Now DA should be on the hot seat

[Somebody]

Well the game has changed quite substantially since the days of McHale, Bird, & Parish. It's even changed quite a bit from when KG & co were holding down the best defense in the NBA a decade ago. Being "strong inside" means different things than it used to -- just ask Roy Hibbert.

For anyone with 20 minutes and wants some more in-depth stuff, Francesco Nanni has some pretty interesting reads from earlier in the year about some of the more common moves regarding switching, etc:

1) on how teams often attack the Celtics defense in particular: https://medium.com/@francesconanni/boston-celtics-ice-punish-prevent-it-4b01d25f405c

2) on how teams attack switching in general: https://medium.com/@francesconanni/boomerang-different-layers-of-an-action-712ff239f31f

TP for the content, great stuff. These basically force great defensive teams to have mobile big men who can disrupt shots, passes and penetration all over the floor (even Gobert is no exception, he can cover a lot of ground well with his underrated mobility and fantastic length) rather than your traditional plodding big man who is a tree under the basket. Theis is the former with good shot blocking and decent strength that can hold up well against all but the biggest of centres in the league, so the addition of TT will give us a guy who can defend those behemoths while not being a traffic cone against the stuff above. We don't need a "true centre" or a unicorn to have a strong centre rotation - what we have now is really good.

[Uncle_Stingfinger]

I mean,  if you can't trade Kemba anymore,  do we have any real assets to get better?   Smart isn't bringing back a star.   I think the only thing of value trade wise now is Brown.   That's where all these assets Danny has collected has gotten us.

Basically, all the rebuild leverage is used up now.   This is our team for awhile.   It's not good enough.

[GreenlyGreeny]

I mean,  if you can't trade Kemba anymore,  do we have any real assets to get better?   Smart isn't bringing back a star.   I think the only thing of value trade wise now is Brown.   That's where all these assets Danny has collected has gotten us.

Basically, all the rebuild leverage is used up now.   This is our team for awhile.   It's not good enough.

Yep. The only hope is that Brown becomes a perennial 2nd team All-NBAer to Tatum’s 1st team All-NBAer. Short of that, we’re on the treadmill of not-quite-good-enough.

Unless we win it all in 2021, Danny needs to retire and RC Buford needs to be brought in. So sick of people behaving like Danny is anything other than he is: A guy who got lucky taking advantage of a sucker in NJ. Without the KG trade in 2007, Danny would have been fired over a decade ago. Without drafting Tatum, he’d have been fired after losing Kyrie in such a public spectacle.

[RodyTur10]

I mean,  if you can't trade Kemba anymore,  do we have any real assets to get better?   Smart isn't bringing back a star.   I think the only thing of value trade wise now is Brown.   That's where all these assets Danny has collected has gotten us.

Basically, all the rebuild leverage is used up now.   This is our team for awhile.   It's not good enough.

We need to focus on developing Pritchard, Langford, Nesmith, G.Williams and R.Williams (alongside Brown, Tatum and Smart of course) to get better and also to create more value on our team, in case we do want to trade for a star or improvement.

I'm hoping Teague and Thompson won't get in the way.

[gouki88]

I mean,  if you can't trade Kemba anymore,  do we have any real assets to get better?   Smart isn't bringing back a star.   I think the only thing of value trade wise now is Brown.   That's where all these assets Danny has collected has gotten us.

Basically, all the rebuild leverage is used up now.   This is our team for awhile.   It's not good enough.

Life of the party

[NKY fan]

I mean,  if you can't trade Kemba anymore,  do we have any real assets to get better?   Smart isn't bringing back a star.   I think the only thing of value trade wise now is Brown.   That's where all these assets Danny has collected has gotten us.

Basically, all the rebuild leverage is used up now.   This is our team for awhile.   It's not good enough.

We need to focus on developing Pritchard, Langford, Nesmith, G.Williams and R.Williams (alongside Brown, Tatum and Smart of course) to get better and also to create more value on our team, in case we do want to trade for a star or improvement.

I'm hoping Teague and Thompson won't get in the way.

