The Weird Thing About This Off-Season...

[trickybilly]

I know we’re not supposed to bump old threads, but I was looking for the thread where the Celtics over/under was discussed, as they officially hit the over tonight, and found this one instead.  I don’t think there’s a poster in this thread, myself included, who had it close to right.  Al and Grant have made the PF rotation a strength instead of a weakness.  Kudos to them and Brad!

? I give a TP for a good old thread bump!

Great call back!

Roy was of course right at the time - there was no reason to think that Grant Williams would be balling like an all-star, and of course Rob's ascension making Al's minutes more flexiblle positionally.

I do wonder how early they started talking about Theis, or was he the deal that came together at the last minute?

[Celtics2021]

I know we’re not supposed to bump old threads, but I was looking for the thread where the Celtics over/under was discussed, as they officially hit the over tonight, and found this one instead.  I don’t think there’s a poster in this thread, myself included, who had it close to right.  Al and Grant have made the PF rotation a strength instead of a weakness.  Kudos to them and Brad!

? I give a TP for a good old thread bump!

Great call back!

Roy was of course right at the time - there was no reason to think that Grant Williams would be balling like an all-star, and of course Rob's ascension making Al's minutes more flexiblle positionally.

I do wonder how early they started talking about Theis, or was he the deal that came together at the last minute?

Yeah, it seemed reasonable to be concerned about.  I had the right idea about Horford and TL, but didn’t expect it to be so universally effective:

I could see a few minutes of Horford and TL playing together -- Horford as a perimeter big on offense with TL in the paint, and TL guarding the 4 on defense -- but that would likely only be for some matchups as opposed to a regular feature, and requires both to be available the same night anyway.

[footey]

We all gave up on the two big line up, and rolled our eyes when Ime said it would work.

That is why he gets the big bucks.

And we blog.

[colincb]

We all gave up on the two big line up, and rolled our eyes when Ime said it would work.

That is why he gets the big bucks.

And we blog.

I didn't give up on the 2-big line up.

[Vermont Green]

I agree with others that I don't see Horford having enough skill to play PF alongside say RWilliams or Kanter.  I think those 3 will rotate as our center, or if you prefer, our bigger big.  I think people are going to be surprised at how much Parker and GWilliams are forced to play as the PF or the second big or whatever you want to call it.   My guess is at least 24 min between the two in a more traditional 2-big line up.  Maybe more. 

I was one of those that didn't see Al as being able to be the PF alongside of RWill, at this stage of his career.  Al has thoroughly proved me wrong on that one.  I was a little less wrong in that I felt the 2-big line up would be seen more than people thought.  I thought we would see more of Parker and GWill, I was clearly wrong on the Parker part of that but Grant alone has played the 24'ish minutes that I predicted.

Al has been a big surprise.  As someone else said, his versatility and overall level of play has turned the PF position from a weakness or concern into at worst holding its own or even a strength.  Defensively for sure, Al has been great but he has also made enough shots and has the skill to just keep the ball moving.  He has been a key part of what makes the offence cohesive.  Al has been everything we needed and exactly what we needed.

[mef730]

We all gave up on the two big line up, and rolled our eyes when Ime said it would work.

That is why he gets the big bucks.

And we blog.

Then: Shocked by how much money the Celtics paid Timelord.

Now: Shocked by how little money Timelord is signed for.

Mike

[Surferdad]

I agree with others that I don't see Horford having enough skill to play PF alongside say RWilliams or Kanter.  I think those 3 will rotate as our center, or if you prefer, our bigger big.  I think people are going to be surprised at how much Parker and GWilliams are forced to play as the PF or the second big or whatever you want to call it.   My guess is at least 24 min between the two in a more traditional 2-big line up.  Maybe more. 

I was one of those that didn't see Al as being able to be the PF alongside of RWill, at this stage of his career.  Al has thoroughly proved me wrong on that one.  I was a little less wrong in that I felt the 2-big line up would be seen more than people thought.  I thought we would see more of Parker and GWill, I was clearly wrong on the Parker part of that but Grant alone has played the 24'ish minutes that I predicted.

Al has been a big surprise.  As someone else said, his versatility and overall level of play has turned the PF position from a weakness or concern into at worst holding its own or even a strength.  Defensively for sure, Al has been great but he has also made enough shots and has the skill to just keep the ball moving.  He has been a key part of what makes the offence cohesive.  Al has been everything we needed and exactly what we needed.

That's all true, but I'll note that Al is also playing back-up to Rob Williams, at least part-time.  Now that Daniel Theis is getting acclimated, that will happen less often.

[Kernewek]

We all gave up on the two big line up, and rolled our eyes when Ime said it would work.

That is why he gets the big bucks.

And we blog.

Then: Shocked by how much money the Celtics paid Timelord.

Now: Shocked by how little money Timelord is signed for.

Mike

That’s the thing about these Steph Curry-type deals. If the player can stay healthy and improve it’s an incredibly team-friendly contract.

[jbpats]

We all gave up on the two big line up, and rolled our eyes when Ime said it would work.

That is why he gets the big bucks.

And we blog.

Then: Shocked by how much money the Celtics paid Timelord.

Now: Shocked by how little money Timelord is signed for.

Mike

At the time of the extension I said his contract was high risk/high reward, at the moment it seems we are on the high reward end.. hopefully it stays that way.

[Celtics2021]

We all gave up on the two big line up, and rolled our eyes when Ime said it would work.

That is why he gets the big bucks.

And we blog.

Then: Shocked by how much money the Celtics paid Timelord.

Now: Shocked by how little money Timelord is signed for.

Mike

At the time of the extension I said his contract was high risk/high reward, at the moment it seems we are on the high reward end.. hopefully it stays that way.

One should certainly say we’ve moved out of the high-risk category.  Even if injuries catch up to Rob again, he’s well worth his future salaries at this level of production for even half a season of appearances.

[Sophomore]

I agree with others that I don't see Horford having enough skill to play PF alongside say RWilliams or Kanter.  I think those 3 will rotate as our center, or if you prefer, our bigger big.  I think people are going to be surprised at how much Parker and GWilliams are forced to play as the PF or the second big or whatever you want to call it.   My guess is at least 24 min between the two in a more traditional 2-big line up.  Maybe more. 

I was one of those that didn't see Al as being able to be the PF alongside of RWill, at this stage of his career.  Al has thoroughly proved me wrong on that one.  I was a little less wrong in that I felt the 2-big line up would be seen more than people thought.  I thought we would see more of Parker and GWill, I was clearly wrong on the Parker part of that but Grant alone has played the 24'ish minutes that I predicted.

Al has been a big surprise.  As someone else said, his versatility and overall level of play has turned the PF position from a weakness or concern into at worst holding its own or even a strength.  Defensively for sure, Al has been great but he has also made enough shots and has the skill to just keep the ball moving.  He has been a key part of what makes the offence cohesive.  Al has been everything we needed and exactly what we needed.

Yeah, the single biggest mistake I made was not seeing how good Al was going to be. Thought it’d be a marginal improvement on Kemba and mostly about getting off salary. WRONG.

I feel a lot better about defending Smart from ppl who wanted to salary-dump him(!) or let Schroder be our starting PG(!!), and holding out hope for Grant. But about Al I was just wrong. His versatility on D and ability to space the floor and pass is huge.