Around the league this offseason it's clear that there are buyers and sellers, contending teams and rebuilding teams. The contending teams are offloading massive assets to compete in what looks to be the most open field in years. The rebuilding teams are selling, collecting assets and taking advantage of the most desperate buyers with trades that make the Nets deal look like a box of flaming garbage.
I am extremely concerned that the Celtics are determined to be among the "buyers" with no clear path forward. They still have assets but are no longer leading the pack in that department. At this point, they could easily be outbid for the next star to get on the market. Actually, it may not even be in Ainge's nature to ever make a clearance-house type deal that LAC and LAL have made recently. Even in the Garnett deal the only really consequential piece they lost was Jefferson.
I know that the Celtics' policy is to consistently be competitive and I don't disagree with signing Kemba as an asset, but they need to be wary of the position they are currently in. The future of the franchise is heavily dependent on the development of Tatum and Brown right now, and they are 7-8 years younger than Kemba and Hayward. More and more teams are being run competently these days and are setting themselves up with strong young nuclei that may outclass our present duo. Teams like Memphis, Atlanta, Dallas, New Orleans, even Sacramento.
If we can't claim to have one of the best young cores while also having one of the weaker max combos of Hayward and Kemba, that is not an enviable position. If it becomes clear there are no moves to make in the near future, they will seriously need to consider moving assets and taking a step back as opposed to futile steps forward.
I expect most fans will disagree with this post, but I'm just saying the Celtics brass needs to be extremely careful with how they proceed. The league has recalibrated itself this offseason for at least the next two years. They need to take a hard look at exactly where they stand in this new landscape.
You answered your own concerns with the post. The "treadmill" is an investment into the continuing development of Jaylen, Jayson, Romeo, Grant, and all of the other young players and future players.
The clear path forward is to be in a KD OKC position while simultaneously being competitive. It hinges on the young players reaching and/or exceeding their potential and time, not making decisions exchanging short term gain for long term goals, will tell if it is worth it in the end.
Sure, but as we saw last year it is extremely difficult to mesh young players who were drafted in the high lottery or even outside the lottery (Rozier) with star veterans who require their requisite number of looks. It turns out, Brown and Tatum want to be heavy usage stars! Which isn't surprising considering they were close to top of their respective draft classes.
At some point, too much of the similar type of talent becomes diminishing returns and also creates chemistry issues UNLESS you have really mature or humble stars, or stars who are at a point where they are willing to sacrifice for a title. Durant was able to coexist with GS because Curry and Thompson are superstars who don't really care about "alpha" status and stuff like that. Because Durant had never won a title, he was willing to integrate, up until this season when he decided it was time for a different challenge: his "own" team. Kyrie had his "own" team and was humbled and changed his mind and teamed up with a more talented star.
As much as Kyrie exacerbated last year's "only one ball" situation with his brand of "leadership," he wasn't the cause of the initial problem. Brown and Tatum are young and don't know how bad or good they will be yet. They need touches and are worried about their first post-rookie contract. Recently, Perkins talked frankly about how Rivers made him a role player early in his career on those stacked teams. From the outside, it's easy for us to scoff, "well of course Perk should be a role player with Pierce, Garnett, Allen, and Rondo around him." However, it's not as easy for a young player to be told at ages 18-25 that his destiny in the league is set and his earning potential is going to be capped based on that. Man, I love how honest Perk is.... really missed that guy on our team.
One of the problems as I see it is that the players started to bristle at their roles, which could partially be blamed on Stevens. He had always preached selfless ball and doesn't seem to like defining a hierarchy. Either that or the kids rebelled against it and he could never get everyone to buy in fully.
If you want to make a comparison to Philly vs. Boston's roster, I think that the big difference is Philly is clearly Embiid's team. From an organizational standpoint they are building around him. Butler was supposed to be the 2nd alpha, but he wanted his "own" team and left. If you want to put it this way, the Celtics are "behind" in their championship roster construction because they kept adding talent but was hoping their best player would come last. That was supposed to be Davis. Time will tell if Embiid is the guy who can be the best player on a title team, but at the very least with him in place they have a clear guideline for how to build their team.
What I see on the Celtics is no real guideline besides collect talent and assets while seeing how the kids develop. There is no real defined anchor. Kemba and Hayward are great, but neither are MVP-level players. That being said, Kemba is at an age where personal glory isn't important and by all accounts he is a good guy, so I think he will be fine with sharing the ball. Hayward is playing for a contract, but I think his playmaking will help keep others involved. There's reason to be optimistic this team will mesh better. However, my point is still that at some point they will need to add a top player, after which if Brown, Tatum, Hayward, and Kemba are still here it will require considerable sacrifice on their part.
Topic: Concerned that the Celtics seem determined to stay on the treadmill (Read 11333 times)