Longer Term Strategic Position

[Brendan]

Not to go Elrond Enchilada on everyone, but I think the C's are in good position moving forward.

They have a three year window to win (and have to hope KG and PP stay near 2012 levels.) That's the gamble, but I think it's an OK one.

They have Rondo.

They might have something special in AB (not sold, but looking forward to finding out.)

They have their draft picks.

But they have also added a bunch of solid guys on reasonable deals (well JG might be overpaid.) Terry at MLE, Lee at MLE, Bass at 7-8. These guys are going to play a lot next year and look really good. They will all become trade-able chips to certain teams.

So for example:

If AB/Lee/Rondo are all executing great - DA would have the option of shopping Terry for help elsewhere on the roster. Not saying he has to, but could. Last year's team we really only had Ray that we could swap, because everyone else had too small of a contract, or was too critical. (I just don't believe Pierce is getting traded, and KG is too valuable to the Celtics versus other teams.)

Anyways as fans - we have a window, we have a spread of top talent KG, PP, Rondo. We have hope for a new star in AB. We have all our draft picks. Now we have some very good role players on decent sized deals, which should let our team be active in the trade market in ways they weren't in past.

This isn't a wish to start trading guys, just knowing that teams have to make moves to stay on top, and the Celtics are better positioned to reload with our current roster than they were a year ago.

[Jon]

I largely agree.  I somewhat questioned Danny's move to lock up Bass for 3 years.  He's a nice player, but even if Sullinger proves too short to be a post threat in the NBA, he could still probably do what Bass does now: pop wide open jumpers from 15 feet out.  And he could probably grab more rebounds while doing so. 

Still, I think Danny retained him not only to help win now, but also to keep his value for a potential future trade. 

And now we have quite a few chips with the likes of Bass, Bradley, Lee, Terry, Green, as well as Sullinger and Melo. 

As much as I do like what he's done, I do have some trouble conceiving exactly how we'd pull off a trade to maximize this value.  I know you mentioned the possibility to trade Terry now if we wanted, which does sound good to me.  The only problem to me then becomes, for what? 

Assuming we're healthy, we're likely stacked at the wings with Lee, Bradley, Green, and Pierce.  We could probably use an upgrade at the 4/5 spots; however, is anyone going to give us a big man who can make an impact for a 35 going on 36-year-old 6-1 shooting guard? 

Still, there are probably ways of pulling things off eventually, so I do overall like what Danny has done. 

[kozlodoev]

I largely agree.  I somewhat questioned Danny's move to lock up Bass for 3 years.  He's a nice player, but even if Sullinger proves too short to be a post threat in the NBA, he could still probably do what Bass does now: pop wide open jumpers from 15 feet out.  And he could probably grab more rebounds while doing so. 

Even if he does, he'll need someone to back him up. Given that we like to preserve our big men with short rotation minutes, I don't see how the Bass signing can be bad, given the reasonable price tag.