I just can't shake the feeling the Celtics org. was asleep at the wheel

[BringToughnessBack]

I think some people are rewriting history.  I don’t think kyrie was leaving to Brooklyn all along.  Last year was an utter disaster.  That’s why kyrie left.  Had we been real title contenders or actually won the thing, I think kyrie would still be here.

True. This too would have also led to us being an option for big sign and trade for Durant to join him here. One bad season and horrible chemistry changed everything. Hard to have thick enough skin to survive the media and some fans onslaught as well. When things don't go our way, we love to place full frontal attacks on those at the top of the food chain. Now, in hindsight, maybe that blame was partially correct but one has to wonder what if Kyrie would have been happy here and who would have joined him this offseason in a big trade to wear green.

[cltc5]

I have a feeling that Danny saw the writing on the wall regarding Kyrie and Anthony Davis pretty clearly at least as early as most of us.  But he was somewhat constrained by formality to 'go through the motions'.   Danny has talked in the past about how important it is for him to maintain positive relations with all players so no matter what, he was going to go ahead and pretend everything was good and at least extend an offer to Kyrie, letting him be the one to turn it down and go elsewhere.

I think where he got blindsided was in regards to Al Horford.  And this seems to have been driven by a handful of factors.

First off:  The Durant injury, as others mentioned, opened up everyone to think they could be a title contender.   And this made Al a hot property with at least a couple of teams and maybe more willing to offer him 4 year, ~100M packages for the sake of 'win now' moves.   I want to make it clear that this jump in Al's price tag was imho almost certainly the biggest surprise factor.

Second:  The wooing of Butler away from PHI suddenly opened a slot for a division rival to become one of those suitors.

Third:  Al has for years made no secret that he prefers to play PF.   Over the first two seasons he was here, he played PF about ~45% of the time.  And both his own numbers and the team's performance were measurably better when he was at the PF, as opposed to at the 5.   Well, this last year, Al played PF less than 10% of his minutes.   I don't know if he ever complained, but I have to wonder if part of Philly's sales pitch was that he would be able to very clearly, right out of the box be starting at PF next to Embiid.

Seems to be a reoccurring problem with a coach that doesn’t define roles.  I always thought Rozier should be a sg and Marcus the pg.  I mean hell Marcus was drafted to replace rondo and they’ve done everything not to allow him to be a starting pg.

[Fafnir]

They tried to give him the PG role over IT4. Thomas was too good though and won the job.

[Celtics4ever]

That’s why kyrie left.  Had we been real title contenders or actually won the thing, I think kyrie would still be here.

Your ignoring the fact, that his leadership was a big part of that disaster.   I for one, am glad he left the Boston Celtics have no place on their team for quitters.

Hello Kyrie?

[ChillyWilly]

I think this was a pretty good outcome.

I'm pretty confident the AD not wanting to come to Boston was because Kyrie said "I'm bouncing brah this place is trash they don't worship me and if they don't worship me they never worship you because I'm way better and got a ring."

[Ogaju]

small market teams have to tank , luck out with draft of sleeper players like Giannis to compete.

Big Markets just clear cap space , open the doors the stars pile in.

NBA is at fault , for not having a strict hard cap at the minimum.  Its to the point they may need to look at other deals as well.  , and have the smaller market teams have more capspace to offset NIKE and the mega deals stars all get more of in big markets or else just let CA have their own league .

I agree with this post. The salary cap is a joke. Any cap rule that is easy to circumvent is a joke. Players take less money to circumvent the rule, and sponsors or teams give player side money to makeup the discount they give on contracts to beat the cap. What side deals did Durant get in Silicon Valley to compensate for him taking less money. How much is AD getting for Space Jam? Give me a break.

[Ogaju]

How can the team be asleep when they have not cap space.  No trade assets they want to move.  It's not like there is a big available via trade that is going to strengthen the Center position more then it would weaken our G or Wing rotation.  Danny was probably calling every team trying to get in on a 3 team deal but his only options were with competitors that do not want to help him.  Asleep, no.  Frustrated absolutely.

How did he get into this predicament? Why dont we have serviceable bigs?

[boscel33]

You know, if we go into the year with Williams at the 5, so be it!  It's not like he was a scrub or anything, he slipped due to concerns about work ethic.  if that has been corrected, then we stole him at 27.  "A consensus four-star recruit, he ranked 50th overall in ESPN’s Top 100 for the class of 2016"

[Fafnir]

How can the team be asleep when they have not cap space.  No trade assets they want to move.  It's not like there is a big available via trade that is going to strengthen the Center position more then it would weaken our G or Wing rotation.  Danny was probably calling every team trying to get in on a 3 team deal but his only options were with competitors that do not want to help him.  Asleep, no.  Frustrated absolutely.

How did he get into this predicament? Why dont we have serviceable bigs?

Their low round draft picks didn't hit so far. Horford left, and they sacrificed Baynes to get the space to sign Kemba. That's it, that's the story of our situation.

[droopdog7]

You know, if we go into the year with Williams at the 5, so be it!  It's not like he was a scrub or anything, he slipped due to concerns about work ethic.  if that has been corrected, then we stole him at 27.  "A consensus four-star recruit, he ranked 50th overall in ESPN’s Top 100 for the class of 2016"

Um, he might (and likely is at least at this point), a scrub.

