Someone pull Tommy Heinsohn in from the ledge. Walter may not be lost just yet.

The Celtics have decided to raise their offer to multitasking free agent Walter McCarty. The original plan had Walter slotted at the veteran minimum, but yesterday the club proposed a three-year deal totaling roughly $3.5 million. The third year is the player's option.

``We met with Walter today,'' said head of basketball operations Danny Ainge. ``Jim (O'Brien) and I met with him and I think we had a good meeting. We made an offer, but I don't want to get into it.

``Nothing happened on it. We don't know anything. We probably won't know anything until next week. But we felt good about it. We just met in Jim's office and went over some things, and we all came away feeling a lot better about the situation.''

While McCarty does feel better after believing the club wasn't going to move off its minimum offer for a player of seven years' experience ($876,000, of which the Celts would have to pay just $688,679 with the rest picked up by the league), he sees room for improvement and is not ready to jump at the deal.

``I wish it was more, but it was good to see them make some movement,'' said McCarty. ``They're trying to make things work, and I can't ask for anything more than that. I'm just going to wait a couple of days and see what happens. I'm not going to make any quick decisions. I'm going to talk with Danny a little more and talk with some other teams a little more.''