To those criticizing Ainge

[Sketch5]

Look this whole theory about Durant might come here now because now we have room for two max contracts? Is that what passes for great basketball knowledge in Boston now? It's very cute and very asinine. There is no reason for him to come here now. Guys like Durant don't go to teams with lots of cap space. It doesn't work that way. Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown won't be attracting Durant.

You're right, a 48 win playoff team with Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Jay Crowder, and Brad Stevens, and our ability to add a player of Durant's choosing to our roster along with him, is what can attract Durant. That, and the fact that we are in the Eastern Conference.

Nope

Well if you listen to Durant interviews when he was in Boston last and to the people around him, we have as good of a shot as any.

KD said he really liked the city (this was in the winter by the way) he liked the people, the family environment Boston provided, and how passionate the fans were. Also talked about how Perk raved about playing in Boston, how much he enjoyed it. And as KD walked down the halls he was looking at the pictures on the walls and commented of how much history there was.

KD is a B-Ball junkie, him and Stevens have a good shot at clicking in the meetings. The only other coach I'm worried about is Pop. KD knows DA was high on him and got hit for tampering sitting next to his mom. He also wants to be the man, not selfishly, but he wants to be the leader, he wants to be remembered, and Boston can give him that as much as anyone, more so in some cases.OKC's bench didn't show up in the playoffs. If you can get KD and sign Horford,Dudley and maybe even Pau your bench gets stronger because you move some of the starters to the bench.

People don't think that KD is coming because of money it's because DA has good players under friendly contracts making them more well rounded than most teams. They'll be closer to SA than anyone else in how strong 1 threw 12 is.

While still unlikely, Boston has a legit shot, or they wouldn't be one of the 6 teams seeing him.

[hpantazo]

Look this whole theory about Durant might come here now because now we have room for two max contracts? Is that what passes for great basketball knowledge in Boston now? It's very cute and very asinine. There is no reason for him to come here now. Guys like Durant don't go to teams with lots of cap space. It doesn't work that way. Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown won't be attracting Durant.

heh... it's a borderline 50 win team without any additions.   Sure, we could have traded Amir + Jerebko + Rozier for D-Rose to fill our second max cap slot, but it's better to just head into our meeting with Durant to say "Hey... we're adding you to a 50 win team... and then we have another 26 million to add another max player.  Who would you like us to get?"

Yes.  It makes a difference.

We have money. Wow. That will be sure to attract him over the Warriors and the Spurs. Hey. We don't have players. But we have money. We could have had Noel on his rookie contract and been in a better situation.

You know how huge a fan of Noel I am.  Trading the #3 pick for Noel and filler wasn't a smart move either.  Consider the following:

- Noel has 1 year left on his rookie deal and then could command max money.  If we fail to sign superstars this year, we want to maintain our ability to sign a superstar next year when the free agent class is even juicier.  Locking up money for Nerlens Noel hurts that chance.

- Some of the biggest names in free agency this summer are bigs.  Horford, Howard, Whiteside, Pau Gasol, Noah... even lesser names like Biyombo.  I brought up prior to the draft that trading for Okafor or Noel didn't make sense if part of your plan involves signing Al Horford or trading for Kevin Love.   

I'm getting the sense you don't totally get the money aspect, but when you have 50+ million in cap space, there's some strategy involved here.  We can reapproach trading for Noel if we need to.  Right now, it didn't make much sense to give up the #3 pick for him.

Ok, but now Durant isn't coming here. Players don't go to teams with 19 year olds and money.

There's a better than good chance he will not come here... but it will not be because we used our draft pick to draft a player we liked.

You're being ingenuine if you see this team as "19 year olds and money".  You're a bit smarter than that, eja.

It's a solid borderline 50 win team that is pretty excellent defensively.  We can fill one of our greatest needs through free agency by signing an impact big like Horford.   Who we took 3rd is irrelevant. 

If I'm Durant I'd much rather join a team that has that 19 year old + 1st team all defense Avery Bradley + a great two-way beast in Jae Crowder + extra assets... over a depleted team with an overrated Jimmy BUtler and not much else going for it.

