Two-thirds of the Celtics roster that came within a game of reaching a third NBA finals in five years joined NBA free agency over the weekend. While Kevin Garnett became the first to announce his plans to re-sign, everyone from Ray Allen to Greg Stiemsma can still leave Boston on July 11 once the league’s audit determines the salary cap (an estimated $58 million). We’re finishing up our examination of the C’s free agent options at each position with point guards (Also see: Centers, shooting guards, power forwards and small forwards).

Rajon Rondo makes this job a little easier. The Celtics point guard averaged 42.6 minutes in the playoffs, cementing himself as one of the game’s great floor generals, so forget about guys like Deron Williams, Steve Nash, Jeremy Lin, Raymond Felton, Jameer Nelson and Jason Kidd. All of them will be looking for starting roles, with the possible exception of Kidd, who seems settled in Dallas even if the Mavericks lure Williams.

Still, Avery Bradley‘s move to the two last season left C’s coach Doc Rivers with Keyon Dooling and E’Twaun Moore as his primary backup point guards. So, while Bradley could still spell Rondo at times and both Dooling and Moore remain options — the former for the veteran minimum as a free agent and the latter for his $0.76 million non-guaranteed contract — the Celtics could make an upgrade at the position.

The Celtics now have five players under guaranteed contracts in 2012-13 for roughly $45.8 million (Paul Pierce, $16.8M; Garnett, approximately $11.3M; Rondo, $11.0M; Bradley, $1.6M; JaJuan Johnson, $1.1M) as well as $2.1 million in cap holds for first-round picks Jared Sullinger and Fab Melo. Pending decisions on or by Allen, Brandon Bass, Jeff Green, Mickael Pietrus, Chris Wilcox, Ryan Hollins, Dooling and Stiemsma, C’s president of basketball operations Danny Ainge will have anywhere from zero to $10 million to spend in free agency.

As a result, expect the Celtics to be linked to just about any and every free agent on the market. Almost nobody is out of their league. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the options that should be available to the Celtics at backup point guard, separating the current free agent players into three categories.

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