Backup bigs

[cman88]

It's clear this early in the season our one weakness is the backup big spot without timelord. Vonleh/kornet just don't cut it.

Alot will shore up in that area once timelord returns. BUT do you want to put so much on a guy returning from injury and old al horford?

We need a defensive big who can spell those guys. Not sure who is on the market or who brad can look at. Maybe wait for the buy outs.

[ozgod]

It's clear this early in the season our one weakness is the backup big spot without timelord. Vonleh/kornet just don't cut it.

Alot will shore up in that area once timelord returns. BUT do you want to put so much on a guy returning from injury and old al horford?

We need a defensive big who can spell those guys. Not sure who is on the market or who brad can look at. Maybe wait for the buy outs.

Everyone acknowledges the need for a backup big, but with finite resources (I'm assuming that with us over the luxury tax Brad will not want to spend $40m including tax for a big with a market value of $10m) we're really limited to either trading for someone or signing someone below that. If we trade for someone, who could we package that would be appealing for someone?

Here is the list of current free agents (Dwight Howard signed for some Taiwanese team though maybe he has a buy out clause).

(click to enlarge)


I mean, we could also get Tacko back 

Here's our current roster, including the exceptions we could use:

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You can see that Gallo, Kornet, Vonleh, Jackson and Griffin cannot be traded until Dec 13 or Jan 2. To get someone better than Kornet or Vonleh, who would we trade away, knowing that their numbers would decrease when Timelord returns?

I think we all know that that spot is the weak spot in our team right now, it's affecting our rim defense and rebounding. But given our constaints what would be the best decision for us?

We could definitely look at using those exceptions, the Juancho one and the Richardson one, to get someone in the $5m-$6m contract range. I'm not sure if using those exceptions would impact us getting hard capped, someone more knowledgeable about the salary cap can tell us...I'm pretty sure (but could be wrong) that the ultimate cap impact of using them would end up in a total cap hit of $20m-$24m. Happy to be corrected. So we could use the smaller one maybe, the Bol Bol one. Here's the list of players who we might possibly trade for for those TPEs. It's possible we may have to give up second rounders for them.

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A lot of those low contract guys (e.g. Duran, Sengun) are rookies that their team will probably hang on to as they are cost controlled. Maybe we could prise away Bitadze from Indiana or Stewart from Detroit?

Talking about the constraints and how hard it is doesn't mean I'm against beefing up that area mind you - I'm just curious as to how we would do it without affecting our existing team. Or we could bite the bullet and trade a big piece like White, for $16m you can get someone decent in return. Or maybe Brad just rolls with it until it gets really, REALLY obvious that it's an issue, then he has more justification in spending $40m of Wyc's money on a $10m guy 

[knuckleballer]

I’d be interested in trading Gallo, Pritchard, and a first for Poeltl next month.  This is a championship team with a better center.  It’s a lot to give up for a rental, but I don’t think we can rely on R Williams. 

I don’t know if we would get Poeltl’s Bird rights.  I would like to re-sign him for next year, Grant Williams too.  It’s time for Wyc to open the vault.

[Jvalin]

Onyeka Okongwu. Can switch ball screens on D. He's a reliable roll man on offense. I reckon he'd be a perfect fit in our system. Are the Hawks planning to pay him in 2024? Possibly, but it may be worth a try. Hopefully, a TPE + pick(s) would get the job done. He's coming off the bench behind Capela in Atlanta.

[Squigs]

I always thought Willie Caulie-Stein could have filled that role for us in the short term.  But he either signed or is so bad he didn't make that list of FA Bigs! Lol

[Roy H.]

Sign Boogie if we want offense, passing and rebounding.

Sign Favors if we want defense and rebounding.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Richaun Holmes
PJ Washington
Mason Plumlee
Naz Reid
Kyle Anderson
Obi Toppin
Nerlens Noel
Jalen Smith
Johnathan Isaac
Daniel Gafford
Kelly Olynyk
Robert Covington
Maxi Kleiber
Larry Nance Jr.
Jakob Poetl

If any of the guys above come available, it may take some creativity to trade for them, but I could see the Cs being in the game.

[Sophomore]

Per sportrac, Nerlens makes $9.2M this year, team option for $9.6 next year. That puts him out of reach for any TPE; it’d be a trade like PP, Gallo, and a pick. Possibly, given PP’s price and length of team control, the pick could be a second or two (not to mention, Detroit would be picking up P Rabbit!)

I think that’s a viable deal, and it has real upside and downside potential, depending on how the injuries land. If our starting guards are all healthy for the playoffs, I think it’s a significant improvement - let’s us play bigger and really lean back toward the defensive dominance that took us to the finals last year. If we are missing guards and Rob and Al stay healthy we would miss PP.

Net, I would do it if NN is available once Gallo is tradable. I don’t love any of the current free agents available. 

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

Sign Boogie if we want offense, passing and rebounding.

Sign Favors if we want defense and rebounding.

Is there any chance that Brad looked at the available FA’s and decided that they wouldn’t contribute to this current team?

I understand that we all think we know basketball, but maybe Brad is more informed to make basketball decisions than we are? I don’t see this point anywhere in the thread.