But I mean, if he really wants to join a depleted team with Jimmy Butler and not much else going for it, he can just sign with the Bulls.  If Jimmy Butler is such a draw, it's confusing that the Bulls aren't one of the 6 teams supposedly meeting with Durant on July 1st.

He's not going to the Bulls. He's meeting with the Warriors and Spurs. You know. Teams with good players.

If that is the case, then we absolutely made the right move keeping #3, because there is no way in hell Noel would move the needle compared to the players on GS or the Spurs.

[LarBrd33]

Look this whole theory about Durant might come here now because now we have room for two max contracts? Is that what passes for great basketball knowledge in Boston now? It's very cute and very asinine. There is no reason for him to come here now. Guys like Durant don't go to teams with lots of cap space. It doesn't work that way. Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown won't be attracting Durant.

heh... it's a borderline 50 win team without any additions.   Sure, we could have traded Amir + Jerebko + Rozier for D-Rose to fill our second max cap slot, but it's better to just head into our meeting with Durant to say "Hey... we're adding you to a 50 win team... and then we have another 26 million to add another max player.  Who would you like us to get?"

Yes.  It makes a difference.

We have money. Wow. That will be sure to attract him over the Warriors and the Spurs. Hey. We don't have players. But we have money. We could have had Noel on his rookie contract and been in a better situation.

You know how huge a fan of Noel I am.  Trading the #3 pick for Noel and filler wasn't a smart move either.  Consider the following:

- Noel has 1 year left on his rookie deal and then could command max money.  If we fail to sign superstars this year, we want to maintain our ability to sign a superstar next year when the free agent class is even juicier.  Locking up money for Nerlens Noel hurts that chance.

- Some of the biggest names in free agency this summer are bigs.  Horford, Howard, Whiteside, Pau Gasol, Noah... even lesser names like Biyombo.  I brought up prior to the draft that trading for Okafor or Noel didn't make sense if part of your plan involves signing Al Horford or trading for Kevin Love.   

I'm getting the sense you don't totally get the money aspect, but when you have 50+ million in cap space, there's some strategy involved here.  We can reapproach trading for Noel if we need to.  Right now, it didn't make much sense to give up the #3 pick for him.

Ok, but now Durant isn't coming here. Players don't go to teams with 19 year olds and money.

There's a better than good chance he will not come here... but it will not be because we used our draft pick to draft a player we liked.

You're being ingenuine if you see this team as "19 year olds and money".  You're a bit smarter than that, eja.

It's a solid borderline 50 win team that is pretty excellent defensively.  We can fill one of our greatest needs through free agency by signing an impact big like Horford.   Who we took 3rd is irrelevant. 

If I'm Durant I'd much rather join a team that has that 19 year old + 1st team all defense Avery Bradley + a great two-way beast in Jae Crowder + extra assets... over a depleted team with an overrated Jimmy BUtler and not much else going for it.

But I mean, if he really wants to join a depleted team with Jimmy Butler and not much else going for it, he can just sign with the Bulls.  If Jimmy Butler is such a draw, it's confusing that the Bulls aren't one of the 6 teams supposedly meeting with Durant on July 1st.

He's not going to the Bulls. He's meeting with the Warriors and Spurs. You know. Teams with good players.

And maybe he will sign with them... Steph + Klay + Draymond might be appealing.  LaMarcus + Kawhi + vets might be appealing.   

And maybe he'll find Thomas + Bradley + Crowder + Smart + Brown + Stevens + East Coast + History + Horford/Dwight/Whiteside/Derozan/Paul/etc + whoever we trade our future picks for appealing.

[Casperian]

Leave it to LarBrd to make a long post telling people what they want to hear.

Now watch him make 100 posts telling us how much better Philly's assets are than ours, and when people call him out on it, he'll point them to threads like these.

