring. Tuesday was a big deadline; if a player hadn't hit waivers by then, he's ineligible to play for a team other than his current one in the playoffs.

Everyone knew that the Golden State Warriors were going to buy out Murphy, but whether he was going to sign with Boston or Miami was an open question Monday night. But I woke up Tuesday to the news that Murphy had chosen the Cs, filling one of three roster spots opened up by the trades that sent Marquis Daniels to the Kings and Semih Erden and Luke Harangody to the Cavs.

It's hard to know what to expect out of Murphy. It wasn't always that way; in each of the last two seasons, with the Pacers, he was good for a double-double every time out. But he's been a non-factor in 2010-2011, moving from the Pacers to the Nets in an four-team trade this offseason in which Jersey gave up Courtney Lee to Houston and Indy got Darren Collison and James Posey from the Hornets. He was injured in the preseason, came back to play very limited minutes in 18 games, then got a string of DNP-CDs; I think eventually the organization just told him to stay home. The Nets dealt him to the Warriors at the deadline.

If Murphy can get back to last season's form -- if his lack of PT in NJ is unrelated to injury or significant decline in skills -- than Boston will have a pretty good player on its hands. Murphy is a terrific three-point shooter and excellent rebounder and, at 6'11", can play up front alongside Kevin Garnett if Boston's centers are unavailable due to foul trouble or injury, or Doc wants to keep them on the bench for some reason. Murphy not agile enough defensively to play the James Posey role in the small lineup that Doc's been pining for, but if he's not too rusty, it's easy to see Murphy on the floor more often and in more crucial situations than Jeff Green.

Whether expecting the Murphy of seasons past is reasonable is up in the air, though. The Nets hardly paid a king's ransom for him, but they did give up a solid young player in Lee for him. And while it's understandable that Murphy's not in the Nets' long-term plans, it seems to me that sitting him as they did only hurts his trade value -- unless, of course, he's so bad that being on the court would make him completely untradeable. There's enough weird stuff going on in New Jersey -- Russian billionaire owner, new head coach, mortgaging the future for Deron Williams -- that the possibility of this simply being bad business on the part of the Nets is strong, strong enough that I'm only slightly concerned that Murphy has morphed, Sam Cassell-like, from a very good player to a useless one in one offseason.

Any positive contributions Murphy does make to the Celtics will be compounded by the fact that he's not making them to the Heat, who trail Boston by just two games in the loss column for first place in the East. Miami is expected to fill one of the holes in its starting lineup once Mike Bibby clears waivers; Bibby gave up his entire salary next year in order to get the Washington Wizards to agree to a buyout. Murphy's long-distance shooting, both spotting up and in the pick-and-pop, could have been a pretty formidable weapon on Miami.

As mentioned above, Boston still has a couple of roster spots left to add bought out players. Among the possibilities are Leon Powe, who of course was a great role player on the championship team, and Corey Brewer, a strong defensive wing whose decision-making on offense makes Tony Allen look under control. As more of these guys sign, with Boston and other teams, the playoff picture will start to get a bit clearer.