Sell At The Deadline

[Quetzalcoatl]

You don't give a player a 2 year contract for $12m/yr that is completely waivable at the end of the first season if you aren't planning on trading them.  Amir's contract was designed to be traded, but give him a nice pay day for one year as a reward.

[spikelovetheCelts]

We would lose Brad Stevens.  As long as you are cool with that.

Stevens is gone anyway. Every big time College job that comes up you will hear the rumors.

Pitino, Calipari, Carliesemo, Brown and a list of others have all gone back to the College game and why is that?
Pro game is run by the best players who pick and choose where they play.

There is a reason why only 10 organizations have won a Championship since 1980

AND WE are one of them and that is why he came here. Are players are getting better and better. We add good player through a trade and hit the lotto with the Nets. I would trade any player for the right Asset. I like IT but i don't want the ball in his hands at the end of a game.

[Dedalus]

Was the core in 2007 much better than our current core? KG and Ray Allen are HOFs. If we added two HOFs to our current team, would that be enough to reach the Finals?

[LarBrd33]

Honestly, what players on this team can you actually imagine starting for this team if it becomes a contender?  Are any of them irreplaceable? 

I like guys like Bradley and Crowder, but I'm not sure either are long-term starters (Crowder is playing really really nice, though).   Thomas is probably best used as a backup.  Amir is here to be traded.  Sully is probably not here long term.  Smart has been horrible.  Olynyk can shoot, but is limited in a lot of ways.  Turner is probably a backup. 

I know we have tons of picks, but I wouldn't mind the team cleaning out more space, getting more picks, getting another lotto pick this season and trying to hit a home run through the draft and free agency.  If we can't buy, we should sell.   We're going to end up needing to let players walk for nothing eventually.  We're overloaded with mediocrity.

[LooseCannon]

The team is now in year 4 of the past legitimate contender status and there isn't a single player on this team that I could say with certainty could be a starter on the next title team.  That is a problem.  I've been saying for awhile I don't really care what way Ainge goes, I just want him to pick a direction and stick with it.  If that means going all in, cool.  If that means tanking, cool.  Just pick a [dang] direction already. 

And here's the thing, if we end up with one of the top guys with the Nets pick, it isn't like that guy is going to come and be able to lead a team to a title in the first couple of seasons.  It will be years before that guy can do that (if ever).  If you are going to build around that pick, then Boston should do everything in its power to find guys to build around that player with (by increasing its own draft odds).  If Boston, is going to trade the pick, then it should just do it and start building around that star level player.

Why do you seem to think there are only two directions possible?

[Future Celtics Owner]

The team is now in year 4 of the past legitimate contender status and there isn't a single player on this team that I could say with certainty could be a starter on the next title team.  That is a problem.  I've been saying for awhile I don't really care what way Ainge goes, I just want him to pick a direction and stick with it.  If that means going all in, cool.  If that means tanking, cool.  Just pick a [dang] direction already. 

And here's the thing, if we end up with one of the top guys with the Nets pick, it isn't like that guy is going to come and be able to lead a team to a title in the first couple of seasons.  It will be years before that guy can do that (if ever).  If you are going to build around that pick, then Boston should do everything in its power to find guys to build around that player with (by increasing its own draft odds).  If Boston, is going to trade the pick, then it should just do it and start building around that star level player.

Why do you seem to think there are only two directions possible?

I think he is fed up with having players on the team that either are not returning or are not in our future. These vets/role players pad our wins and take away from the development of our prospects. They also clog the roster so we can not take more chances on a guy.

Last year was the perfect example at the draft. We essentially fell from 9/10/11-16 just because of role players that should have been waived at the deadline or the year before(Bass).

[YoungOne87]

I think we should go for Lopez and gallinari when they will be eligible to trade.

And that's why? Because we think defense, rebounding and staying healthy is overrated?

we need scoring and size, which both offer, also they are average rebounders at worst.
Both players look pretty healthy right now...
And we have enough great defenders to make up for their average or slightly below average defense..