[Eja117]

Look this whole theory about Durant might come here now because now we have room for two max contracts? Is that what passes for great basketball knowledge in Boston now? It's very cute and very asinine. There is no reason for him to come here now. Guys like Durant don't go to teams with lots of cap space. It doesn't work that way. Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown won't be attracting Durant.

heh... it's a borderline 50 win team without any additions.   Sure, we could have traded Amir + Jerebko + Rozier for D-Rose to fill our second max cap slot, but it's better to just head into our meeting with Durant to say "Hey... we're adding you to a 50 win team... and then we have another 26 million to add another max player.  Who would you like us to get?"

Yes.  It makes a difference.

We have money. Wow. That will be sure to attract him over the Warriors and the Spurs. Hey. We don't have players. But we have money. We could have had Noel on his rookie contract and been in a better situation.

You know how huge a fan of Noel I am.  Trading the #3 pick for Noel and filler wasn't a smart move either.  Consider the following:

- Noel has 1 year left on his rookie deal and then could command max money.  If we fail to sign superstars this year, we want to maintain our ability to sign a superstar next year when the free agent class is even juicier.  Locking up money for Nerlens Noel hurts that chance.

- Some of the biggest names in free agency this summer are bigs.  Horford, Howard, Whiteside, Pau Gasol, Noah... even lesser names like Biyombo.  I brought up prior to the draft that trading for Okafor or Noel didn't make sense if part of your plan involves signing Al Horford or trading for Kevin Love.   

I'm getting the sense you don't totally get the money aspect, but when you have 50+ million in cap space, there's some strategy involved here.  We can reapproach trading for Noel if we need to.  Right now, it didn't make much sense to give up the #3 pick for him.

Ok, but now Durant isn't coming here. Players don't go to teams with 19 year olds and money.

There's a better than good chance he will not come here... but it will not be because we used our draft pick to draft a player we liked.

You're being ingenuine if you see this team as "19 year olds and money".  You're a bit smarter than that, eja.

It's a solid borderline 50 win team that is pretty excellent defensively.  We can fill one of our greatest needs through free agency by signing an impact big like Horford.   Who we took 3rd is irrelevant. 

If I'm Durant I'd much rather join a team that has that 19 year old + 1st team all defense Avery Bradley + a great two-way beast in Jae Crowder + extra assets... over a depleted team with an overrated Jimmy BUtler and not much else going for it.

But I mean, if he really wants to join a depleted team with Jimmy Butler and not much else going for it, he can just sign with the Bulls.  If Jimmy Butler is such a draw, it's confusing that the Bulls aren't one of the 6 teams supposedly meeting with Durant on July 1st.

He's not going to the Bulls. He's meeting with the Warriors and Spurs. You know. Teams with good players.

If that is the case, then we absolutely made the right move keeping #3, because there is no way in hell Noel would move the needle compared to the players on GS or the Spurs.

He would have liked it more than Jaylen Brown. We needed to look like a team that might make it all the way to the 3rd round of the playoffs. Right now we look like another first round exit. Possibly 2nd if we bring in a decent free agent

[BitterJim]

Look this whole theory about Durant might come here now because now we have room for two max contracts? Is that what passes for great basketball knowledge in Boston now? It's very cute and very asinine. There is no reason for him to come here now. Guys like Durant don't go to teams with lots of cap space. It doesn't work that way. Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown won't be attracting Durant.

heh... it's a borderline 50 win team without any additions.   Sure, we could have traded Amir + Jerebko + Rozier for D-Rose to fill our second max cap slot, but it's better to just head into our meeting with Durant to say "Hey... we're adding you to a 50 win team... and then we have another 26 million to add another max player.  Who would you like us to get?"

Yes.  It makes a difference.

We have money. Wow. That will be sure to attract him over the Warriors and the Spurs. Hey. We don't have players. But we have money. We could have had Noel on his rookie contract and been in a better situation.

You know how huge a fan of Noel I am.  Trading the #3 pick for Noel and filler wasn't a smart move either.  Consider the following:

- Noel has 1 year left on his rookie deal and then could command max money.  If we fail to sign superstars this year, we want to maintain our ability to sign a superstar next year when the free agent class is even juicier.  Locking up money for Nerlens Noel hurts that chance.

