Poll: Better to build around Russell and Randle, or Smart and Scrubs

[BDeCosta26]

Banks 2.0 is a borderline scrub. Randle and Russell are future all stars. Go with talent all day.

Just drop the Banks 2.0 thing man, you've been saying it since after that draft, and you just ignore all the evidence to the contrary to keep insisting they're at all comparable. Marcus Banks couldn't hold Smart's jock strap.

And how do you know Randle and Russell are "future all-stars?" They've literally never played a game in the NBA. You have no idea how good they'll be until at the very least a full season in this league. Hence why I've held major judgement on Randle this far. I like Russell and I think he's gonna be a really good player, but I think Randle is a much more likely to be a role player. He plays a lot like Z-Bo, except not anywhere near as well. A guy like Z-Bo had to find the PERFECT situation on a team suited to his talents to be an exceedingly positive force. When your not as talented, what's the point of creating such a situation? The changing of the game is leaving guys like that behind if they're not really, really good.

This question is stupid, because it acts as if all other things are equal. Who would you rather have running your franchise? Danny Ainge or Jim Buss? Who would you rather be your coach? Byron Scott or Brad Stevens? What would you rather have, Russell, Randle and literally no other assets but cap space? Or Smart, "Scrubs", cap space and 10 first round picks in 4 years? Who do you trust to build a winner more, the current regime of the Celtics or the current regime of the Lakers?

[D.o.s.]

^I think that a lot of CB'ers are much more in tune with Byron Scott's viewpoints on basketball than they are with the ones Stevens would seem to hold.

this really seems just like trying to bait people into a conflict, particularly with the phrase "scrubs." You want your question to be as neutral as positive in phrasing to get an actual fair response. That obviously is not the intent. probably lock fodder.

The Arbiter has spoken.

I don't know enough about Russell to comment, but I think the traditional thinking is that you can't teach size, right?

That said, Russell and Randle are both unknowns, and I would want to actually watch them play in the NBA before figuring out where I stood on the issue.

Dos do you disagree the wording of the question is ridiculous for a survey? It looks like it has been changed, maybe it is my training in survey methodology but it just seem so worthless to ask heavily loaded questions with a poll.

Do you think violent hoodlums that loot stores after a national emergency should be prosecuted? yes or no?

Your point is fair. the conclusion in the final sentence of the post I replied to is extreme.

I wasn't really being serious. Aside from the Jordan fun, this is going to be a long boring offseason.

Probably, yes.

[ThePoeticWolf]

Who knows right now? We could be rebuilding around Smart and Rozier. I'm sure Golden State fans weren't that excited when they were re-building around two young guards four years ago.

A lot different then Smart and Rozier, hahaha.  Curry and Thompson are lights out shooters.  Plus Thompson is also a 6'7 guard who can also play the small forward. 

[crimson_stallion]

Celtics...

The Lakers have:
* 2 rookies who have yet to prove they can contribute in the NBA (Russell, Randle)
* One veteran big who is a proven contributor on defense (Hibbert)
* One veteran big who is a proven two-way contributor (Bass)
* No wings
* Two young guards with upside who are proven contributors on offence (Young, Clarkson)
* One veteran guard is is a proven contributor on offence (Williams)
* One veteran guard who is is an elite offensive player (Kobe)
* Horrible management and coaching
* Limited assets (without including their own players/prospects)
* Lots of cap space for next season

Boston have:
* 4 rookies who have yet to prove they can contribute (Rozier, Hunter, Mickey, Thornton)
* 3 young bigs with upside who are proven contributers on offense (Olynyk, Sully, Zeller)
* 1 veteran big who is a proven contributer on offense (Lee)
* 1 veteran big who is a proven two-way contributer (Johnson)
* 1 young guard with upside who is an elite offensive player (Thomas)
* 2 young guards who are proven two-way contributers (Bradley, Smart)
* 2 wings who are proven two-way contributers with upside (Crowder, Jerebko)
* 1 wing who is a proven cotnributer on offense (Turner)
* Great management and coaching
* Plentiful assets
* Lots of cap space from next year onwards

For all the criticism we cop for our roster imbalance, it's still far more balanced than the Lakers roster. They have no legitimate SF on their entire roster (Kobe is the closest to it).  They have only two bigs on their entire roster who have actually played NBA minutes (Hibbert and Bass - both role players).  They have only one guy on their roster who is even close to a two-way player and he (Bass) would be our 5th best PF if he was on our roster this year.  They have really only one guy who is known as a true team player (Bass).  They have only one guy who is known for his defence (Hibbert) only one guy who is known for his basketball IQ (Kobe). 

If you don't have elite talent (which neither us nor the lakers do) then you need to be able to play great team basketball in order to make yourself stronger than the sum of your parts.  We have that, but I don't see anything resembling that in LA.

