Josh Smith would not significantly upgrade our team..

[JHTruth]

Please explain our love affair with this guy.

Pathetic shot selection, poor IQ.

Plus this guy is looking for Kobe money after this year. What a joke, stay far far away from this guy..

[bucknersrevenge]

I don't know about a love affair but the guy simply has talent. People want to throw out the baby with the bathwater when it comes to Smith because he takes too many long 2's and doesn't shoot them well enough. If Smith were on this team he would be an outstanding defensive weapon who between he and KG could erase most mistakes. Offensively, he's a solid post up guy. He's an underrated passer who is very unselfish. He's excellent in transition and he would probably walk on to this team the best rebounder we have. There are lots of reasons to want this guy and that's before you get to he and Rondo being tight. The problem as it has been anytime the discussing of him comes up, does Smith upgrade this team relative to what we'd need to give up in a trade to get him. On that I have some doubts. It would take something like Bass, Green, a 1st rnder and either Melo or Sully just to make salaries match right and that just seems like too much.

[rondohondo]

Disagree , he averaged 18ppg and 10rebs and 17ppg and 13.6 rebs 5 asts in the playoffs last year. He is an elite defender at the PF position(averages 2blks and 1 stl for his career) with legit length 6'10 (Bass,Green and Sullinger are all undersized PF'S). He would be an amazing running mate for Rondo and would make a very good defense great while solving our rebounding troubles.

Imagine a starting lineup of Rondo,Bradley,PP,Smith and KG . That D would be locking teams down nightly.

He has never had a legit PG to get him the ball which explains his poor shot selection. He would benefit greatly from playing with elite passers like Rondo and KG.

I don't understand why money would be a concern, we are over the cap for the next 2 years anyways and we are going for a title right now. IMO Smith strongly improves our chance of winning a title this year.


I would trade Bass and Green and pick for smith if that's what it takes.

[indeedproceed]

He is better offensively, defensively, and with more big game experience than anyone of our Frontcourt players other than KG, plus he already has a better rapport with Rondo than anyone aside from KG and Pierce. He would improve our team considerably, and would on paper put us on par with Miami. He would be a considerable upgrade.

[manl_lui]

Disagree , he averaged 18ppg and 10rebs and 17ppg and 13.6 rebs 5 asts in the playoffs last year. He is an elite defender at the PF position(averages 2blks and 1 stl for his career) with legit length 6'10 (Bass,Green and Sullinger are all undersized PF'S). He would be an amazing running mate for Rondo and would make a very good defense great while solving our rebounding troubles.

Imagine a starting lineup of Rondo,Bradley,PP,Smith and KG . That D would be locking teams down nightly.

He has never had a legit PG to get him the ball which explains his poor shot selection. He would benefit greatly from playing with elite passers like Rondo and KG.

I don't understand why money would be a concern, we are over the cap for the next 2 years anyways and we are going for a title right now. IMO Smith strongly improves our chance of winning a title this year.


I would trade Bass and Green and pick for smith if that's what it takes.

^this but I really don't want to give up too much for Smith. Besides we have until February to decide where we are going with this team. If Sully really pans out and played like the way he did in the pre-seasons so far, then Bass is definitely expendable. I don't want to get rid of Green though cuz we need him to back up Pierce. I know salaries don't match but, I don't want to see us giving up Rondo, Pierce, Bradley, or Green for anyone that's going to be a role player on the Cs

[kg is king]

J Smoove will definitely upgrade our team. Just based on facts alone, I'll take a guy 19 and 10 guy on my team with open arms. Now moving on from facts, he's also an elite defender, which is an area that most people think he succeeds in because of his athleticism. The truth is Smith has the hops, the quickness, and also the skills of a dominant defensive big. For one he's an excellent pick-and-roll defender. He has the length and the strength to match up against other bigs and also the quickness to guard wings. I wouldn't mind having him and KG anchoring the low post. Both of them will be able to communicate and call out signals. There's no other Celtic that has his level of talent and versatility on the defensive end, aside from KG (who's not as versatile on switches as he once was). Offensively, he's a decent player on the block and a nightmare in transition.

