Another quiet transfer deadline has come and gone. While I'm certainly disappointed with our failure to pawn off some spare second-rounders for a rotation big, I'm not losing a single bit of sleep over the failure to acquire a so-called "transformational superstar." If we had Cousins, Butler, or George on this roster, what exactly would we be "transforming" ourselves into? The second-best team in the East? We're already there, and there's no point giving away cap space and draft picks just to solidify our position.
Danny Ainge doesn't settle for second: he thinks big. And in general, "big" does not happen on deadline day - it happens over the summer. Since the heroics of Billy King opened a path to a new era of Celtic Greatness in 2013, Ainge has carefully orchestrated his moves to lead up to a huge potential transaction every summer.
2014, The Kevin Love trade: Had we succeeded in using the #6 pick to trade for Love this year, we would have aimed for a quick-rebuild based on a core of Rondo, Love, and whoever we could nab in free agency the following year. (Marc Gasol?) We would have been a pretty good team with probably at least one Brooklyn pick still in the bank to maybe make one final trade.
2015, Draft Justice Winslow, potential superstar: okay, let's forget that this ever happened. Thanks MJ.
2016, Sign Kevin Durant: had Durant chosen us, which he apparently would have if not for the fateful antics of Draymond "dick-kick" Green, we would have instantly been catapulted into title contention. I'm convinced that IT-Bradley-Crowder-Durant-Horford would have been one of the most beautiful teams the NBA has ever witnessed: imagine our motion offense right now, but with Kevin Durant. Oh, and we would still have Smart, Brown, and both Brooklyn picks in the bank. Think about that. (sob)
So that leads us up to 2017: the year of the double-max big swing. There aren't any Durant-level superstars out there (and probably won't be for a while), so we'll just have to settle for acquiring two max-level talents instead. One from column A, the other from column B.
Column A (FA) - in order of preference[
Blake Griffin
Gordon Hayward
Paul Milsap
Derrick Favors
Column B (trade)
Paul George
Jimmy Butler
I wouldn't think for a second that Danny was not aware of the fact that if he trades for George or Butler now, he misses out on the chance for a second max star. It doesn't matter if you think Hayward or Milsap or Favors or whatever isn't as good as Paul George: Hayward AND Paul George is clearly better than just Paul George. That's why I was confident we would not be getting a big star this deadline unless they were coming basically for free (i.e. without involving any Brooklyn picks.)
And here's the real beauty this plan: once you have your Griffin or Hayward or whatever, you can up your offer for George or Butler. Right now, we can't afford to blow everything we have on one of these guys because we're not confident that we'd contend with them. But if they're coming in addition to an FA, we're all in: this team is ready to fight Golden State and Cleveland right now. I can't imagine that both Chicago AND Indiana would turn down, say, Jaylen Brown, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, and a Brooklyn pick when it's the summer and George and Butler have had an extra few months to be p---ed off about their situations as their contracts hurtle towards free agency.
If everything falls into place, this would be a great team. A best-case incarnation would give us a starting five of IT-Smart-George-Griffin-Horford. That team is ridiculous. Even a worst-case execution would be something like IT-Smart-Butler-Favors-Horford. That team is probably good enough to beat Cleveland and have at least a 30% chance against Golden State.
Now, there's no guarantee that any of this works: it's possible that we miss out on every free agent, just make the Brooklyn picks, use cap space on a decent starting big, and come back with substantially the same team next year. We'd roll along with this (pretty good) team for a few years and try to rebuild again later around Smart, Brown, Zizic, and the two Brooklyn picks. That's not bad either. Maybe we're all sitting here ten years later talking about the second Luka Doncic three-peat.
But what matters is that for the second consecutive summer, we've given ourselves the opportunity to instantly transform into a title contender if things go our way. That's why Danny Ainge is a great GM: he puts us into positions to succeed.
This deadline was just an appetizer, an opportunity to open lines of communication with Indiana/Chicago's front offices and gather information. The summer will be the main course.
Topic: Summer 2017: let's get excited (Read 490 times)