You need Tall athletes to Win

[Sophomore]

What's curious to me is how little that squares with the reality of Horford's best years with us.

If the analysis here is "impact in the paint=blocked shots", sure.  Big man go jump! ball go zoom!

I am in the camp of the Celtics need a big.  It is interesting about Horford, we had some really good seasons when he was part of a 2-big core line up.  We played some 1-big when he was here also but mostly it was Horford-Baynes or Horford-Morris as the core line up.  Horford is now several years older and was never a shot blocker but is a good team defense player and can be a productive C for us this year I believe.

The problem is not the C position, right now we have 4 decent centers (Thompson, RWilliams, MBrown + Horford).  Not great, but decent and depending on the development of Williams and Brown, there is some ceiling there to potentially be realized.  In fact, one of these will likely be traded.

The problem is at PF obviously.  None of these 4 bigs are going to be effective if on the court together.  We need to be able to play a legit PF in a 2-big line up at times (not all the time) to have sufficient versatility in my opinion.  Right now, that PF would be Parker or GWilliams.  I don't count Tatum as a big.  If he is on the court with just one of the centers, we are playing 1-big.  That is fine sometimes, even often, but not always.

Agree with that, and see an additional bonus to picking up a legit 3 and D ppwer forward. Playing Tatum at the 3 and Brown at the 2 gives us plus length at both positions. The whole team gets long, and the Js can definitely fill the roles they’d need to play.

[rogueandpoet]

The  point with the stretch four is that you get a bigger body to cover bigs at the perimeter, Well both  Tatum and Brown can defend bigs on the perimeter, So can Smart, Horford, Fournier and Langford. So why do the "C"s need a stretch four. They can slow them from attacking the rim and if they get by then Timelord and Mo Barnes have the length to take it on.

[BruceBanner18]

What's curious to me is how little that squares with the reality of Horford's best years with us.

If the analysis here is "impact in the paint=blocked shots", sure.  Big man go jump! ball go zoom!

I am in the camp of the Celtics need a big.  It is interesting about Horford, we had some really good seasons when he was part of a 2-big core line up.  We played some 1-big when he was here also but mostly it was Horford-Baynes or Horford-Morris as the core line up.  Horford is now several years older and was never a shot blocker but is a good team defense player and can be a productive C for us this year I believe.

The problem is not the C position, right now we have 4 decent centers (Thompson, RWilliams, MBrown + Horford).  Not great, but decent and depending on the development of Williams and Brown, there is some ceiling there to potentially be realized.  In fact, one of these will likely be traded.

The problem is at PF obviously.  None of these 4 bigs are going to be effective if on the court together.  We need to be able to play a legit PF in a 2-big line up at times (not all the time) to have sufficient versatility in my opinion.  Right now, that PF would be Parker or GWilliams.  I don't count Tatum as a big.  If he is on the court with just one of the centers, we are playing 1-big.  That is fine sometimes, even often, but not always.

Agree with that, and see an additional bonus to picking up a legit 3 and D ppwer forward. Playing Tatum at the 3 and Brown at the 2 gives us plus length at both positions. The whole team gets long, and the Js can definitely fill the roles they’d need to play.

Piling on here but 100% on board with this and I'm hopeful the front office agrees with both of you; my evidence being our rumored interest in Harrison Barnes, John Collins and Jeremi Grant.