Do you think the Celtics are considering sticking with all 4 long term?

[td450]

Think about that Longley, Wennington, and Kleine, not exactly hall of famers.  Not of them elite defenders, or offensive players.   

Right, now we have Kanter, Theis and Willliams, do you think that these guys are equal to the above three?

Kanter has proven time and time again that he can't be relied upon in the playoffs.
Utah and OKC will tell you Kanter is horrible on defense.
Portland was the latest to experience Kanter's horrible D against GSW.
Steph Curry annihilated the Blazers because Kanter wouldn't come out and defend Steph in the pick and roll.

Theis and RWill are just 6-8 players.
Both of them can't guard Embiid in a best of seven series.

Longley, Wennington, and Kleine are not close to being elite but they are big, they play physical, and they're 7-footers.

In the first game against the Sixers, the Celts got outrebounded 62-41.

Against the Knicks, the Celts allowed the Knicks to get 16 offensive rebounds.

Clearly the Celts have a big man problem.

Why don't we give Kanter a chance? The guy has only played one game for us. Let's see what he can do over the course of time. And from my vantage point, he didn't do all that bad and held his own opening night vs. Philly.

You don't give Kanter a chance because we've done very well with four players all taking volume shots and surrounding them with complimentary guys. We don't need to divert shots from those four to anyone else. He's a decent scorer, but we don't need that.

[gouki88]

Think about that Longley, Wennington, and Kleine, not exactly hall of famers.  Not of them elite defenders, or offensive players.   

Right, now we have Kanter, Theis and Willliams, do you think that these guys are equal to the above three?

Kanter has proven time and time again that he can't be relied upon in the playoffs.
Utah and OKC will tell you Kanter is horrible on defense.
Portland was the latest to experience Kanter's horrible D against GSW.
Steph Curry annihilated the Blazers because Kanter wouldn't come out and defend Steph in the pick and roll.

Theis and RWill are just 6-8 players.
Both of them can't guard Embiid in a best of seven series.

Longley, Wennington, and Kleine are not close to being elite but they are big, they play physical, and they're 7-footers.

In the first game against the Sixers, the Celts got outrebounded 62-41.

Against the Knicks, the Celts allowed the Knicks to get 16 offensive rebounds.

Clearly the Celts have a big man problem.

Why don't we give Kanter a chance? The guy has only played one game for us. Let's see what he can do over the course of time. And from my vantage point, he didn't do all that bad and held his own opening night vs. Philly.

You don't give Kanter a chance because we've done very well with four players all taking volume shots and surrounding them with complimentary guys. We don't need to divert shots from those four to anyone else. He's a decent scorer, but we don't need that.

He's also arguably the best offensive rebounder in the league, which is a useful skill.

[jambr380]

Think about that Longley, Wennington, and Kleine, not exactly hall of famers.  Not of them elite defenders, or offensive players.   

Right, now we have Kanter, Theis and Willliams, do you think that these guys are equal to the above three?

Kanter has proven time and time again that he can't be relied upon in the playoffs.
Utah and OKC will tell you Kanter is horrible on defense.
Portland was the latest to experience Kanter's horrible D against GSW.
Steph Curry annihilated the Blazers because Kanter wouldn't come out and defend Steph in the pick and roll.

Theis and RWill are just 6-8 players.
Both of them can't guard Embiid in a best of seven series.

Longley, Wennington, and Kleine are not close to being elite but they are big, they play physical, and they're 7-footers.

In the first game against the Sixers, the Celts got outrebounded 62-41.

Against the Knicks, the Celts allowed the Knicks to get 16 offensive rebounds.

Clearly the Celts have a big man problem.

Why don't we give Kanter a chance? The guy has only played one game for us. Let's see what he can do over the course of time. And from my vantage point, he didn't do all that bad and held his own opening night vs. Philly.

You don't give Kanter a chance because we've done very well with four players all taking volume shots and surrounding them with complimentary guys. We don't need to divert shots from those four to anyone else. He's a decent scorer, but we don't need that.

He's also arguably the best offensive rebounder in the league, which is a useful skill.

It also doesn't hurt to have somebody who can get you an easy (or tough) bucket down low. As far as guys who can score around the hoop and grab rebounds, he is about as solid as they come...for a super discount price, too. Al has been about our only option for post scoring these past few years and I would rate Kanter above him - at least at that skill.

We have four non-bigs who are fantastic at scoring on this team, but Kanter adds another wrinkle. We shouldn't look at his presence as a detriment. If nothing else, he should help open things up for those guys.

[Fierce1]

There's on doubt Kanter is excellent on offense and getting rebounds.

