Grade Our Off-Season

[chicagoceltic]

Coaching Search A- My first inclination here was to give this a B/B+ for the Ime hire but I bumped it up because the Assistant Coaches seem solid as well as the performance in summer league where ball movement was pretty stellar. Ime mentioned from day 1 that we needed better ball movement and I do not think the success we had in that area in summer league was just a coincidence. Plus, Ime does have a solid resume as an assistant, has some credit as a former player and apparently received high praise from our two best players.

The Draft B- I am grading this only on the draft pick that we had and am not taking in account the trade of the 16th pick. At 45 we got a young, upside athlete who flashed some interesting skills in summer league. Our roster was full so I like taking a swing at a guy who we can stash for a year or two.

Trades And Free Agency B+ I think we will be a better team this year than we were last year. Both our starters and bench should be improved. We were never getting a superstar this year and I think Brad did as well as you could expect. I like some of the pieces he brought in. I did bump my score here a bit because he landed Schoeder at a ridiculously low price...yeah, that kind of fell in his lap but it still counts.

Overall:  2021 Season And Beyond B+ I like our present and our future more now than I did 3 months ago. I like a lot of the players on this team and expect it to be a fun team to watch and root for. We have some offense, some defense and some "dogs" that I always enjoy.

[mqtcelticsfan]

1.  Coaching Search - A

I’m all aboard the Becky Hammon bandwagon, but I’ve long been an Udoka fan. Given some of the potential trainwreck hires like Kidd or controversial hires like Billups out there, I’m incredibly happy with the result.

2.  The Draft - N/A

Had no idea who Begarin was before the draft, so I don’t have a strong opinion on him.

3.  Trades And Free Agency - B+


I think Kemba still had the chance to be a net positive for us, so I wasn’t a fan of giving away a draft pick to salary dump him. That being said, I wasn’t a fan of this year’s mid-first talent, we opened up some flexibility for next year and Horford should contribute. I liked the rest of the additions. I think Richardson can still be a decent role player for us and more importantly liked that we made use of the Hayward TPE with a higher salary player. I like the Schroeder signing as it’s essentially zero risk, moderate reward.

4.  Overall:  2021 Season And Beyond - A

There’s a financial framework to get a guy like Beal without giving up Tatum, Brown, Smart or Williams right now with the moves we made, which is a win to me. There *might* not be a way to do it value-wise, but we’ve seen stranger things lately on expiring stars. Smart and Williams are both good contract values and I think they both can be top 6 players on a contender if they continue to improve and stay healthy. If not, they have tradable deals as long as they don’t self-destruct.