I just can't shake the feeling the Celtics org. was asleep at the wheel

[Neurotic Guy]

Been a long time watcher for about 10 years, probably never bothered to become a member... mainly because the login thing when I once tried when I wanted to back another post a year or so ago, with the weird coloured numbers/letters takes no account for people that are colour blind so we can't work out the shades to get the right alphabet. (Took me 5 times this time to get it right lucked out because that was my give up number of attempts)

..,I'm going to Jersey with the closest bloke I can find to you, so I can once again be a Costello to someone's Abbott. Look it may have been the other way around with Abbott and Costello but to simplify it Kyrie was/is the clown which ever of them was the clown, who did the Daryl Strawberry one day in his career...

Welcome.

And Costello was the clown. 

[SHAQATTACK]

Big Markets just clear cap space , open the doors the stars pile in.

Pretty sure NYC does not agree with that.

The other Big market team in same city stole their,plan and players , now same is gonna happen with Clippers ...all just cleared space for the stars to form up and roll in.   

Maybe ONE TEAM per big market city would help spread out the 20 players who rule the league .

[Who]

They didn’t steal Horford, they just offered more money than the Celtics were  willing to pay. Seriously after getting Kemba it’s back to pessimism in Celticsblog now?

It was a solid 72 hours of some optimism. Now we're "fringe playoff contenders" according to some

That sounds fair to me. The big man rotation is so bad right now that it is going to drag the team down. I see them as a 41-45 win team. A low seed playoff team.

Ainge has gotta get some big man talent in here.

[footey]

Been a long time watcher for about 10 years, probably never bothered to become a member... mainly because the login thing when I once tried when I wanted to back another post a year or so ago, with the weird coloured numbers/letters takes no account for people that are colour blind so we can't work out the shades to get the right alphabet. (Took me 5 times this time to get it right lucked out because that was my give up number of attempts)

..,I'm going to Jersey with the closest bloke I can find to you, so I can once again be a Costello to someone's Abbott. Look it may have been the other way around with Abbott and Costello but to simplify it Kyrie was/is the clown which ever of them was the clown, who did the Daryl Strawberry one day in his career...

Welcome.

And Costello was the clown.

Who’s on first?

[celticinorlando]

As currently constructed this team will get eaten up by any team with a big, let alone 2.

Danny has to have some sort of plan beyond FAs. Right now the ones that would be ok he can't afford and the I hope he doesn't waste money on crap that is not worth starters minutes.

[__ramonezy__]

Danny played the hand he was dealt as well as you can without being able to see the future.

Any assessment of the team literally less than 24 hours after free agency has begun is a bit premature.

Yeah some flashy signings make the forums happy for a few weeks, but ultimately no team cares about winning free agency unless it leads to a title. We won free agency two years ago... still haven't raised our next banner. For all the hype around Philly's trades last season, they still lost. For all the hype about the Warriors starting 5 all stars after signing Cousins, they still lost.

The missing piece isn't necessarily an all star either.

[pearljammer10]

We just signed of the top 15 players in the NBA, completely stealing from the locked up ties in Char. How is that sleeping at the wheel? Nobody saw that coming.

[Roy H.]

I don’t think we were asleep.

Somebody on here made a great point yesterday, though. Trades are often reliant upon good will from other franchises.  When Brooklyn is thinking about whether they want to help us facilitate a sign and trade, I wonder how much Wyc bragging about screwing over the Nets plays into that. It’s one thing to lose a trade, and to have talking heads criticize you. It’s quite another for an owner to essentially mock you.

[tonydelk]

How can the team be asleep when they have not cap space.  No trade assets they want to move.  It's not like there is a big available via trade that is going to strengthen the Center position more then it would weaken our G or Wing rotation.  Danny was probably calling every team trying to get in on a 3 team deal but his only options were with competitors that do not want to help him.  Asleep, no.  Frustrated absolutely. 

[JBcat]

I don’t think we were asleep.

Somebody on here made a great point yesterday, though. Trades are often reliant upon good will from other franchises.  When Brooklyn is thinking about whether they want to help us facilitate a sign and trade, I wonder how much Wyc bragging about screwing over the Nets plays into that. It’s one thing to lose a trade, and to have talking heads criticize you. It’s quite another for an owner to essentially mock you.

Yeah and I don’t think Philly will play nice in a S&T after they completely screwed up in that Tatum trade, and this past draft where we drafted a player we knew they wanted and forced them to do a trade with us.

With that said we are barely into the offseason.  I’m willing to be patient, and see what else Ainge can do maybe even through the buyout market after the trade deadline in February.  We really don’t need our big rotation to be completely set until then for the stretch run.  There are still some interesting names out there now Noel, WCS, dare I say Cousins, Vonleh, that European big we have been linked to in the past Ect.

[droopdog7]

I think some people are rewriting history.  I don’t think kyrie was leaving to Brooklyn all along.  Last year was an utter disaster.  That’s why kyrie left.  Had we been real title contenders or actually won the thing, I think kyrie would still be here.

[kraidstar]

We weren't asleep at the wheel, it's more like someone cut our brakes.

[mmmmm]

I have a feeling that Danny saw the writing on the wall regarding Kyrie and Anthony Davis pretty clearly at least as early as most of us.  But he was somewhat constrained by formality to 'go through the motions'.   Danny has talked in the past about how important it is for him to maintain positive relations with all players so no matter what, he was going to go ahead and pretend everything was good and at least extend an offer to Kyrie, letting him be the one to turn it down and go elsewhere.

I think where he got blindsided was in regards to Al Horford.  And this seems to have been driven by a handful of factors.

First off:  The Durant injury, as others mentioned, opened up everyone to think they could be a title contender.   And this made Al a hot property with at least a couple of teams and maybe more willing to offer him 4 year, ~100M packages for the sake of 'win now' moves.   I want to make it clear that this jump in Al's price tag was imho almost certainly the biggest surprise factor.

Second:  The wooing of Butler away from PHI suddenly opened a slot for a division rival to become one of those suitors.

Third:  Al has for years made no secret that he prefers to play PF.   Over the first two seasons he was here, he played PF about ~45% of the time.  And both his own numbers and the team's performance were measurably better when he was at the PF, as opposed to at the 5.   Well, this last year, Al played PF less than 10% of his minutes.   I don't know if he ever complained, but I have to wonder if part of Philly's sales pitch was that he would be able to very clearly, right out of the box be starting at PF next to Embiid.

[gpap]

The Celts front office has been asleep as the wheel since the trade for Kyrie in August of 2017

They haven't done squat since except sign Kemba

I love the Kemba signing but if they don't add a couple more pieces before everyone is taken, we're screwed.

Unless maybe he trades for someone like Kevin Love to replace Horford.

[GreenCoffeeBean]

Neither KI or AD are known to be winners. Except in the hearts and minds of CelticsBlog members.