- Some of the biggest names in free agency this summer are bigs.  Horford, Howard, Whiteside, Pau Gasol, Noah... even lesser names like Biyombo.  I brought up prior to the draft that trading for Okafor or Noel didn't make sense if part of your plan involves signing Al Horford or trading for Kevin Love.   

I'm getting the sense you don't totally get the money aspect, but when you have 50+ million in cap space, there's some strategy involved here.  We can reapproach trading for Noel if we need to.  Right now, it didn't make much sense to give up the #3 pick for him.

Ok, but now Durant isn't coming here. Players don't go to teams with 19 year olds and money.

There's a better than good chance he will not come here... but it will not be because we used our draft pick to draft a player we liked.

You're being ingenuine if you see this team as "19 year olds and money".  You're a bit smarter than that, eja.

It's a solid borderline 50 win team that is pretty excellent defensively.  We can fill one of our greatest needs through free agency by signing an impact big like Horford.   Who we took 3rd is irrelevant. 

If I'm Durant I'd much rather join a team that has that 19 year old + 1st team all defense Avery Bradley + a great two-way beast in Jae Crowder + extra assets... over a depleted team with an overrated Jimmy BUtler and not much else going for it.

But I mean, if he really wants to join a depleted team with Jimmy Butler and not much else going for it, he can just sign with the Bulls.  If Jimmy Butler is such a draw, it's confusing that the Bulls aren't one of the 6 teams supposedly meeting with Durant on July 1st.

He's not going to the Bulls. He's meeting with the Warriors and Spurs. You know. Teams with good players.

If that is the case, then we absolutely made the right move keeping #3, because there is no way in hell Noel would move the needle compared to the players on GS or the Spurs.

He would have moved it more than Jaylen Brown. We needed to look like a team that might make it all the way to the 3rd round of the playoffs. Right now we look like another first round exit. Possibly 2nd if we bring in a decent free agent

If you think Noel, with no other changes, would have made us look like a team that could make the ECF, then either:

1. You have WAY too high an opinion of Noel
OR
2. You think the Celtics are nearly good enough to make the ECF as it is, which would contradict your argument that were "just 19 year olds and money"

Maybe there's a third option (which you probably won't explain), but these are the only two options I can see

[LarBrd33]

Leave it to LarBrd to make a long post telling people what they want to hear.

Now watch him make 100 posts telling us how much better Philly's assets are than ours, and when people call him out on it, he'll point them to threads like these.

I thought Philly had a pretty intriguing situation.  I still think they are super intriguing.  I'll be curious to see how Embiid plays.  Curious to see how Simmons plays.  Curious to see what they do with their wealth of bigs.  Curious to see if they open up their pocketbooks to add some much needed vets.   Personally, I hope they fail.  But I still strongly believe people are wrong when they dismiss Philly's future.

I've been off the tank bandwagon for Boston going back two seasons ago when we made our overachieving playoff run.  I believed in Stevens and felt we needed to have momentum to keep him on board.   The emergence of Crowder, Bradley and Thomas last season changed our situation substantially for us.  Above all things, the fact that Brooklyn went from perennial playoff participant to bottom 3 team transformed the ceiling for our future.   I've been saying for months that this is a perfect storm of events that gives our offseason unlimited potential.  Signing Durant is a real possibility.  We have a ton of things going for us.   We continue to have tons of flexibility and I'm sure we have lots of options.   It will be fun to see how rapidly things come together.   

When everyone else was saying we needed to jump quick at overpaying for a star, I was one of the only people here saying it made a lot more sense to wait until after we met face to face with Durant.  I'm glad that's what's happening.   On Friday, we can lay out our options, Durant can give us a sense of what he wants and what we need to do to secure his loyalty... and then let's make our moves either with or without Durant on board.  But waiting makes by far the most sense.