Bottom line is this. Our team is very good as currently constructed, with depth in all 5 positions. But when the playoffs start, starters will be asked to play longer minutes. Lebron, Wade, and Bosh will all play 40+ minutes a game and I can't imagine our second unit, as good as they might be, will be able to hang with the Heat Big 3. Adding Smith gives us star power, a point that I've mentioned numerous times in previous posts. A team with good depth will win regular season titles, but not championships (the Mavs of 2011 being one exception). Heck, just look at the Spurs these last couple of years. Those Spurs teams were deep, but when the playoffs came around, their bench couldn't compete with OKC or Memphis for that matter. I'd take Smith playing 40+ minutes in the playoffs over playing Bass 25 and Sully 23 all day.

[ummidkme]

With all positives already being said about Smith I still don't understand the love affair. Lets at least see how the team as it is currently configured operates. If they have a ridiculous record by mid-season roll with what you got. Plus, to get Smith right now does cost way too much, especially since he can be available next off-season. Why give up so much for no real reason. We don't need Smith as of yet. That being said if we could give up Wilcox, Collins, Joseph, Christmas, Bass a couple of picks and money to get Smith I would do that. I am in no way giving up Sullinger, Green, Avery or Melo as a prospect.

To quote mmmmm on the Most complete Celtic team?

But trading Bass AND Green is overkill on the salary matching.

To bring Smith's salary in (balloons to 15M on trade clause) we need to send at least 10M.  But we need to send a little more than that to stay under the luxury tax threshold - so ~11M or so should do it.

Green plus Bass is 14M+ - so that's overkill.  Plus, while we can afford to trade Bass because we have depth at PF AND the player we get back (Smith) would be a PF, however trading Green robs us of our SF depth behind Pierce, which is critical.   I don't think we can afford to do that.  We need Pierce to be fresh come playoffs.

Bass plus Lee is 11M.   That trade works better for matching the money plus once Bradley is back then we have more depth at SG to trade from.   I.E., Lee becomes a tradable luxury.   Yes, Atlanta has a surplus of SGs of its own right now.  To make this work, you probably need a third team that would take either Lee or someone from ATL's roster in exchange for something ATL needs in order to make the deal work.   Sweeten the deal with draft picks.

The net would be the C's getting Smith and Atlanta getting Bass + Lee/whatever + picks.   ATL has to take some sort of deal like that at some point or watch Smith walk at the end of the year.

I am also hesitant about trading Lee. I'd like to see how Avery comes back from surgery and holds up during extended play.

[rondohondo]

With all positives already being said about Smith I still don't understand the love affair. Lets at least see how the team as it is currently configured operates. If they have a ridiculous record by mid-season roll with what you got. Plus, to get Smith right now does cost way too much, especially since he can be available next off-season. Why give up so much for no real reason. We don't need Smith as of yet. That being said if we could give up Wilcox, Collins, Joseph, Christmas, Bass a couple of picks and money to get Smith I would do that. I am in no way giving up Sullinger, Green, Avery or Melo as a prospect.

To quote mmmmm on the Most complete Celtic team?

But trading Bass AND Green is overkill on the salary matching.

To bring Smith's salary in (balloons to 15M on trade clause) we need to send at least 10M.  But we need to send a little more than that to stay under the luxury tax threshold - so ~11M or so should do it.

Green plus Bass is 14M+ - so that's overkill.  Plus, while we can afford to trade Bass because we have depth at PF AND the player we get back (Smith) would be a PF, however trading Green robs us of our SF depth behind Pierce, which is critical.   I don't think we can afford to do that.  We need Pierce to be fresh come playoffs.

Bass plus Lee is 11M.   That trade works better for matching the money plus once Bradley is back then we have more depth at SG to trade from.   I.E., Lee becomes a tradable luxury.   Yes, Atlanta has a surplus of SGs of its own right now.  To make this work, you probably need a third team that would take either Lee or someone from ATL's roster in exchange for something ATL needs in order to make the deal work.   Sweeten the deal with draft picks.

The net would be the C's getting Smith and Atlanta getting Bass + Lee/whatever + picks.   ATL has to take some sort of deal like that at some point or watch Smith walk at the end of the year.

I am also hesitant about trading Lee. I'd like to see how Avery comes back from surgery and holds up during extended play.

wow you're really drinking that green cool-aid. You wouldn't give up Sully Lee or Melo to get Smith? He's an all-star level talent who's only 26, but you would rather have unproven prospects who at the full potential won't even be as good as Smith is already?