[PhoSita]

I think some people are rewriting history.  I don’t think kyrie was leaving to Brooklyn all along.  Last year was an utter disaster.  That’s why kyrie left.  Had we been real title contenders or actually won the thing, I think kyrie would still be here.

True. This too would have also led to us being an option for big sign and trade for Durant to join him here. One bad season and horrible chemistry changed everything. Hard to have thick enough skin to survive the media and some fans onslaught as well. When things don't go our way, we love to place full frontal attacks on those at the top of the food chain. Now, in hindsight, maybe that blame was partially correct but one has to wonder what if Kyrie would have been happy here and who would have joined him this offseason in a big trade to wear green.

I think it's obvious in retrospect (as many things are) that Kyrie staying put was always going to be contingent on giving Kyrie the opportunity to team up with a superstar or two.  He was clearly excited by the idea of joining up with KD.  Probably trading for AD is the only thing that would have counterbalanced that (or doing a S+T for Durant).


If Hayward had never gotten injured, maybe the Celts win 60+ games last year and this year.  Maybe they make the Finals at least once.  Maybe they even win a title against an injury ravaged Warriors team.

In that situation, I think Anthony Davis would have been at least "open" to the idea of playing in Boston to join a title team, much like KD did a few years ago.



I'm pretty sure that was Danny's big plan.  Just didn't work out that way, and it's not really anybody's fault.


Kyrie being such a sourpuss and making this year a living hell made things much worse than they needed to be, but my guess is that even if he'd been "happy," he still would've left to go play in Brooklyn with KD once it was clear Boston wasn't going to be a super team.  I suppose if the Celts had made the Finals this year with Tatum and/or Brown playing at an All-Star level, that might have done it as well.  But it wasn't in the cards.

[Moranis]

You know, if we go into the year with Williams at the 5, so be it!  It's not like he was a scrub or anything, he slipped due to concerns about work ethic.  if that has been corrected, then we stole him at 27.  "A consensus four-star recruit, he ranked 50th overall in ESPN’s Top 100 for the class of 2016"

seems to me we took him too high as 27 is way before 50. 

[SHAQATTACK]

I think some people are rewriting history.  I don’t think kyrie was leaving to Brooklyn all along.  Last year was an utter disaster.  That’s why kyrie left.  Had we been real title contenders or actually won the thing, I think kyrie would still be here.

True. This too would have also led to us being an option for big sign and trade for Durant to join him here. One bad season and horrible chemistry changed everything. Hard to have thick enough skin to survive the media and some fans onslaught as well. When things don't go our way, we love to place full frontal attacks on those at the top of the food chain. Now, in hindsight, maybe that blame was partially correct but one has to wonder what if Kyrie would have been happy here and who would have joined him this offseason in a big trade to wear green.

I think it's obvious in retrospect (as many things are) that Kyrie staying put was always going to be contingent on giving Kyrie the opportunity to team up with a superstar or two.  He was clearly excited by the idea of joining up with KD.  Probably trading for AD is the only thing that would have counterbalanced that (or doing a S+T for Durant).


If Hayward had never gotten injured, maybe the Celts win 60+ games last year and this year.  Maybe they make the Finals at least once.  Maybe they even win a title against an injury ravaged Warriors team.

In that situation, I think Anthony Davis would have been at least "open" to the idea of playing in Boston to join a title team, much like KD did a few years ago.



I'm pretty sure that was Danny's big plan.  Just didn't work out that way, and it's not really anybody's fault.


Kyrie being such a sourpuss and making this year a living hell made things much worse than they needed to be, but my guess is that even if he'd been "happy," he still would've left to go play in Brooklyn with KD once it was clear Boston wasn't going to be a super team.  I suppose if the Celts had made the Finals this year with Tatum and/or Brown playing at an All-Star level, that might have done it as well.  But it wasn't in the cards.

TP !   the truth !

[Bobshot]

Danny has to play it less conservative, in my view. He did nothing down the stretch when they need a rebounder and several were available. And then he didn't do the Davis deal, which most fans expected. It turns out Davis has had a domino effect, and now all the stars want to play for the Lakers.  There is a PR factor to these deals.

If Ainge had pulled the plug on Davis, he might be in better shape right now. I say maybe, because you just don't know what effect that would have had on other free agent signings. As it is, he has a weak frontline. Too weak to contend. And the East competition is getting stronger by the hour.

[Hank Finkel]

How can the team be asleep when they have not cap space.  No trade assets they want to move.  It's not like there is a big available via trade that is going to strengthen the Center position more then it would weaken our G or Wing rotation.  Danny was probably calling every team trying to get in on a 3 team deal but his only options were with competitors that do not want to help him.  Asleep, no.  Frustrated absolutely.

How did he get into this predicament? Why dont we have serviceable bigs?

We got here because DA drafts guard after guard instead of putting  some stock in having big men.  Then we send Baynes (our only serviceable big) packing to sign another guard.  This team is going backwards with its small man mentality.  Poor Red is turning in his grave.