[LarBrd33]

Look this whole theory about Durant might come here now because now we have room for two max contracts? Is that what passes for great basketball knowledge in Boston now? It's very cute and very asinine. There is no reason for him to come here now. Guys like Durant don't go to teams with lots of cap space. It doesn't work that way. Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown won't be attracting Durant.

heh... it's a borderline 50 win team without any additions.   Sure, we could have traded Amir + Jerebko + Rozier for D-Rose to fill our second max cap slot, but it's better to just head into our meeting with Durant to say "Hey... we're adding you to a 50 win team... and then we have another 26 million to add another max player.  Who would you like us to get?"

Yes.  It makes a difference.

We have money. Wow. That will be sure to attract him over the Warriors and the Spurs. Hey. We don't have players. But we have money. We could have had Noel on his rookie contract and been in a better situation.

You know how huge a fan of Noel I am.  Trading the #3 pick for Noel and filler wasn't a smart move either.  Consider the following:

- Noel has 1 year left on his rookie deal and then could command max money.  If we fail to sign superstars this year, we want to maintain our ability to sign a superstar next year when the free agent class is even juicier.  Locking up money for Nerlens Noel hurts that chance.

- Some of the biggest names in free agency this summer are bigs.  Horford, Howard, Whiteside, Pau Gasol, Noah... even lesser names like Biyombo.  I brought up prior to the draft that trading for Okafor or Noel didn't make sense if part of your plan involves signing Al Horford or trading for Kevin Love.   

I'm getting the sense you don't totally get the money aspect, but when you have 50+ million in cap space, there's some strategy involved here.  We can reapproach trading for Noel if we need to.  Right now, it didn't make much sense to give up the #3 pick for him.

Ok, but now Durant isn't coming here. Players don't go to teams with 19 year olds and money.

There's a better than good chance he will not come here... but it will not be because we used our draft pick to draft a player we liked.

You're being ingenuine if you see this team as "19 year olds and money".  You're a bit smarter than that, eja.

It's a solid borderline 50 win team that is pretty excellent defensively.  We can fill one of our greatest needs through free agency by signing an impact big like Horford.   Who we took 3rd is irrelevant. 

If I'm Durant I'd much rather join a team that has that 19 year old + 1st team all defense Avery Bradley + a great two-way beast in Jae Crowder + extra assets... over a depleted team with an overrated Jimmy BUtler and not much else going for it.

But I mean, if he really wants to join a depleted team with Jimmy Butler and not much else going for it, he can just sign with the Bulls.  If Jimmy Butler is such a draw, it's confusing that the Bulls aren't one of the 6 teams supposedly meeting with Durant on July 1st.

He's not going to the Bulls. He's meeting with the Warriors and Spurs. You know. Teams with good players.

If that is the case, then we absolutely made the right move keeping #3, because there is no way in hell Noel would move the needle compared to the players on GS or the Spurs.

He would have moved it more than Jaylen Brown. We needed to look like a team that might make it all the way to the 3rd round of the playoffs. Right now we look like another first round exit. Possibly 2nd if we bring in a decent free agent

Welp, Jaylen Brown beat Jimmy Butler 1-on-1... let's invite KD to play him to 21 and see what he thinks.  Lol.

[Forza Juventus]

TP for the fantastic post. Very inspiring. The only thing I am critical of Ainge for from draft night is the Yabu pick.

[Eja117]

Look this whole theory about Durant might come here now because now we have room for two max contracts? Is that what passes for great basketball knowledge in Boston now? It's very cute and very asinine. There is no reason for him to come here now. Guys like Durant don't go to teams with lots of cap space. It doesn't work that way. Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown won't be attracting Durant.

heh... it's a borderline 50 win team without any additions.   Sure, we could have traded Amir + Jerebko + Rozier for D-Rose to fill our second max cap slot, but it's better to just head into our meeting with Durant to say "Hey... we're adding you to a 50 win team... and then we have another 26 million to add another max player.  Who would you like us to get?"

Yes.  It makes a difference.

We have money. Wow. That will be sure to attract him over the Warriors and the Spurs. Hey. We don't have players. But we have money. We could have had Noel on his rookie contract and been in a better situation.

