Marcus Smart (12 mpg)/Isaiah Thomas (28 mpg)/Terry Rozier (8 mpg)
Avery Bradley (25 mpg)/[Marcus Smart] (18 mpg)/RJ Hunter (2 mpg)/[Terry Rozier] (3 mpg)
Jae Crowder (25 mpg)/James Young (15 mpg)/RJ Hunter (8 mpg)
Sullinger (25 mpg)/Olynyk (12 mpg)/Jerebko (11 mpg)
Amir (24 mpg)/Zeller (16 mpg)/[Olynyk] (8 mpg)
There are trades that I believe must occur before the start of the season. There's simply not enough minutes for everyone, and that's a bad problem to have for a team fighting for a playoff spot but not bad enough to tank. Boston either needs to consolidate its assets into qualitatively better and quantitatively lesser players, or sell off some off some of its older talent. I left out Evan Turner because I'm guessing he'll definitely be gone by the beginning of the year. Even still, I believe the guard rotation is far too clogged to keep both of IT and AB, and the bigs rotation is much too crowded to retain both Sullinger and Olynyk.
Here's my dream scenario. Toronto's Dwane Casey continues to pound the ball through his guards and freeze his team's offense by strangling the potential out of a Kyle Lowry or DeMar DeRozan iso. The lack of ball handling shatters new signee Carroll's offensive value. Ujiri explores the market for Lowry, DeRozan and Valanciunas more ambitiously than ever. He finds decent offers for Lowry and Valanciunas but is blown away by a godfather offer made by Danny Ainge in late December, which compensates the loss of DeRozan's potential with good picks while compensating the loss of his immediate abilities with good players.
BOS sends: Avery Bradley, Kelly Olynyk, 2016 BOS 1, 2018 BKN 1
TOR sends: DeRozan
Around the time this trade is made both Dallas and Brooklyn are outside the top 8 of their respective conferences. For Dallas, Dirk regressed further, Wes Matthews looks like a shell of himself post-Achilles injury and DJ is not the player he was expected to be in an expanded role. As for Brooklyn, Deron Williams and Joe Johnson have regressed as well, pushing the Nets to the outside looking in at a more competitive Eastern Conference.
Meanwhile, in Sacramento, Cousins becomes more frustrated. It turns out that WCS does have more significant injury issues than the team let on during the summer (right now); Rondo forms a good relationship with Cousins but can't regain his old self on the court, creating a toxic relationship between Rondo and Karl. Rondo turns Cousins against Karl thinking it will get Karl fired, but instead Cousins demands out altogether.
At the deadline, Sacramento jumps at the opportunity to cash out on Cousins for a slimmer Sully who is accelerating towards his full potential, two likely lotto picks in DAL and BKN 1sts, a young, cost-controlled roration big in Zeller, and their choice between Terry Rozier and RJ Hunter. We also send Gerald Wallace to take back bad deals.
BOS sends: Jared Sullinger, Tyler Zeller, Terry Rozier, Gerald Wallace, 2016 DAL 1st (top 7 prot.), 2016 BKN 1st
SAC sends: DeMarcus Cousins, Marco Bellinelli
Boston, hanging tightly to the 8th spot in the East at the deadline, races towards the playoffs with this group:
Marcus Smart (20 mpg)/IT (28 mpg)
DeMar DeRozan (32 mpg)/Smart (10 mpg)/RJ Hunter (6 mpg)
Jae Crowder (18 mpg)/James Young (23 mpg)/RJ Hunter (7 mpg)
Amir Johnson (23 mpg)/Jerebko (18 mpg)/[Crowder] (7 mpg)
DeMarcus Cousins (36 mpg)/[Amir Johnson] (12 mpg)
And once again I just spent 20 minutes detailing a Celtics fantasy that will likely never result in reality.