It's long been speculated that Troy Murphy would be sent to the Golden State and then promptly bought out by the Warriors. And that is exactly what happened on Wednesday, when the Nets sent him out West, a subsequent move after acquiring Carmelo Anthony (along with a second-round pick, for center Dan Gadzuric and forward Brandan Wright). Once the Warriors but him out, Murphy will be a free agent, able to sign where he chooses, and the Celtics are expected to be one of the team's vying for his services.
BOS, ORL, MIA, NYK ... all will be suitors for bought-out Troy Murphy. But word is other teams could emerge post-deadline after dust settles - Marc Stein
Murphy averaged just 3.6 ppg and 4.2 rebounds in only 18 gams with New Jersey this year (he hasn't played since Jan. 7), but he put up 14 and 10 a year ago.
CelticsBlog equates Murphy to "a poor man's Kevin Love."
And for a minimum salary free agent pickup, you could do a lot worse. The Perkins (minor - we hope) injury reminds us of the fact that we are still pretty thin in the frontcourt despite having so many tall guys in our team picture. You can't have too many shooters (or so Doc has said in the past) and we definitely could use the rebounding. The lack of defense is of course concerning, but we could live with it for the price and the positives would likely outweigh the negatives.
Still, where he decides to go is up to him. Many believe that the Magic would actually be the best fit for him style-wise and reportedly they could offer him more money. But if he really wants a shot at a ring, he might take slightly less to sign on with the Heat or Celtics. The Heat might even be able to offer him the starting spot while (hopefully) he'd be a bench player for Boston.