You know how huge a fan of Noel I am.  Trading the #3 pick for Noel and filler wasn't a smart move either.  Consider the following:

- Noel has 1 year left on his rookie deal and then could command max money.  If we fail to sign superstars this year, we want to maintain our ability to sign a superstar next year when the free agent class is even juicier.  Locking up money for Nerlens Noel hurts that chance.

- Some of the biggest names in free agency this summer are bigs.  Horford, Howard, Whiteside, Pau Gasol, Noah... even lesser names like Biyombo.  I brought up prior to the draft that trading for Okafor or Noel didn't make sense if part of your plan involves signing Al Horford or trading for Kevin Love.   

I'm getting the sense you don't totally get the money aspect, but when you have 50+ million in cap space, there's some strategy involved here.  We can reapproach trading for Noel if we need to.  Right now, it didn't make much sense to give up the #3 pick for him.

Ok, but now Durant isn't coming here. Players don't go to teams with 19 year olds and money.

There's a better than good chance he will not come here... but it will not be because we used our draft pick to draft a player we liked.

You're being ingenuine if you see this team as "19 year olds and money".  You're a bit smarter than that, eja.

It's a solid borderline 50 win team that is pretty excellent defensively.  We can fill one of our greatest needs through free agency by signing an impact big like Horford.   Who we took 3rd is irrelevant. 

If I'm Durant I'd much rather join a team that has that 19 year old + 1st team all defense Avery Bradley + a great two-way beast in Jae Crowder + extra assets... over a depleted team with an overrated Jimmy BUtler and not much else going for it.

But I mean, if he really wants to join a depleted team with Jimmy Butler and not much else going for it, he can just sign with the Bulls.  If Jimmy Butler is such a draw, it's confusing that the Bulls aren't one of the 6 teams supposedly meeting with Durant on July 1st.

He's not going to the Bulls. He's meeting with the Warriors and Spurs. You know. Teams with good players.

If that is the case, then we absolutely made the right move keeping #3, because there is no way in hell Noel would move the needle compared to the players on GS or the Spurs.

He would have moved it more than Jaylen Brown. We needed to look like a team that might make it all the way to the 3rd round of the playoffs. Right now we look like another first round exit. Possibly 2nd if we bring in a decent free agent

Welp, Jaylen Brown beat Jimmy Butler 1-on-1... let's invite KD to play him to 21 and see what he thinks.  Lol.

If only the game were played in one on one.

[Casperian]

Leave it to LarBrd to make a long post telling people what they want to hear.

Now watch him make 100 posts telling us how much better Philly's assets are than ours, and when people call him out on it, he'll point them to threads like these.

I thought Philly had a pretty intriguing situation.  I still think they are super intriguing.  I'll be curious to see how Embiid plays.  Curious to see how Simmons plays.  Curious to see what they do with their wealth of bigs.  Curious to see if they open up their pocketbooks to add some much needed vets.   Personally, I hope they fail.  But I still strongly believe people are wrong when they dismiss Philly's future.

I've been off the tank bandwagon for Boston going back two seasons ago when we made our overachieving playoff run.  I believed in Stevens and felt we needed to have momentum to keep him on board.   The emergence of Crowder, Bradley and Thomas last season changed our situation substantially for us.  Above all things, the fact that Brooklyn went from perennial playoff participant to bottom 3 team transformed the ceiling for our future.   I've been saying for months that this is a perfect storm of events that gives our offseason unlimited potential.  Signing Durant is a real possibility.  We have a ton of things going for us.   We continue to have tons of flexibility and I'm sure we have lots of options.   It will be fun to see how rapidly things come together.   

When everyone else was saying we needed to jump quick at overpaying for a star, I was one of the only people here saying it made a lot more sense to wait until after we met face to face with Durant.  I'm glad that's what's happening.   On Friday, we can lay out our options, Durant can give us a sense of what he wants and what we need to do to secure his loyalty... and then let's make our moves either with or without Durant on board.  But waiting makes by far the most sense.

