Preseason’s Over: Your Takeaways?

[footey]

What’s going on with the decision on players options that are due in a week?
Are they waiting the Christmas game to decide? If Danny and Brad really believed in: Timelord, Grant and Romeo their options would have been picked already for next year... they also have to decide on Green soon.
If I had to bet Romeos option would be picked but there are real discussions on Grant and Timelord options. If we are in the luxury tax territory next year their contracts might be painful for Wyc...
Another consideration is if they pick up the above three options for next year then next season we are looking at 7-8 players on rookie contracts again meaning we are back to where we were last year (and this year) in terms of depth.

Gerald Green just got waived. He's an upgrade over Javonte. Maybe there are better options out there, but Javonte sure as heck isn't the answer to much except taking up a roster spot.

Wouldn't mind signing him and cutting Javonte, frankly.

[Neurotic Guy]

I take nothing from the preseason except the team wasn’t ready yet.   What we saw has zero to do with what we’ll see over the first 25 games.

[moiso]

I take nothing from the preseason except the team wasn’t ready yet.   What we saw has zero to do with what we’ll see over the first 25 games.

This is what I think.  You can evaluate the young guys a little bit but as far as the stars and the team's performance in general the preseason didn't show a thing.

What I take away is that Pritchard should have a spot in the rotation until Kemba comes back and he looks like he could be an NBA player.  I'm most excited about Nesmith.  His performance was super encouraging to me.  His shot will be his strength whether he made them in the preseason or not.  His athleticism surprised me and has me very excited about his long term future.  The motor was pretty good, he made a nice block in the first game, and his missed dunk last night was impressive.  I know he's a knockdown shooter but these things were very encouraging.

Also, maybe it's mostly because he's been so hot from 3, but Teague has looked like a good signing. 

Edwards is strictly a shooter who can't shoot.  He's not an NBA player in my eyes.

[Ogaju]

LOL Ogaju...

_ First there is 29 other teams in the league, fans that all want the same, fans who want the same : to win in the quickest way possible. There is also places like Los Angeles or Miami who have an advantage to find an easyest way to cash in FA and change roster in few years. As I posted we tryed the trade for big stars/FA way (Kirie, Gordon, AD), all of them leaved in bad ways or rejected us badly -ad we lost Gilgeous Alexander in the Kirie trade....
_ Second, no it is no insanity, because our team change each years, the plan is not the same than last year (many of you folks were very very negativ last year after Kririe leaving) and the expectations are also (I mean the only year where we really had to do evthg to win now was 4 years ago and it was during half of the first match before Haward injurie ruined it). I mean I will be more critic if we fall in first round of PO
_ Third, the redundant narration is on your side not in ours : I don't say we will win the title this year; we choose the youth moovement just one year ago and you need some patience for that. Maybe JB as some say won't progress much more (but he is still borderline all star and it is not becasue he put only 16 points in a preseason game it changes that stuff...). You folks are angry when Kririe team fall, then you are mad and negativ when he leaves, then after Raptors come back to a 7 game in ECSF you see we will loose and then when our surpisingly good team go in final you still see a lot of limitation... That with a superstar of 22 who is on line of PO records of the best all time young on the league etc... Last year Philly sucked in big largness, we blew them in PO and now they are far away behind us because they brought Stephen Curry and 2010 version of Danny Green... Did they ?
_ Forth I don't say Ainge is perfect and maybe some of the last choices (last year draft, maybe Pritchrd this year, no move at trade dealine last year) were not that good... But I am a little less self confident in my short term views than you guys... As many time I didn't liked what Ainge did and finally it brought gold (alos because of luck and context I get it). Smae for Stevens who was a little outcoached by Spoelstra and Nurse. But still is a top 5 coach in the league
_ Fifth, even if our both regards on others are true, that I am insane with to much positivity and you insane with negativity I still prefere my blindness and it makes me more of a supporter.   

I want change I want improvement so you cannot call that insane running it back hoping for a different result. It is fans that challenge the organization that make it better not the fans that accept nonsense.

What a bunch of self-righteous nonsense. There is some rubbish that gets posted here, but this really takes the cake. You really think your incessant whining is "challenging" the organisation? All you do is carp and complain and anyone who doesn't agree with your rambling is just a "rah-rah" who believes everything is perfect. Ridiculous...

looks like we disagree and the poster I responded to is not nearly as defensive as you.