[D.o.s.]

Who knows right now? We could be rebuilding around Smart and Rozier. I'm sure Golden State fans weren't that excited when they were re-building around two young guards four years ago.

A lot different then Smart and Rozier, hahaha.  Curry and Thompson are lights out shooters.  Plus Thompson is also a 6'7 guard who can also play the small forward.

Golden State fans were more upset that they traded Monta Ellis for a non-functional Andrew Bogut. And they had do deal with decades of abject awfulness prior to that.

[Snakehead]

TP to you BDeCosta26 for a great post up top.  This whole thread premise is ridiculous.

^I think that a lot of CB'ers are much more in tune with Byron Scott's viewpoints on basketball than they are with the ones Stevens would seem to hold.

Reading that Smart's number one focus should be on working on his midrange game was the proof.

[TheTruthFot18]

Smart has played a year in the league and proved he belongs here. Randle and Russell have played a combined 1 game. I'll stick with what I know and what I can see.

Lakers should have gone Okafor but I guess I'm glad they didn't. 

[crimson_stallion]

Who knows right now? We could be rebuilding around Smart and Rozier. I'm sure Golden State fans weren't that excited when they were re-building around two young guards four years ago.

A lot different then Smart and Rozier, hahaha.  Curry and Thompson are lights out shooters.  Plus Thompson is also a 6'7 guard who can also play the small forward.

Only different because you haven't yet seen what Rozier and Smart can become...but I agree that even in their rookie year's Curry and Thompson looked very different to what any of our young guys do - they both put up excellent per-min stats right from the get go.

However Lakers are a different story - their rookies haven't shown anything yet, nothing to prove their prospects will become any better than ours...yet.

[GreenPride17]

Who knows right now? We could be rebuilding around Smart and Rozier. I'm sure Golden State fans weren't that excited when they were re-building around two young guards four years ago.

A lot different then Smart and Rozier, hahaha.  Curry and Thompson are lights out shooters.  Plus Thompson is also a 6'7 guard who can also play the small forward. 

Hopefully defense will be their trademark and they become the "Snatch Bros"

[twistedrico]

Anyone that would compare Marcus Banks to Marcus Smart doesn't know a [dang] thing about basketball. Not in the same league.

[Snakehead]

Who knows right now? We could be rebuilding around Smart and Rozier. I'm sure Golden State fans weren't that excited when they were re-building around two young guards four years ago.

A lot different then Smart and Rozier, hahaha.  Curry and Thompson are lights out shooters.  Plus Thompson is also a 6'7 guard who can also play the small forward. 

Hopefully defense will be their trademark and they become the "Snatch Bros"

I hope we can come up with something uhhhh different.


On a related note:

@ByJayKing

Before tonight, RJ hunter said he and James Young were calling each other the Trash Brothers.

[LilRip]

Currently, I'd go with Russell and Randle over Smart and Rozier and co. But it doesn't really paint the whole picture. The big mystery is we don't know what value were getting yet with our picks. If Ainge is able to flip those picks for a stud or he's able to draft a stud, we'd vault "ahead" of LA. Imagine if next year, we don't get much wins and end up with the 7th pick, Dallas ends up with the 10th pick, and Kobe wills the Lakers to an 8th seed. And then we draft the next Antoine Walker and the next Paul Pierce.

So who would you take: Russell, Randle and the 15th pick? Or Smart, young Walker and young Truth?

[max215]

Currently, I'd go with Russell and Randle over Smart and Rozier and co. But it doesn't really paint the whole picture. The big mystery is we don't know what value were getting yet with our picks. If Ainge is able to flip those picks for a stud or he's able to draft a stud, we'd vault "ahead" of LA. Imagine if next year, we don't get much wins and end up with the 7th pick, Dallas ends up with the 10th pick, and Kobe wills the Lakers to an 8th seed. And then we draft the next Antoine Walker and the next Paul Pierce.

So who would you take: Russell, Randle and the 15th pick? Or Smart, young Walker and young Truth?

They wouldn't even have the 15th pick, it would go to Philly.

[D.o.s.]

Who knows right now? We could be rebuilding around Smart and Rozier. I'm sure Golden State fans weren't that excited when they were re-building around two young guards four years ago.

A lot different then Smart and Rozier, hahaha.  Curry and Thompson are lights out shooters.  Plus Thompson is also a 6'7 guard who can also play the small forward. 

Hopefully defense will be their trademark and they become the "Snatch Bros"

I hope we can come up with something uhhhh different.

Just call them the Super Snatch Bros and no one will know.

Its like Death to Smoochy: It's a rocket ship.

[Celtics4ever]

I 'd be worried building a team around an OSU player and I am from Ohio.