[Roy H.]

Sign Boogie if we want offense, passing and rebounding.

Sign Favors if we want defense and rebounding.

Is there any chance that Brad looked at the available FA’s and decided that they wouldn’t contribute to this current team?

I understand that we all think we know basketball, but maybe Brad is more informed to make basketball decisions than we are? I don’t see this point anywhere in the thread.

Yeah, I've never bought this type of "appeal to the expert" reasoning.

Experts make crappy decisions all of the time.  Great authors sometimes write crappy books; great artists make paintings and sculptures that miss the mark.  The general public can't necessarily say "I could do better", but they are qualified enough -- at least in many circumstances -- to say "that looks flawed".

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

Sign Boogie if we want offense, passing and rebounding.

Sign Favors if we want defense and rebounding.

Is there any chance that Brad looked at the available FA’s and decided that they wouldn’t contribute to this current team?

I understand that we all think we know basketball, but maybe Brad is more informed to make basketball decisions than we are? I don’t see this point anywhere in the thread.

Yeah, I've never bought this type of "appeal to the expert" reasoning.

Experts make crappy decisions all of the time.  Great authors sometimes write crappy books; great artists make paintings and sculptures that miss the mark.  The general public can't necessarily say "I could do better", but they are qualified enough -- at least in many circumstances -- to say "that looks flawed".

I think this is why we have hillbillies questioning guys like Fauci.

I agree that we can say something is flawed. I don’t think our backups to backups are great. I think that changes when Williams comes back. This is why I thought this has been a nitpick. The solution is there, we just need to be patient and stomach more Celtics wins.

[Birdman]

Enes will never play in NBA again

[Roy H.]

On the issue of backup bigs, how do people feel about Blake Griffin?

I don't think he's a very good player at this stage.  I wouldn't rely on him for any meaningful minutes.  But, I do like him on the team, in that "15 year veteran" role that Kyrie famously asked for.  There's a reason that a team like Miami keeps paying Haslem to sit on its bench.  Griffin has been that guy who can both be a calming influence, and a guy who gets others fired up.

[ozgod]

Sign Boogie if we want offense, passing and rebounding.

Sign Favors if we want defense and rebounding.

Is there any chance that Brad looked at the available FA’s and decided that they wouldn’t contribute to this current team?

I understand that we all think we know basketball, but maybe Brad is more informed to make basketball decisions than we are? I don’t see this point anywhere in the thread.

Yeah, I've never bought this type of "appeal to the expert" reasoning.

Experts make crappy decisions all of the time.  Great authors sometimes write crappy books; great artists make paintings and sculptures that miss the mark.  The general public can't necessarily say "I could do better", but they are qualified enough -- at least in many circumstances -- to say "that looks flawed".

I think this is why we have hillbillies questioning guys like Fauci.

I agree that we can say something is flawed. I don’t think our backups to backups are great. I think that changes when Williams comes back. This is why I thought this has been a nitpick. The solution is there, we just need to be patient and stomach more Celtics wins.

I think we all know we have a deficiency in that area. To me the issue is, what can we actually do that would be a net gain for us? Can we fit someone into the TPE that would justify paying 4x his salary in tax? Or is there a trade package we can put together with existing players? Again, people want good names, we don't want to replace dross with dross...but to get someone good you have to give up someone good. Are we willing to do that?

For example, we could trade Derrick White ($16.8m) for Myles Turner ($18m). That's the type of trade we would have to do to get someone good. And unlike it we had used our $17m TPE earlier in the offseason, this one would be a wash when it comes to luxury tax. Is this something that would improve our team?

[Roy H.]

Sign Boogie if we want offense, passing and rebounding.

Sign Favors if we want defense and rebounding.

Is there any chance that Brad looked at the available FA’s and decided that they wouldn’t contribute to this current team?

I understand that we all think we know basketball, but maybe Brad is more informed to make basketball decisions than we are? I don’t see this point anywhere in the thread.

Yeah, I've never bought this type of "appeal to the expert" reasoning.

Experts make crappy decisions all of the time.  Great authors sometimes write crappy books; great artists make paintings and sculptures that miss the mark.  The general public can't necessarily say "I could do better", but they are qualified enough -- at least in many circumstances -- to say "that looks flawed".

I think this is why we have hillbillies questioning guys like Fauci.

I agree that we can say something is flawed. I don’t think our backups to backups are great. I think that changes when Williams comes back. This is why I thought this has been a nitpick. The solution is there, we just need to be patient and stomach more Celtics wins.

I think we all know we have a deficiency in that area. To me the issue is, what can we actually do that would be a net gain for us? Can we fit someone into the TPE that would justify paying 4x his salary in tax? Or is there a trade package we can put together with existing players? Again, people want good names, we don't want to replace dross with dross...but to get someone good you have to give up someone good. Are we willing to do that?

For example, we could trade Derrick White ($16.8m) for Myles Turner ($18m). That's the type of trade we would have to do to get someone good. And unlike it we had used our $17m TPE earlier in the offseason, this one would be a wash when it comes to luxury tax. Is this something that would improve our team?

Would Turner be our long term solution at PF?