The problem with Kanter is he's very bad on defense.

Every team that had Kanter gave up on him.
If Kanter was solid on defense, he would've been locked up long term by one of his former teams.

[gouki88]

There's on doubt Kanter is excellent on offense and getting rebounds.

The problem with Kanter is he's very bad on defense.

Every team that had Kanter gave up on him.
If Kanter was solid on defense, he would've been locked up long term by one of his former teams.

Yeah, but given the choice of an NBA journeyman who has a proven elite-level skill, or giving minutes to a European rookie in his mid-20's, I'm choosing the former.

[Fierce1]

There's on doubt Kanter is excellent on offense and getting rebounds.

The problem with Kanter is he's very bad on defense.

Every team that had Kanter gave up on him.
If Kanter was solid on defense, he would've been locked up long term by one of his former teams.

Yeah, but given the choice of an NBA journeyman who has a proven elite-level skill, or giving minutes to a European rookie in his mid-20's, I'm choosing the former.

Agree.

Celts have some use for Kanter.

For example, Kanter is useful against the Sixers.
Sixers are big but they don't have a lot of shooters.
So Kanter should be able to stay on the court to guard Embiid.

[nickagneta]

Stevens' defenses have been near league best in the past with bigs like Sully, Olynyk, Amir Johnson, Tyler Zeller and other less than stellar bigs.

I have faith Stevens will be able to use Theis, Timelord, Kanter, Grant and Poirier in such a way as to maximize what he gets defensively as a whole. If Kanter's defense can be as good as what he was for Portland in the playoffs, I will take that all year long.

[Somebody]

Think about that Longley, Wennington, and Kleine, not exactly hall of famers.  Not of them elite defenders, or offensive players.   

Right, now we have Kanter, Theis and Willliams, do you think that these guys are equal to the above three?

Kanter has proven time and time again that he can't be relied upon in the playoffs.
Utah and OKC will tell you Kanter is horrible on defense.
Portland was the latest to experience Kanter's horrible D against GSW.
Steph Curry annihilated the Blazers because Kanter wouldn't come out and defend Steph in the pick and roll.

Theis and RWill are just 6-8 players.
Both of them can't guard Embiid in a best of seven series.

Longley, Wennington, and Kleine are not close to being elite but they are big, they play physical, and they're 7-footers.

In the first game against the Sixers, the Celts got outrebounded 62-41.

Against the Knicks, the Celts allowed the Knicks to get 16 offensive rebounds.

Clearly the Celts have a big man problem.

Why don't we give Kanter a chance? The guy has only played one game for us. Let's see what he can do over the course of time. And from my vantage point, he didn't do all that bad and held his own opening night vs. Philly.

You don't give Kanter a chance because we've done very well with four players all taking volume shots and surrounding them with complimentary guys. We don't need to divert shots from those four to anyone else. He's a decent scorer, but we don't need that.

He's also arguably the best offensive rebounder in the league, which is a useful skill.

It also doesn't hurt to have somebody who can get you an easy (or tough) bucket down low. As far as guys who can score around the hoop and grab rebounds, he is about as solid as they come...for a super discount price, too. Al has been about our only option for post scoring these past few years and I would rate Kanter above him - at least at that skill.

We have four non-bigs who are fantastic at scoring on this team, but Kanter adds another wrinkle. We shouldn't look at his presence as a detriment. If nothing else, he should help open things up for those guys.

I'm down for it if I can get an NBA minimum contract

[Fierce1]

Stevens' defenses have been near league best in the past with bigs like Sully, Olynyk, Amir Johnson, Tyler Zeller and other less than stellar bigs.

I have faith Stevens will be able to use Theis, Timelord, Kanter, Grant and Poirier in such a way as to maximize what he gets defensively as a whole. If Kanter's defense can be as good as what he was for Portland in the playoffs, I will take that all year long.

You didn't see how Kanter was so bad against Steph Curry in the west finals?

I saw some of the GSW vs. Portland series.

Kanter was allowing Curry to shoot every time Kanter was involved in a pick and roll with Curry's defender.

It's not something unknown.
Kanter's bad on defense, that's the story of his NBA career.

If Kanter was solid on defense, he would be a legit starting Center in the NBA.

Everywhere Kanter went he always scored and got lots of rebounds.
But he just won't stick with any team.

[Fierce1]

Stevens' defenses have been near league best in the past with bigs like Sully, Olynyk, Amir Johnson, Tyler Zeller and other less than stellar bigs.

I have faith Stevens will be able to use Theis, Timelord, Kanter, Grant and Poirier in such a way as to maximize what he gets defensively as a whole. If Kanter's defense can be as good as what he was for Portland in the playoffs, I will take that all year long.