I’m not sure developing talent with no allstar potential should be the focus of this team... that type of thinking got us to have no bench against Miami in ECF...
Let’s say that 2 of them have an excellent year 4 of their rookie contracts could we afford to match the offers they will get?
I think all 5 should be on the table for a trade for a proven role player (like smart) I just can’t think of one at this moment

[RodyTur10]

I mean,  if you can't trade Kemba anymore,  do we have any real assets to get better?   Smart isn't bringing back a star.   I think the only thing of value trade wise now is Brown.   That's where all these assets Danny has collected has gotten us.

Basically, all the rebuild leverage is used up now.   This is our team for awhile.   It's not good enough.

We need to focus on developing Pritchard, Langford, Nesmith, G.Williams and R.Williams (alongside Brown, Tatum and Smart of course) to get better and also to create more value on our team, in case we do want to trade for a star or improvement.

I'm hoping Teague and Thompson won't get in the way.

I’m not sure developing talent with no allstar potential should be the focus of this team... that type of thinking got us to have no bench against Miami in ECF...
Let’s say that 2 of them have an excellent year 4 of their rookie contracts could we afford to match the offers they will get?
I think all 5 should be on the table for a trade for a proven role player (like smart) I just can’t think of one at this moment

If everyone follows an ideal development path then no. But Hayward is off the payroll. In three years or hopefully earlier Walker is gone as well, so there's certainly room at the moment for payroll expansion. Now that we avoid the luxury tax this year it also becomes more affordable to go in the tax in the future (no repeater tax anytime soon). We can add $20-$30M in salary and then that wouldn't be a big issue. Eliminate Walker of the payroll and you'll have a lot of space to extend rookie contracts.

Pritchard/Langford/Nesmith/G.Williams/R.Williams don't have the market value right now to bring back high caliber role players that can start on a championship team.

I'm very high on Robert Williams, but I can understand that if a team is looking for a young center project they're much happier to obtain Mitchell Robinson because he has proven more (aka gotten more playing time).

If we were unwilling or didn't have the opportunity to trade one of Langford/G.Williams/R.Williams for an established role player before the deadline last season when we still had Hayward, why would we take that route now that we lost Gordon Hayward and have serious knee concerns about Kemba Walker?

[Ogaju]

I keep saying that single move of trading for Kyrie and letting him go to the NETS for nothing put a dent on the so-called fleece of the NETS. It pretty much gave the NETS a perennial all-star as part of the trade.  Cs gave up the @8, another first rounder, and a franchise favorite for the right to send Kyrie to NETS.

[NKY fan]

I keep saying that single move of trading for Kyrie and letting him go to the NETS for nothing put a dent on the so-called fleece of the NETS. It pretty much gave the NETS a perennial all-star as part of the trade.  Cs gave up the @8, another first rounder, and a franchise favorite for the right to send Kyrie to NETS.

Danny was saying after Kyrie left that he would do the trade 100 times out of 100... I’m not sure how much he values character and how good his intell was on Kyrie

[Bobshot]

Relax. This is a pretty good team. It can easily get better if their interior defense and rebounding can be improved. They don't need expensive players to do that.
Thompson could be enough.  The issue is whether the coach recognizes that and will play him and Robert Williams enough to make a difference. It means he may have to end his love affair with Theis.

[Uncle_Stingfinger]

I mean,  if you can't trade Kemba anymore,  do we have any real assets to get better?   Smart isn't bringing back a star.   I think the only thing of value trade wise now is Brown.   That's where all these assets Danny has collected has gotten us.

Basically, all the rebuild leverage is used up now.   This is our team for awhile.   It's not good enough.

Life of the party

Sorry, I like to win.  If you don’t understand the bad direction this team has taken since Kyrie and Hayward signed  and now leftI feel like you probably aren’t that concerned with winning a title.    Ive been patient letting him rebuild, he screwed it up.

[Moranis]

I keep saying that single move of trading for Kyrie and letting him go to the NETS for nothing put a dent on the so-called fleece of the NETS. It pretty much gave the NETS a perennial all-star as part of the trade.  Cs gave up the @8, another first rounder, and a franchise favorite for the right to send Kyrie to NETS.