I like Sully alot,but smith is already close to being a 20/10 guy with elite defense and athleticism...

no chance atlanta is going to trade him for only those players anyways, it would likely take Bradley or Green along with Bass and filler to have a shot at landing him. I am hesitant to give up Bradley, but Green and Bass I would be wiling to send out for an all-star talent to team up with Rondo for the next 10 years.

[Celtics18]

Currently, my keepers are Rondo, Bradley, Green, Melo, KG, and Pierce.  If some combination of the other guys on the roster could get us Josh Smith, I'd at least be willing to listen. 

[nostar]

We simply can't trade Green without some suitable SF replacement. Courtney Lee can't effectively defend the SF position and unless you guys want to try Josh Howard or Pietrus (neither of whom are talking the minimum I hear) then we need to get a SF back in any Green trade. Joseph isn't ready to be a role player on a championship team and I know that because in the 11 minutes he's played on this team against euro-league talent he's looked lost.

Oh and let's not forget we're probably going to have a legitimate 10 man rotation once we get healthy this season. That is pretty out of character for the Celtics. To end last season we had an 8 man rotation. Having a lot of the all-star talent on our team be primarily on the back ends of their careers means we have to be deep to let them play well when they are in. You guys will see what happens to teams that shoot the moon on older players when the Knicks fall apart mid-season. I hear Camby is already injured.

If we can get Smith great. I don't wanna give up any of our starters to do so, and we can't give up Green either. I'd be willing to go over the tax line (which we already do) but we're bound by the 74.1M apron after using the MLE on Jason Terry. Ainge worked miracles to pull off this roster and I'm pretty sure we're the front runners to win the East.

[j804]

I don't get the fascination with Smith on here

[ummidkme]

wow you're really drinking that green cool-aid. You wouldn't give up Sully Lee or Melo to get Smith? He's an all-star level talent who's only 26, but you would rather have unproven prospects who at the full potential won't even be as good as Smith is already?

I like Sully alot,but smith is already close to being a 20/10 guy with elite defense and athleticism...

no chance atlanta is going to trade him for only those players anyways, it would likely take Bradley or Green along with Bass and filler to have a shot at landing him. I am hesitant to give up Bradley, but Green and Bass I would be wiling to send out for an all-star talent to team up with Rondo for the next 10 years.

If you call cool-aid having trust in a team yes. We haven't had a single real game and people are willing to throw pieces out there when we have mid-season at the latest to start thinking about a revised roster. Like I said I'd love Smith but the pieces you would have to give up are ridiculous. I'd say Smith is very close to being 20/10 and that makes him worthy of a trade if and this is a big if you don't trade Green our only backup SF. If Avery is good then I'd give up Bass, Lee, Wilcox, Collins, Joseph and whatever else ATL needs to feel good. If Danny wants to include Melo I'm fine with that as well, just because I see potential in our rooks doesn't mean their untradeable. I just think people are drinking their fantasy basketball cool-aid when before the season begins they want trades done.

[arambone]

the celtics are blessed to have so many players that are signed to bargain deals.

Sully is a way better value than smith, and will be even more so over the next few years on this rookie contract.

I also like keeping rondo on a short leash. Having smith on the team would give rondo more power. Imagine rondo and smith together protesting some team decision with lackluster play.

It was only 2 years ago that rondo tanked in protest of perk being traded. Having a high paid, talented lackey around would bring out the worst in rondo when things dont go rondos way.

[mctyson]

Please explain our love affair with this guy.

He's one of the best defensive power forwards on the planet.  Putting him next to KG would give us an all-time defensive frontcourt.

Combine that with Rondo and AB, and you could have 4 First Team All NBA defenders in your starting 5.

[2short]

the celtics are blessed to have so many players that are signed to bargain deals.

Sully is a way better value than smith, and will be even more so over the next few years on this rookie contract.

I also like keeping rondo on a short leash. Having smith on the team would give rondo more power. Imagine rondo and smith together protesting some team decision with lackluster play.

It was only 2 years ago that rondo tanked in protest of perk being traded. Having a high paid, talented lackey around would bring out the worst in rondo when things dont go rondos way.

you feel rondo tanked 
the guy who plays without speaking about any minor injury even when young, the guy who dives for a loose ball through someone's legs, the guy who played with a dislocated arm