It's not that I disagree with the point you make in the OP, in fact I agree with it, but I know you long enough (and have seen a few posts of yours in those threads discussing the rumoured trades with Philly) that I'm not buying it.

Besides, as a guy who makes a 180° on as many topics as you do, as often as you do, I fully expect you to make another one in the not so distant future.

[alldaboston]

Look this whole theory about Durant might come here now because now we have room for two max contracts? Is that what passes for great basketball knowledge in Boston now? It's very cute and very asinine. There is no reason for him to come here now. Guys like Durant don't go to teams with lots of cap space. It doesn't work that way. Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown won't be attracting Durant.

heh... it's a borderline 50 win team without any additions.   Sure, we could have traded Amir + Jerebko + Rozier for D-Rose to fill our second max cap slot, but it's better to just head into our meeting with Durant to say "Hey... we're adding you to a 50 win team... and then we have another 26 million to add another max player.  Who would you like us to get?"

Yes.  It makes a difference.

We have money. Wow. That will be sure to attract him over the Warriors and the Spurs. Hey. We don't have players. But we have money. We could have had Noel on his rookie contract and been in a better situation.

You know how huge a fan of Noel I am.  Trading the #3 pick for Noel and filler wasn't a smart move either.  Consider the following:

- Noel has 1 year left on his rookie deal and then could command max money.  If we fail to sign superstars this year, we want to maintain our ability to sign a superstar next year when the free agent class is even juicier.  Locking up money for Nerlens Noel hurts that chance.

- Some of the biggest names in free agency this summer are bigs.  Horford, Howard, Whiteside, Pau Gasol, Noah... even lesser names like Biyombo.  I brought up prior to the draft that trading for Okafor or Noel didn't make sense if part of your plan involves signing Al Horford or trading for Kevin Love.   

I'm getting the sense you don't totally get the money aspect, but when you have 50+ million in cap space, there's some strategy involved here.  We can reapproach trading for Noel if we need to.  Right now, it didn't make much sense to give up the #3 pick for him.

Ok, but now Durant isn't coming here. Players don't go to teams with 19 year olds and money. Also I reject this concept that every player in the league (who isn't worthy) will get max contracts from these teams with so much more money than us, while we sit around and save our money and that this is what will get Durant to come here. It's just wanting it both ways. We can't do this. We can't do that. We can't do anything. There are just no options. We have no leverage. I'm from Boston. Get this defeatism out of here. Take it to France or something.

Ah, but they would go to teams with 22 year olds (see: Noel, Nerlens) and money. Got it.

[saltlover]

Leave it to LarBrd to make a long post telling people what they want to hear.

Now watch him make 100 posts telling us how much better Philly's assets are than ours, and when people call him out on it, he'll point them to threads like these.

I thought Philly had a pretty intriguing situation.  I still think they are super intriguing.  I'll be curious to see how Embiid plays.  Curious to see how Simmons plays.  Curious to see what they do with their wealth of bigs.  Curious to see if they open up their pocketbooks to add some much needed vets.   Personally, I hope they fail.  But I still strongly believe people are wrong when they dismiss Philly's future.

I've been off the tank bandwagon for Boston going back two seasons ago when we made our overachieving playoff run.  I believed in Stevens and felt we needed to have momentum to keep him on board.   The emergence of Crowder, Bradley and Thomas last season changed our situation substantially for us.  Above all things, the fact that Brooklyn went from perennial playoff participant to bottom 3 team transformed the ceiling for our future.   I've been saying for months that this is a perfect storm of events that gives our offseason unlimited potential.  Signing Durant is a real possibility.  We have a ton of things going for us.   We continue to have tons of flexibility and I'm sure we have lots of options.   It will be fun to see how rapidly things come together.   

When everyone else was saying we needed to jump quick at overpaying for a star, I was one of the only people here saying it made a lot more sense to wait until after we met face to face with Durant.  I'm glad that's what's happening.   On Friday, we can lay out our options, Durant can give us a sense of what he wants and what we need to do to secure his loyalty... and then let's make our moves either with or without Durant on board.  But waiting makes by far the most sense.