[Moranis]

The team is now in year 4 of the past legitimate contender status and there isn't a single player on this team that I could say with certainty could be a starter on the next title team.  That is a problem.  I've been saying for awhile I don't really care what way Ainge goes, I just want him to pick a direction and stick with it.  If that means going all in, cool.  If that means tanking, cool.  Just pick a [dang] direction already. 

And here's the thing, if we end up with one of the top guys with the Nets pick, it isn't like that guy is going to come and be able to lead a team to a title in the first couple of seasons.  It will be years before that guy can do that (if ever).  If you are going to build around that pick, then Boston should do everything in its power to find guys to build around that player with (by increasing its own draft odds).  If Boston, is going to trade the pick, then it should just do it and start building around that star level player.

Why do you seem to think there are only two directions possible?

The only other option is basically staying the course or making minor moves, which just delays the inevitable.  If you aren't a contender and you don't have a young team with a possibly contending core, then you are doing it wrong.

[Moranis]

Was the core in 2007 much better than our current core? KG and Ray Allen are HOFs. If we added two HOFs to our current team, would that be enough to reach the Finals?

Yes.  Paul Pierce and Al Jefferson were both significantly better players/assets than any player on this team.  Not to mention Boston had the 5th pick (though had the 2nd best odds entering the lottery - you know so it was better than BKN at this point of the season).

[LooseCannon]

The team is now in year 4 of the past legitimate contender status and there isn't a single player on this team that I could say with certainty could be a starter on the next title team.  That is a problem.  I've been saying for awhile I don't really care what way Ainge goes, I just want him to pick a direction and stick with it.  If that means going all in, cool.  If that means tanking, cool.  Just pick a [dang] direction already. 

And here's the thing, if we end up with one of the top guys with the Nets pick, it isn't like that guy is going to come and be able to lead a team to a title in the first couple of seasons.  It will be years before that guy can do that (if ever).  If you are going to build around that pick, then Boston should do everything in its power to find guys to build around that player with (by increasing its own draft odds).  If Boston, is going to trade the pick, then it should just do it and start building around that star level player.

Why do you seem to think there are only two directions possible?

The only other option is basically staying the course or making minor moves, which just delays the inevitable.  If you aren't a contender and you don't have a young team with a possibly contending core, then you are doing it wrong.

What if Plan A is to add a star via free agency and to not spend draft picks until that star is signed?

[slamtheking]

The team is now in year 4 of the past legitimate contender status and there isn't a single player on this team that I could say with certainty could be a starter on the next title team.  That is a problem.  I've been saying for awhile I don't really care what way Ainge goes, I just want him to pick a direction and stick with it.  If that means going all in, cool.  If that means tanking, cool.  Just pick a [dang] direction already. 

And here's the thing, if we end up with one of the top guys with the Nets pick, it isn't like that guy is going to come and be able to lead a team to a title in the first couple of seasons.  It will be years before that guy can do that (if ever).  If you are going to build around that pick, then Boston should do everything in its power to find guys to build around that player with (by increasing its own draft odds).  If Boston, is going to trade the pick, then it should just do it and start building around that star level player.

Why do you seem to think there are only two directions possible?

I think he is fed up with having players on the team that either are not returning or are not in our future. These vets/role players pad our wins and take away from the development of our prospects. They also clog the roster so we can not take more chances on a guy.

Last year was the perfect example at the draft. We essentially fell from 9/10/11-16 just because of role players that should have been waived at the deadline or the year before(Bass).

Key component not mentioned here is that you both have a love for the draft as the primary option for building a team.  yours in more blatant than his since you're still harping on last year's team performance impacting their draft position.

we have a team of role players.  they're performing like a team of role players would be expected to perform -- as a mediocre team.  Danny has set the team up to let other teams be bad for them while they continue to stockpile assets for trades as well as having high draft picks (Brooklyn's obviously) that could be used to acquire top young talent without having to make Boston itself suck to get a high lottery pick.