Danny was saying after Kyrie left that he would do the trade 100 times out of 100... I’m not sure how much he values character and how good his intell was on Kyrie

It wasn't the trade of Kyrie that was the problem, it was his inability to follow it up and create a winner around Kyrie.  For the last 5 years or so, Boston has tried to win and tried to build for the future and the team has suffered for it.  Heck, that has basically been Ainge's m.o. his entire tenure.  Even during the KG years, he made moves for the long term, rather than short term like letting Posey walk, making the Perkins trade, etc.  He has needed to pick a direction for years, and he still isn't able to do it.  That is why Boston hasn't even made the finals in over a decade despite having the assets and cap space to really do it.

[Kernewek]

Well the game has changed quite substantially since the days of McHale, Bird, & Parish. It's even changed quite a bit from when KG & co were holding down the best defense in the NBA a decade ago. Being "strong inside" means different things than it used to -- just ask Roy Hibbert.

For anyone with 20 minutes and wants some more in-depth stuff, Francesco Nanni has some pretty interesting reads from earlier in the year about some of the more common moves regarding switching, etc:

1) on how teams often attack the Celtics defense in particular: https://medium.com/@francesconanni/boston-celtics-ice-punish-prevent-it-4b01d25f405c

2) on how teams attack switching in general: https://medium.com/@francesconanni/boomerang-different-layers-of-an-action-712ff239f31f

TP for the content, great stuff. These basically force great defensive teams to have mobile big men who can disrupt shots, passes and penetration all over the floor (even Gobert is no exception, he can cover a lot of ground well with his underrated mobility and fantastic length) rather than your traditional plodding big man who is a tree under the basket. Theis is the former with good shot blocking and decent strength that can hold up well against all but the biggest of centres in the league, so the addition of TT will give us a guy who can defend those behemoths while not being a traffic cone against the stuff above. We don't need a "true centre" or a unicorn to have a strong centre rotation - what we have now is really good.

Pretty much. It's not particularly thrilling, but it's much better than I think a lot of people give it credit for.

On the roster construction in general, we're probably going as far as Jaylen and Jason take us. I'm happy with that: if we can get a decent season & solid playoff appearance from Kemba I would expect us to be back in the ECF at minimum provided we can avoid Milwaukee.

[RodyTur10]

I keep saying that single move of trading for Kyrie and letting him go to the NETS for nothing put a dent on the so-called fleece of the NETS. It pretty much gave the NETS a perennial all-star as part of the trade.  Cs gave up the @8, another first rounder, and a franchise favorite for the right to send Kyrie to NETS.

Danny was saying after Kyrie left that he would do the trade 100 times out of 100... I’m not sure how much he values character and how good his intell was on Kyrie

It wasn't the trade of Kyrie that was the problem, it was his inability to follow it up and create a winner around Kyrie.  For the last 5 years or so, Boston has tried to win and tried to build for the future and the team has suffered for it. Heck, that has basically been Ainge's m.o. his entire tenure.  Even during the KG years, he made moves for the long term, rather than short term like letting Posey walk, making the Perkins trade, etc.  He has needed to pick a direction for years, and he still isn't able to do it.  That is why Boston hasn't even made the finals in over a decade despite having the assets and cap space to really do it.

I agree with you on the bolded line. However when Boston had 3 All Stars in Irving, Hayward and Horford on max contracts, supported by Smart, Rozier, Brown, Tatum, Morris, Theis and Baynes, they did have a team on paper to really contend i.m.o.

You can argue that they could have traded for Leonard (as an example) by giving up Smart and Brown, but is having four max contracts on your payroll really financially feasible?

Because of the stupid Rose-rule the Celtics never had the possibility to trade for Davis.

[SHAQATTACK]

he puts himself on the hotseat signing old worn out players .  Then when he dumps one everybody cries he isn't loyal and now nobody will sign in Boston . 

He probably should have kept Hayward and traded Kemba   who it appears has a very short shelf life and a long contract.   Or let both go may have been the best idea in the long run.  I liked Gerald Wallace , but that is a huge burden and like Koby  left no chance for a title and disgunted you g players.