Really?  You've been on the bandwagon that long?

Overall point... on paper, this is a 25 win team.   Ainge took a literal 25 win team (from 2013-14) and got rid of a couple of the best players...   Yes, he landed Thomas for a late 1st (likely seeing Thomas as a more tradeable chip down the line than the late pick), but this very much was a team designed to bottom out.   On paper... 25 wins.  As many Sports analysts mentioned, there might not be a single player on the Celtics that would start for a top-tier team.  Certainly not for Golden State.  Our best player would be, at best, the 8th best guy on the Warriors.  It's a credit to Brad Stevens and his otherwordly coaching magic that we won 40.   It's proof that "on paper" doesn't always translate to reality.    So the question is whether or not Stevens can once again get this team of 25 win talent to 40 again.  I doubt it.  47?  No way.   Of course, none of this matters if Ainge hits a few home runs this summer and gets some real talent here.

Of course, maybe you felt Amir Johnson was a home run:

I literally can not imagine a scenario where Orlando doesn't match a Tobias Harris offer... with 3rd stringer veterans like Amir Johnson getting 12 million per year... how in the hell can you pass up on 14-16 mil for Tobias Harris?

Also, we don't have the cap space to even sign Harris anymore... so yeah... forget that.

Or maybe not...

Anyway, welcome to the bandwagon!  We have plenty of room for you here, but please don't say you got on earlier than you did.

[LarBrd33]

Leave it to LarBrd to make a long post telling people what they want to hear.

Now watch him make 100 posts telling us how much better Philly's assets are than ours, and when people call him out on it, he'll point them to threads like these.

I thought Philly had a pretty intriguing situation.  I still think they are super intriguing.  I'll be curious to see how Embiid plays.  Curious to see how Simmons plays.  Curious to see what they do with their wealth of bigs.  Curious to see if they open up their pocketbooks to add some much needed vets.   Personally, I hope they fail.  But I still strongly believe people are wrong when they dismiss Philly's future.

I've been off the tank bandwagon for Boston going back two seasons ago when we made our overachieving playoff run.  I believed in Stevens and felt we needed to have momentum to keep him on board.   The emergence of Crowder, Bradley and Thomas last season changed our situation substantially for us.  Above all things, the fact that Brooklyn went from perennial playoff participant to bottom 3 team transformed the ceiling for our future.   I've been saying for months that this is a perfect storm of events that gives our offseason unlimited potential.  Signing Durant is a real possibility.  We have a ton of things going for us.   We continue to have tons of flexibility and I'm sure we have lots of options.   It will be fun to see how rapidly things come together.   

When everyone else was saying we needed to jump quick at overpaying for a star, I was one of the only people here saying it made a lot more sense to wait until after we met face to face with Durant.  I'm glad that's what's happening.   On Friday, we can lay out our options, Durant can give us a sense of what he wants and what we need to do to secure his loyalty... and then let's make our moves either with or without Durant on board.  But waiting makes by far the most sense.

Really?  You've been on the bandwagon that long?

(Fake quotes removed)

Anyway, welcome to the bandwagon!  We have plenty of room for you here, but please don't say you got on earlier than you did.

I never said any of this. 

Last offseason, I predicted 45 wins.

From October:

I'm a pessimist and even I buy into the advanced metric koolaid that we're winning 45+ this year.

[flybono]

Since the Bulls Dynasty ended in 1998 we have 18 championships,

Spurs  5
Lakers 5
Heat   3
Warriors  1
Mavericks  1
Pistons  1
Cavaliers  1
CELTICS   1

How do you figure Ainge is the Best GM ? You could argue Garnett and Company should have won a few more rings especially if Ainge had a better grip on the salary Cap.
Ainge was left at the Altar in the 2012 Playoffs because he failed to build a bench.
Same in 2010 when Perkins went down. Where was the backup Center? RWallace? please..

Lets not put this GM in the hall of Fame yet..