[Hoopvortex]

Need 2 more pre season games to fine tune

- Celts as of now are behind 76ers, Heat and Nets. Maybe Bucks, but they have looked bad in the pre season also
- Brad has to stop starting Green
- NBA 3 pt line has been difficult to digest for many of the younger players

What do you mean maybe Bucks? Cs are fifth in talent in the east for sure.

Yeah, I reckon that is the case. Cs are 5th best in East.

Probably behind Raptors too

Did the Raptors not get worse this summer? They lost Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka.

What did they do to replace those guys / get better?

They did get Tippy Toe Baynes to replace Gasol, but yeah I think they got worse barring player development.

TBD, I think.

In addition to Baynes they also got bigs Alex Len and Henry Ellenson to replace those two.

Player development?

Anunoby is 23. Terence Davis is, too. Those two have the best chance of a breakout year.

This is Chris Boucher’s golden opportunity. He’s a unicorn - excellent shotblocker with 3-pt range. Great mobility, reflexes, acceleration off the floor, and length. Has no position in the traditional hierarchy, but in today’s game that can be his edge. (Guy has two rings already!)

Ditto Matt Thomas’ golden opp’ty.

Malachi Flynn looks like yet another high-value Ujiri pick. Impressive defender for a rookie, fearless, good feel for basketball, and very pretty stroke. Since Nurse is frequently playing two ‘point guards’ there’s a real possibility of substantial minutes for him, especially with Kyle Lowry closer to the end than the beginning.

Gasol looked cooked in the bubble; the Lakers mainly need him to get them through the regular season. Ibaka is on the wrong side of 30 but he looked a long way from done and had some great moments in the playoffs.

The Raptors are Lowry and a lot of much younger players; take out Baynes and Len and no one has more than five years experience. It’s not obvious whether they’ll be better than last year, nor is it obvious they’ll be worse. I’d bet on better, though the team defense might not get up to last season’s standard.

[86MaxwellSmart]

Bucks lost all 3 Pre-Season games...but I bet they didn't look as bad as us.....awful.

[RodyTur10]

Need 2 more pre season games to fine tune

- Celts as of now are behind 76ers, Heat and Nets. Maybe Bucks, but they have looked bad in the pre season also
- Brad has to stop starting Green
- NBA 3 pt line has been difficult to digest for many of the younger players

What do you mean maybe Bucks? Cs are fifth in talent in the east for sure.

Yeah, I reckon that is the case. Cs are 5th best in East.

I bet the Raptors are better than us as well. They only lost Ibaka and Gasol in exchange for Baynes.
They have been a great regular season team for years. So that makes us 6th.

And then there's Indiana who have Oladipo back. You have the Wizards who may be dangerous with that Westbrook/Beal backcourt and Atlanta come out of a huge hole but are very deep. Without Walker I expect Boston to be a .500 team.

[BringToughnessBack]

Players have only been off a little time, lost Hayward, TT and Kemba not playing and Covid quarantines have persisted while players tried to rest from late end of season.

2 games not at full strength..Yes, we must gut our team and start over again based on that small, non complete sample size! 😂😂😂😂

Let’s try playing the season first at full strength and see what we have.

[NKY fan]

Players have only been off a little time, lost Hayward, TT and Kemba not playing and Covid quarantines have persisted while players tried to rest from late end of season.

2 games not at full strength..Yes, we must gut our team and start over again based on that small, non complete sample size! 😂😂😂😂

Let’s try playing the season first at full strength and see what we have.

We have been starting over 6 of the last 8 years lol

[BringToughnessBack]

Players have only been off a little time, lost Hayward, TT and Kemba not playing and Covid quarantines have persisted while players tried to rest from late end of season.

2 games not at full strength..Yes, we must gut our team and start over again based on that small, non complete sample size! 😂😂😂😂

Let’s try playing the season first at full strength and see what we have.

We have been starting over 6 of the last 8 years lol

You could argue that our main three core has been here since being drafted and we have not been starting over as related to our core. The exterior free agents we got or traded for were to help get us over the hump faster but that did not pan out with two of them. Many now want to jettison a few of our core and hope a 30 something will magically figure out how to win big games in a city he does not want any part of while stripping our team bare of defenders.

I am happy some of our fans do not make front office decisions.

