So you would give up Tatum in a trade for Leonard?
Here was the rumor/speculation that I heard:
Celtics get: Leonard. Spurs get: forward Marcus Morris, guard Terry Rozier, forward Jayson Tatum, forward Daniel Theis, 2019 top-eight protected first-round pick (from Boston, via Memphis). So, is that too steep of a price to pay for one of the NBA’s best players? Perhaps, and Leonard is just one year away from free agency. But such a deal would give Boston a starting lineup of Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, Jaylen Brown and Al Horford. If you ask us, that squad could rival — and even surpass — the Golden State Warriors’ star-studded unit.
Read more at: https://nesn.com/2018/04/should-celtics-offer-this-hypothetical-trade-for-spurs-kawhi-leonard/
4 players and a Memphis protected pick for Leonard? Would you really do this trade?
That trade isn't able to happen. We would need to add more salary. Probably need to send Yabu too.
So
Tatum, Rozier, Morris, Theis and Yabusele plus a pick or picks
For
Kawhi.
No way. Too much.If I could trade just Tatum and picks, I woukd do it but given we would need to shred the roster and rotation to get him, I would pass.
so you wouldn't want to give up Tatum and the 3rd PG, the 4th swing, the 4th big man, and a guy who spent most of the year in the GLeague for Leonard. That seems a bit strange to me.
So post-trade, you'd have a starting 5 of Irving, Hayward, Leonard, Horford, Baynes. The team would have Smart, Brown, and Monroe as the first 3 off the bench. It would still have its own 2018 1st, Larkin, Semi, Nader, and Bird/Allen, plus whatever free agents could be added for the deeper bench.
I just don't get why all of the deep bench players would somehow be a deal breaker. I like Tatum, but if Tatum is even 90% the player Leonard is, he would be a huge homerun and the odds of that happening are small. Leonard also fits the Irving/Hayward/Horford timeline so much better, that the team has to make that trade.
Kinda making some large assumptions on returning players, aren't you? You have Baynes, Monroe and Smart all returning. That's a HUGE assumption and pretty hard to do given what the Cs have to offer. It could be that none of the three return and you have Kyrie, Brown, Hayward, Kawhi, Horford and nothing but scrubs. Where's the rebounding? Where is the depth? With Smart, Monroe and Baynes not returning you are actually trading your 6th, 7th, 8th and possibly 11th players in your rotation going out not the 3rd PG, the 4th swing, the 4th big man, and a guy who spent most of the year in the GLeague.
Monroe is the only questionable one on my mind. Smart is restricted so Boston can match any offer and I don't see Haynes as having a market that would prove him out of Boston, though Monroe might he might not also.
I don't think we can keep both Baynes and Monroe unfortunately, as much as I'd love to. I'm assuming one comes back though at least, and along with Theis that is still a pretty good front court (assuming Theis does as well as he did this year). Maybe they sign a cheap big w/vet. minimum OR draft one.
As for Smart, I think if Rozier gets dealt in the trade, they do everything they can to keep Smart, as you say. Truthfully, I don't see Smart's market being more than 10M/Year (if it's that high to begin with), and I'd gladly keep Smart at 4/40M with Bird Rights. Some projections say we could even keep him at 4/32M, but I'd think somewhere around 4/40M to 4/48M is the ballpark. Unless there's a team out there I don't know that loves Smart a ton and is willing to throw 15M/Year at him.
Also, I don't know if they'll be capped out for good or not, but maybe they find a way to keep Larkin on the cheap again for good depth? Otherwise, sign Jabari Bird to an NBA contract.