Wyc Grousbeck: Luxury Tax Allergic

[Roy H.]

we just let go of Bane and Alperen Sengun for cost-cutting. Two good young players.

We traded the #30 pick in the draft (literally one pick away from a 2nd round pick) for two future 2nd round picks so that we didn't need to add a 3rd guaranteed salary rookie in one off-season. We also had just drafted Nesmith - I doubt we would have drafted a player who projected to be very similar to Nesmith, but with a lower ceiling.

Not picking on you directly, but I constantly see people saying that we traded Bane to dump Kanter, when that was only a tiny part of it. In fact, I'm pretty sure Kanter only picked up his option after he knew we would deal him to POR - a place he really enjoyed playing in previously.

As for Sengun - I much prefer the two 1sts OKC got for that pick. OKC also did an incredible job getting out of $20M of Kemba's guaranteed salary (from $73M to $53M). It's easy to see why they followed through with the buy-out. Kemba wanted out and NYK was willing to give more than the minimum, allowing him to take less on the buy-out.

Those two second round picks rented Fournier for a month. I would've rather have Bane on rookie money. Sengun is going to be good. He got 15 and 15 in his first Summer League game.

Man, I was just watching some highlights of Sengun's first game and he has a pass where he caught it in the post, then turned and faced and passed the ball through his defender's legs to a cutter cutting along the baseline alongside the ball. Any big man that can make that pass is a player.

Brains & Brawn

Some metrics apparently projected him as the best player in the draft. 

I would have made the trade for the two future #1s, but Houston might know what it's doing.

[Bobshot]

Wyc and the other owners cut off spending just after the '08 Championship. That's why they didn't re-sign Posey and Perkins.

Ainge couldn't go over the cap, so he changed his strategy to a long term drafting  and accumulating draft picks. That hasn't been successful--it takes too long to grow your own stars, even if you're good at drafting. Besides, the league has come increasingly under control of stars in the James era--and in star clustering--now largely in the NY and LA markets.

Danny showed the way a long time ago clustering KG, PP and Allen--along with a bunch of veteran role players. The model now used by the Lakers and the Nets--and the Knicks and Clippers. But Danny got away from that model when Wyc cut off the money.

Having said that, the Celtics still have a strong cluster pair in Tatum and Brown, but need a 3rd star plus more veteran role players. They lost a chance for cap space for a 3rd star in the bad GH trade and signing/losing Fournier. Now they have to go over the cap to do it, and the ownership won't.

[Celtics2021]

Wyc and the other owners cut off spending just after the '08 Championship. That's why they didn't re-sign Posey and Perkins.

Ainge couldn't go over the cap, so he changed his strategy to a long term drafting  and accumulating draft picks. That hasn't been successful--it takes too long to grow your own stars, even if you're good at drafting. Besides, the league has come increasingly under control of stars in the James era--and in star clustering--now largely in the NY and LA markets.

Danny showed the way a long time ago clustering KG, PP and Allen--along with a bunch of veteran role players. The model now used by the Lakers and the Nets--and the Knicks and Clippers. But Danny got away from that model when Wyc cut off the money.

Having said that, the Celtics still have a strong cluster pair in Tatum and Brown, but need a 3rd star plus more veteran role players. They lost a chance for cap space for a 3rd star in the bad GH trade and signing/losing Fournier. Now they have to go over the cap to do it, and the ownership won't.

The Celtics were a luxury tax team every year of the Pierce-KG-Allen era, and were still one even after Allen left before they traded KG and Pierce.  They paid the 6th-most luxury tax when they won the title, the 4th-most each of the next three years, and second-most the last year of the Big 3 era.  They didn’t stop spending after they won the championship — that’s just making things up to fit a narrative.

[Bobshot]

Wyc and the other owners cut off spending just after the '08 Championship. That's why they didn't re-sign Posey and Perkins.

Ainge couldn't go over the cap, so he changed his strategy to a long term drafting  and accumulating draft picks. That hasn't been successful--it takes too long to grow your own stars, even if you're good at drafting. Besides, the league has come increasingly under control of stars in the James era--and in star clustering--now largely in the NY and LA markets.

Danny showed the way a long time ago clustering KG, PP and Allen--along with a bunch of veteran role players. The model now used by the Lakers and the Nets--and the Knicks and Clippers. But Danny got away from that model when Wyc cut off the money.

Having said that, the Celtics still have a strong cluster pair in Tatum and Brown, but need a 3rd star plus more veteran role players. They lost a chance for cap space for a 3rd star in the bad GH trade and signing/losing Fournier. Now they have to go over the cap to do it, and the ownership won't.

The Celtics were a luxury tax team every year of the Pierce-KG-Allen era, and were still one even after Allen left before they traded KG and Pierce.  They paid the 6th-most luxury tax when they won the title, the 4th-most each of the next three years, and second-most the last year of the Big 3 era.  They didn’t stop spending after they won the championship — that’s just making things up to fit a narrative.

nope. They didn't re-sign Perk and Posey because Wyc simply wouldn't spend. Weakened the team. KG's injury  was a killer. Perk's injury in Miami cost them a title. They never had the depth after '08.

Funny how the Red Sox have been faced with a similar situation lately. It's a question of how badly you want to win again if you've just won.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Wyc and the other owners cut off spending just after the '08 Championship. That's why they didn't re-sign Posey and Perkins.

Ainge couldn't go over the cap, so he changed his strategy to a long term drafting  and accumulating draft picks. That hasn't been successful--it takes too long to grow your own stars, even if you're good at drafting. Besides, the league has come increasingly under control of stars in the James era--and in star clustering--now largely in the NY and LA markets.

Danny showed the way a long time ago clustering KG, PP and Allen--along with a bunch of veteran role players. The model now used by the Lakers and the Nets--and the Knicks and Clippers. But Danny got away from that model when Wyc cut off the money.

Having said that, the Celtics still have a strong cluster pair in Tatum and Brown, but need a 3rd star plus more veteran role players. They lost a chance for cap space for a 3rd star in the bad GH trade and signing/losing Fournier. Now they have to go over the cap to do it, and the ownership won't.

The Celtics were a luxury tax team every year of the Pierce-KG-Allen era, and were still one even after Allen left before they traded KG and Pierce.  They paid the 6th-most luxury tax when they won the title, the 4th-most each of the next three years, and second-most the last year of the Big 3 era.  They didn’t stop spending after they won the championship — that’s just making things up to fit a narrative.

nope. They didn't re-sign Perk and Posey because Wyc simply wouldn't spend. Weakened the team. KG's injury  was a killer. Perk's injury in Miami cost them a title. They never had the depth after '08.

Funny how the Red Sox have been faced with a similar situation lately. It's a question of how badly you want to win again if you've just won.

Yet we traded for Green who we DID pay. As for Posey, what I recall is that his defense deteriorated plenty after he left us, he didn't last much longer in the league, so in all a good decision in that regard. We didn't have as many exceptions back then as we do now to fill the roster. If anything the problem was with not replacing him, though Tony stepped up... though we still had to deal with some of his boneheaded plays.

From back then Tony Allen is the one I recall that we let go without necessity.