The Kemba trade. What does it Say about Brad?

[hwangjini_1]

nothing other than he doesn't feel constrained to wait until draft day to pull the trigger on a deal.

some people will twist the deal into justifying how they feel about Danny which is what I think you're trying to do.

 Well then you would be wrong.  It's completely natural to have disagreements with draft picks. Free agents choices that your superior makes.

 Brad was not happy with the roster construction.  He knew we needed more size. Getting a 6'10 center and a 7'2" Center for a 5'11" player tells me he thinks we need more size.

Danny was trying to trade Kemba as well, so...

Danny was always trying to make trades, but rarely made them. IMO he never would have made this trade and given away the draft pick. Danny's strength was identifying the best talent at the very top of the draft. He never missed. I'm hoping that Brad's goal is to bring in that third star that will make us a real contender. Why shouldn't someone like Beal want to come here, play with his close friend, and compete for a title?

 Agreed. Danny Ainge ruined the celtics trade possibilities by his propensity to rip.off other teams and generally wouldn't fairly negotiate.

yet, most of the quotes and talk surrounding ainge's trade style argue the opposite.

[Ogaju]

It’s pretty clear that Kemba is going to get moved by OKC at some point.  I think the return OKC gets could tell us something about Brad’s ability as a GM at this stage.

No it won’t. You cannot compare trades like that. There are all types of intangibles, prior relationships, and future promises, that could fetch OKC a deal for Kemba that looks better than what the Celtics got.

I’m sorry, are those intangibles not part of the equation when evaluating a GM?

Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, those factors are impossible to quantify making comparisons insubstantial.

Eh, it's totally fair to compare GMs, and their performance, across the league. What I will say is that people are going to need to keep in mind that OKC is free to take on however much salary they need to in order to get additional picks, while Boston's primary goal was cutting salary to retain Fournier and maybe sign another veteran or two.

It does feel like Kemba's going to be flipped with a young swingman or two for a similarly big contract that has an additional year on it plus a pick or two. Certain people are going to cherry-pick the "Brad gave up a pick to unload Kemba and Presti got a pick for Kemba! Awful!" argument when all it really tells you is that a halfway decent first, or two future firsts, is the going rate to get off of $20-30+ million in salary.

Are we supposed to pretend Moses Brown was not part of the Kemba deal?

[Ogaju]

nothing other than he doesn't feel constrained to wait until draft day to pull the trigger on a deal.

some people will twist the deal into justifying how they feel about Danny which is what I think you're trying to do.

 Well then you would be wrong.  It's completely natural to have disagreements with draft picks. Free agents choices that your superior makes.

 Brad was not happy with the roster construction.  He knew we needed more size. Getting a 6'10 center and a 7'2" Center for a 5'11" player tells me he thinks we need more size.

Danny was trying to trade Kemba as well, so...

for what? That is the question!!

Jrue Holiday

That would not have solved the Celtics BIGS problem.

Would have solved the Kemba problem, though.

Brad’s move certainly seeks to address both, doesn’t it?

[bogg]

Are we supposed to pretend Moses Brown was not part of the Kemba deal?

He's a fine third center who might turn into something down the line, but right now he's closer to being a throw-in in the trade than he is any sort of outright target.

[Ogaju]

Are we supposed to pretend Moses Brown was not part of the Kemba deal?

He's a fine third center who might turn into something down the line, but right now he's closer to being a throw-in in the trade than he is any sort of outright target.

Of course he wasn’t the target of the trade, but that doesn’t mean that he does not add value worthy of consideration.

[Hoopvortex]

What does it really say about Brad and his thoughts and objections to the roster construction this past year.

Not a lot, or at any rate nothing obvious.

Kemba became a part-time player on a max contract with a chronic knee issue. He’s 31 and his game relies on quickness and footwork. We can be sure that Boston management got more than one medical opinion about his future.

The Celtics got most of one good year from him, and as a team it was the best year of the Brad Stevens era - Fourth in offense and fourth in defense. If Kemba had been healthy in the playoffs, getting to the finals against the Lakers was a real possibility; as it was, they outscored Miami in the conference finals.

This was a very successful trade for Boston. But something like it would have happened anyway, with or without the change in management. I’m not a doomsayer about Kemba, but there’s a real risk that his career won’t outlast his contract; and the most likely outcome is that he won’t come close to matching his contract. This is not a problem for Oklahoma City, but it would be a big one for Boston. Likewise, the first round pick is much more valuable for the Thunder than it is for the Celtics, especially since Boston has a number of intriguing young players already.

A healthy Kemba Walker is a brilliant pick-and-roll ballhandler with outstanding quickness and handles who can get the ball wherever he wants in the half court. His defense is hurt even more by his injury than his offense, even when he’s able to get on the court. In any case, it wasn’t worth the risk to keep him and hope for the best.

Marcus Smart is severely underrated by many fans; but he cannot do what a healthy Kemba did. It’s a question of skill sets, not whether one player is better. But the ship has sailed, or most likely it has.

[Csfan1984]

Only thing it tells me is BS likes Hordford and Brown more than kemba and a 1st.

[nebist]

My only real takeaway from it was the decisiveness of not waiting for a more natural deadline like the draft. That tells me that Stevens knew what he wanted to accomplish and made the move when it was available rather than waiting on the chance of something better.

In terms of what it says about how Stevens wants to build a roster, that’s way too early to say. You need a full off-season to get a sense for that. If he keeps Smart at PG and either keeps TT or trades him for a bigger 4/3 type (my hope), then we can conclude Stevens wants more team size. However, let’s say he moves TT for a small, quick PG and keeps Smart more off the ball (not my hope). That would mean the Kemba trade was far more about financials than the type of player they got back.