"The NBA announced the 2004-05 salary cap will be $43.87 million. The number triggered other important calculations, including the luxury tax threshold, mid-level exception ($4.9 million), and value of maximum contracts signed this offseason. For the 2003-04 season a tax will be collected from teams equal to the amount by which their payrolls exceeded $54.6 million. As expected, this makes the Celtics tax payers with a payroll of $56.15 million last season. 'We've known all year what our situation is,' said Ainge. 'Our budget [for next season] is over the [projected] tax number. Right now, we're over the tax and we're still looking to see if we can add another player. We don't want to get crazy. We want to use our money wisely and manage our cap wisely. [Our owners] haven't turned down anything that I wouldn't have turned down with my own money. They want to win, but they don't want to win two more games and spend $10 million to do it, stupid things like that. It would be nice if we were all playing Monopoly.'"