Did Danny made a mistake in not believing our chances this year?

[Rikibellevie]

No because I don't think there was much opportunity to do anything at this trade deadline. Better off to hold onto the young players & picks until a better opportunity shows itself. Ainge made the right decision.

You do not want to sell off your assets (young players / picks) cheap. You do not want to sell out your future by going all in on old vets who are only small improvements on the team. Wait for the right opportunity, then strike. A bigger better improvement.

I guess you are right for our biggest need, which was to find a very solid center. To have Capella or Drummond we would have to give Hayward, which was a dumb move at the time. Tristan could have been a good idea if he had been cut. But finally we saw rebounds was not at all a problem. All our forwards + Smart can rebound good and Tatum is excellent when he wants. It was one of the good surprise this playoff.

But at least we could have found a better option than Ojeleye from the bench with Burks, Crowder or Iggy. I mean you can't argue there wasn't any possibilty when Miami found a way to upgrade that much.

[jambr380]

also frustrating to think what could have been if Al could have known that Kemba was going to pick Boston.

He did know - last offseason was the biggest joke in history with teams and players agreeing to deals well before the moratorium. Al's apparent excuse was that he didn't want to go back on his word with PHI - which is asinine since he was just coming off of three years with the Cs and it us who he burned. In the end, it's fine, Al was just dreadul this year, but with Hayward's injury, he probably could have helped shore things up inside and from a ball-movement standpoint.

[celticsclay]

One of the reasons the Cs have sustained their winning is DA not making huge reactionary moves. He historically avoids short sighted trades.

My big WHAT IF for this season has to be Bertans

 https://celticswire.usatoday.com/2020/02/06/nba-boston-celtics-davis-bertans-trade-a-no-go/

I'm not sure what the Wizards where asking or if they where serious about a deal but landing Bertans without effecting the Cs top 6 guys would have placed this team in the finals.



also frustrating to think what could have been if Al could have known that Kemba was going to pick Boston.

The dude sat out the bubble because he didn’t want to get hurt because he wants to cash in in the offseason. Imagine wasting draft assets to have the player just sit out the entire playoffs???

Isn't it pretty fair to think he would not have sat out the bubble if he was playing for us versus a team that had no reason to even be in the bubble and no shot at contention?

[NKY fan]

One of the reasons the Cs have sustained their winning is DA not making huge reactionary moves. He historically avoids short sighted trades.

My big WHAT IF for this season has to be Bertans

 https://celticswire.usatoday.com/2020/02/06/nba-boston-celtics-davis-bertans-trade-a-no-go/

I'm not sure what the Wizards where asking or if they where serious about a deal but landing Bertans without effecting the Cs top 6 guys would have placed this team in the finals.



also frustrating to think what could have been if Al could have known that Kemba was going to pick Boston.

The dude sat out the bubble because he didn’t want to get hurt because he wants to cash in in the offseason. Imagine wasting draft assets to have the player just sit out the entire playoffs???

Isn't it pretty fair to think he would not have sat out the bubble if he was playing for us versus a team that had no reason to even be in the bubble and no shot at contention?

I was thinking the same thing. If he was a rotation player of a championship contender there is no way he skips the bubble..

only a flat earther can do that

[RJ87]

also frustrating to think what could have been if Al could have known that Kemba was going to pick Boston.

He did know - last offseason was the biggest joke in history with teams and players agreeing to deals well before the moratorium. Al's apparent excuse was that he didn't want to go back on his word with PHI - which is asinine since he was just coming off of three years with the Cs and it us who he burned. In the end, it's fine, Al was just dreadul this year, but with Hayward's injury, he probably could have helped shore things up inside and from a ball-movement standpoint.

Thank you. People keep saying "if only Al knew." He knew, he didn't want to back out of his commitment to Philly. He chose Philly over us. That's fine and that was his choice, but let's stop crying over spilled milk. Al wasn't here because he didn't want to be.

With that said, it ultimately worked out for us. He's really started to look his age and it would've been tough to have so much money tied up in 3 players who are 30+ when we really should be building around the Jays.

[BitterJim]

No because I don't think there was much opportunity to do anything at this trade deadline. Better off to hold onto the young players & picks until a better opportunity shows itself. Ainge made the right decision.

You do not want to sell off your assets (young players / picks) cheap. You do not want to sell out your future by going all in on old vets who are only small improvements on the team. Wait for the right opportunity, then strike. A bigger better improvement.

I guess you are right for our biggest need, which was to find a very solid center. To have Capella or Drummond we would have to give Hayward, which was a dumb move at the time. Tristan could have been a good idea if he had been cut. But finally we saw rebounds was not at all a problem. All our forwards + Smart can rebound good and Tatum is excellent when he wants. It was one of the good surprise this playoff.

But at least we could have found a better option than Ojeleye from the bench with Burks, Crowder or Iggy. I mean you can't argue there wasn't any possibilty when Miami found a way to upgrade that much.

None of those guys were an option for us (short of including a core player in the deal). Iggy was making $17.1 million, Crowder was a part of the Iggy deal, and Burks was part of a salary dump (which we couldn't do, since we had no cap space and no trade exceptions. This also applies to James Ennis).

There may have been other guys available, I don't remember (other than Bertans).  I can't really blame Danny for not believing that this team would have a shot at the ECF, though, because I certainly didn't think we did back at the trade deadline. Tatum breaking out as a consistent near-superstar wasn't until later, and without that breakout we were 2nd round fodder

[PhoSita]

I understand the argument that you shouldn't give up young pieces to win in the short term.

That said, I think once you realize that you have the core pieces in place to compete for the Finals -- which the Celtics definitely have now that Tatum and Brown are at an All-NBA / All-Star level - every single season is win-now.

We assume that the Celts have several more years with Tatum and Brown under contract and healthy.  That's not an entirely safe assumption based on what we've seen happen in the league the last few years.


Every season that Tatum and Brown are healthy and playing at a high level is a limited opportunity to go deep in the playoffs.  It's unfortunate that because of the circumstances this season, by the time the team truly realized how good Tatum and Brown are, it was too late to make a move to shore up the bench.

I hope that Danny acts with urgency this off-season.  Bringing back basically the same team plus a few more rookies is probably going to have more or less the same result.  Could easily be "less" rather than "more." 

The Celts were in some respects lucky to make the ECF this year.  If Simmons hadn't gotten hurt, or if the Celts had faced Milwaukee in round 2, I think they easily could be gotten bounced in an earlier round.