[slamtheking]

Take-aways:
- team is seriously lacking scoring without Kemba.  Tatum and Brown cannot have any off nights while Kemba is out if this team hopes to win games.  the two of them will need to put up 50 points combined to have any hope of pulling out a win.
- Pritchard and Nesmith look like they'll be able to contribute this year.  they'll need time to get to the point of making a positive impact each game but I think we have a couple of good prospects.
- Smart is not the answer at starting PG.  With Kemba out, C's will need either Teague or Pritchard to start with him. 
- Been ready to move on from Edwards, Semi, Waters, Green and Tacko for a year.  haven't seen anything to change my mind.  there's got to be 3 NBA-quality vets Danny can use in place of Edwards, Semi and Green.
- Theis and GWill look like they've regressed since last season on offense.
- C's will be lucky if they're at .500 when Kemba gets back. 

we're a weaker team than last year.  we're going to miss Hayward, a lot.

[RJ87]

Take-aways:
- team is seriously lacking scoring without Kemba.  Tatum and Brown cannot have any off nights while Kemba is out if this team hopes to win games.  the two of them will need to put up 50 points combined to have any hope of pulling out a win.
- Pritchard and Nesmith look like they'll be able to contribute this year.  they'll need time to get to the point of making a positive impact each game but I think we have a couple of good prospects.
- Smart is not the answer at starting PG.  With Kemba out, C's will need either Teague or Pritchard to start with him. 
- Been ready to move on from Edwards, Semi, Waters, Green and Tacko for a year.  haven't seen anything to change my mind.  there's got to be 3 NBA-quality vets Danny can use in place of Edwards, Semi and Green.
- Theis and GWill look like they've regressed since last season on offense.
- C's will be lucky if they're at .500 when Kemba gets back. 

we're a weaker team than last year.  we're going to miss Hayward, a lot.

Agreed all around. TP.

[Rikibellevie]

Need 2 more pre season games to fine tune

- Celts as of now are behind 76ers, Heat and Nets. Maybe Bucks, but they have looked bad in the pre season also
- Brad has to stop starting Green
- NBA 3 pt line has been difficult to digest for many of the younger players

What do you mean maybe Bucks? Cs are fifth in talent in the east for sure.

Yeah, I reckon that is the case. Cs are 5th best in East.

Probably behind Raptors too

Did the Raptors not get worse this summer? They lost Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka.

What did they do to replace those guys / get better?

They did get Tippy Toe Baynes to replace Gasol, but yeah I think they got worse barring player development.

TBD, I think.

In addition to Baynes they also got bigs Alex Len and Henry Ellenson to replace those two.

Player development?

Anunoby is 23. Terence Davis is, too. Those two have the best chance of a breakout year.

This is Chris Boucher’s golden opportunity. He’s a unicorn - excellent shotblocker with 3-pt range. Great mobility, reflexes, acceleration off the floor, and length. Has no position in the traditional hierarchy, but in today’s game that can be his edge. (Guy has two rings already!)

Ditto Matt Thomas’ golden opp’ty.

Malachi Flynn looks like yet another high-value Ujiri pick. Impressive defender for a rookie, fearless, good feel for basketball, and very pretty stroke. Since Nurse is frequently playing two ‘point guards’ there’s a real possibility of substantial minutes for him, especially with Kyle Lowry closer to the end than the beginning.

Gasol looked cooked in the bubble; the Lakers mainly need him to get them through the regular season. Ibaka is on the wrong side of 30 but he looked a long way from done and had some great moments in the playoffs.

The Raptors are Lowry and a lot of much younger players; take out Baynes and Len and no one has more than five years experience. It’s not obvious whether they’ll be better than last year, nor is it obvious they’ll be worse. I’d bet on better, though the team defense might not get up to last season’s standard.

Gasol is maybe not such a big lost on the floor, but he was still very important on the team I guess. Ibaka is a very big lost, we can argue he was the best interiror sub in the league and I don't see Boucher or Baynes being consistanly the same threat. But it is true Nurse showed all his skills in optimising the performances of his team. But it is again a new test for him : for example in last year PO SF, we knew we had a big problem inside against them. Now we are probably much better than them at this spot (Theis eclosion, TT signing, Tatum fixed at PF)

And I am sorry Anunoby is a correct player, but he doen't seem to have the motor to be with Siakam and Van Vleet a future big 3 or so. With other teams like Hawks, maybe Pistons, Wizzards coming back later, I see more them fighting in future for PO spot (not this year but when Lowrie will regress).

And it is funny people saying we ARE the 5th best team in the east. We can pronostic results but as people see so good what will hapen, I don't get why they continue to watch the game... As they know everything.