Near league best in the regular season.

But the Celts with Stevens have never made it to the Finals even when they went to the east finals twice.

Celts were #1 in the east in 2017 and #2 in the east in 2018.
But they always fall short.

The playoffs is a different story.
Jimmy Butler and the #8 Bulls gave the #1 seed Celtics a scare in the 1st round of the 2017 playoffs.

We already saw a preview against the Sixers in the 1st game.
Celts got outrebounded by the Sixers 62-41, even with Kanter playing.
In their last game, the Celts allowed the Knicks to get 16 offensive rebounds.
Clearly the Celts need an upgrade at the Center position.

[LatterDayCelticsfan]

Stevens' defenses have been near league best in the past with bigs like Sully, Olynyk, Amir Johnson, Tyler Zeller and other less than stellar bigs.

I have faith Stevens will be able to use Theis, Timelord, Kanter, Grant and Poirier in such a way as to maximize what he gets defensively as a whole. If Kanter's defense can be as good as what he was for Portland in the playoffs, I will take that all year long.

Near league best in the regular season.

But the Celts with Stevens have never made it to the Finals even when they went to the east finals twice.

Celts were #1 in the east in 2017 and #2 in the east in 2018.
But they always fall short.

The playoffs is a different story.
Jimmy Butler and the #8 Bulls gave the #1 seed Celtics a scare in the 1st round of the 2017 playoffs.

We already saw a preview against the Sixers in the 1st game.
Celts got outrebounded by the Sixers 62-41, even with Kanter playing.
In their last game, the Celts allowed the Knicks to get 16 offensive rebounds.
Clearly the Celts need an upgrade at the Center position.

I feel there is a little more nuance to this than that. The Cs have knocked off teams with strong front courts in playoffs in the past. Albeit with Horford to get the job done, and there was other reasons besides interior defense that got us eliminated by the Cabs twice and then Milwaukee. Just putting that out there.

[Fierce1]

Stevens' defenses have been near league best in the past with bigs like Sully, Olynyk, Amir Johnson, Tyler Zeller and other less than stellar bigs.

I have faith Stevens will be able to use Theis, Timelord, Kanter, Grant and Poirier in such a way as to maximize what he gets defensively as a whole. If Kanter's defense can be as good as what he was for Portland in the playoffs, I will take that all year long.

Near league best in the regular season.

But the Celts with Stevens have never made it to the Finals even when they went to the east finals twice.

Celts were #1 in the east in 2017 and #2 in the east in 2018.
But they always fall short.

The playoffs is a different story.
Jimmy Butler and the #8 Bulls gave the #1 seed Celtics a scare in the 1st round of the 2017 playoffs.

We already saw a preview against the Sixers in the 1st game.
Celts got outrebounded by the Sixers 62-41, even with Kanter playing.
In their last game, the Celts allowed the Knicks to get 16 offensive rebounds.
Clearly the Celts need an upgrade at the Center position.

I feel there is a little more nuance to this than that. The Cs have knocked off teams with strong front courts in playoffs in the past. Albeit with Horford to get the job done, and there was other reasons besides interior defense that got us eliminated by the Cabs twice and then Milwaukee. Just putting that out there.

Celts don't have Horford anymore this season.

Right now the Celts are 29th in rebounding differential.
Celts are -5.3 rebounds per game.
That means the opponents are getting 5 more rebounds per game.

Rebounding is very important in the playoffs.

Celts can live with what they have right now, in the regular season.
But in the playoffs, if you can't rebound the ball, you're most likely going to end up losing the series.

[PhoSita]

I think Hayward will be gone in a year or two. It doesn't make sense to pay him when they'll also be paying big bucks for the jays.

Kemba has no obvious replacement and his role is quite vital, so I expect they'll keep him as long as they can.

[Fierce1]

I think Hayward will be gone in a year or two. It doesn't make sense to pay him when they'll also be paying big bucks for the jays.

Kemba has no obvious replacement and his role is quite vital, so I expect they'll keep him as long as they can.

Hayward can always re-sign for a smaller amount.

[IDreamCeltics]

Stevens' defenses have been near league best in the past with bigs like Sully, Olynyk, Amir Johnson, Tyler Zeller and other less than stellar bigs.

I have faith Stevens will be able to use Theis, Timelord, Kanter, Grant and Poirier in such a way as to maximize what he gets defensively as a whole. If Kanter's defense can be as good as what he was for Portland in the playoffs, I will take that all year long.

One can only hope we see "playoff Kanter" defensively.  Breakdown of some of his playoff D included below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTSsK34iISk