Regrading the Celtics offseason.

[keevsnick]

So its my opinion you can trace any of the Celtics problems to the 2020 offseason. Among the issues:

1) The Teague is terrible. He's on a minimum so its not a disaster signing but he is actively damaging every minute he plays. He was not a Wanamaker upgrade.

2) The Thompson signing looks bad, like the kind of bad you may have to give up a pick to dump. On top of that he takes minutes from one of your more promising young players. R Will has flat out been better than him this year, but because he's a new vet signing he's getting minutes anyway. On offense he is useless outside of offensive rebounds. No floor spacing, no vertical spacing, no rim protection.

3) Connected to #2 you traded the #30 pick for two distant future seconds in order too dump Kanter who is paid less an is probably better than Thompson. I'm not a huge fan of Kanter, but he's a least a BIG body h can stand between Embiid and the rim until the help comes. And he actually has touch around the rim.

4) Nesmith. Look I'm not willing to call him a bust just yet, but bottom line is he can't get on the floor even when the C's are ravaged by injuries. Its brutal to see a guy taken at #12 like Haliburton be so good so soon. Is there REALLY no way you couldn't move up to 10th or 11th with your three first round picks? I mean this draft really feels like a miss. I mean the Celtics needed someone who could help THIS YEAR, and they got someone who can't play. Brutal.

5) We don't nee to relitigate the Hayward thing. But Ainge did mess it up, if for no other reason than he let it drag on. If your intention is to resign him then put the money on the table. If not move on. The c's either misread the market for him, or misread his intentions. The slowness with which this happened caused wing options to dry up and left TT as the MLE guy.

All in all its hard to see how this offseason wasn't a disaster. Injurie deserve a lot of blame for our predicament but Ainge managed too add a grand total of one semi-useful player (Pritchard) to a team we all knew was thin even WITH Hayward. Maybe Teague, TT and/or Nesmith turn it around but early returns are not so good.

But what do you think?

[RMO]

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[Roy H.]

I like the Nesmith and Pritchard picks.  I think we should have closed the Indy deal. 

The deal for the 30th pic still confuses me a bit. I understand that there was some urgency in clearing contracts that we didn’t expect would be useful.  I just don’t quite understand why it took a first rounder, when the biggest salary (Kanter’s) was re-dealt to Portland for nothing. Why didn’t we deal directly with the Blazers?

[GreenlyGreeny]

Disastrous off-season with the exception of getting the TPE and drafting Pritchard. We could have gotten Bey at 14th. Imagine having Bey and Pritchard right now? God, we’d feel a lot better about the future. But I felt good about Nesmith at the time and perhaps he will still develop into a contributor.

2019 was disastrous as well when you consider the albatross that Kemba has become (he’s making Big Al’s contract in OKC look preferable), and the fact we could have drafted Brandon Clarke instead of Romeo Lameford. Or packaged something to move up two slots to get Herro.

[Who]

I gave it a C.

I liked and like the two draft picks Nesmith and Pritchard. Tristan Thompson was a solid signing with the MLE. Teague over Wannamaker was a solid risk to take that did not pan out.

I was disappointed by the lack of proven depth / veterans on the bench but the FA market was a mess this year. It thinned out quickly and there wasn't much opportunity out there. So not too critical about this - this year. I do not want to see it again next season though!

Losing Hayward was a blow. Ainge did not have many hands he could play. The MLE & the draft picks were his only good opportunities and he did well there.

More will be expected next offseason. Fix the bench Ainge.

[Kuberski33]

Only reason it's not a D- is that he drafted Pritchard. Nesmith is an incomplete in that he's obviously a project. But to me the real damage was done the last couple of off-seasons in creating this useless bench.  Have feeling that Brad would like nothing better than to mothball Grant Williams, but he's forced to play him. 

[PAOBoston]

It’s hard to give an official grade tbh. I’d say so far, Pritchard has been a great pick, Nesmith not so much. But reality is both are rookies, one a seasoned 4 year player who was basically ready to enter the NBA, the other a raw player with limited collegiate experience and coming off an injury with no NBA preseason or training camp. The the jury is still open on how they develop. Truth is we won’t know for a few years.

Teague has been awful and probably has lost his time Pritchard once Smart is healthy.

TT started off slow but has come out pretty strong the last few weeks. Overall for the money thought he was really good value.

The biggest blow was losing Hayward. That  is a SIGNIFICANT talent drop that just wasn’t filled. We can argue whether the Indy deal was a mistake etc (not gonna bother since there’s like 100 threads on it) but ultimately losing a talented player like that hurts. It hurts from a scoring perspective, a ball handling perspective, and a versatility perspective. It hurts even more when the bench depth didn’t drastically improve nor was the loss at the wing/swing position not filled by a veteran presence. This one is open question as well as we don’t know what the TPE will yield.

Overall, I’d say this year has a bridge year type feel at this point. I think the Cs will be good enough to make the playoffs but are no a true contender. Feels like a let’s see what we have with this group and make moves accordingly. I guess on the bright side what we know we do have is a legitimate duo in JT/JB so that is a big plus.

[Csfan1984]

It looks bad but feel there is a lot of time to turn things around. I have to be harsh on it now and say F but feel after playoffs it will be a C+ grade or better.

[jbpats]

D and if not for Pritchard a solid F. Not counting the Tatum extension simply because it was inevitable.

Obviously too soon to tell but Neismith looks like a bust
Letting Hayward go for nothing was a joke - Even more so now that he is back to putting up all start level numbers

Thompson stinks, Teague is atrocious. Myles Turner is proving to be far superior than both and Dougie McBuckets would probably be one of if not the best player off our bench (Pritchard aside).

Furthermore I'm starting to question if Stevens is a good coach, I've always been "Team Brad" - he's losing me this season.

[NKY fan]

Must be a real disaster when none of the Danny fanboys is giving it C+ or better lol

[footey]

Jury is out on Nesmith.

Pritchard was good value pick.

The other criticisms seem legit.

We have turned into one of the smallest teams in the NBA, and personnel decisions plays a big part in that.

[RodyTur10]

Must be a real disaster when none of the Danny fanboys is giving it C+ or better lol

That's definitely saying something. Although I've considered myself a bit of a Danny fanboy myself.

And this is only the 2020 offseason.

How would we grade the 2019 offseason now?

Drafting Langford, Grant Williams and Edwards?
Signing Walker, Kanter and Poirier?

Luckily Ainge is still doing a very good in extensions as the Brown contract is great.

[Uncle_Stingfinger]

awful, just like I said here and got bagged on.   danny knows what he's doing!!!.

[SparzWizard]

I give it an F despite the Pritchard signing. It just wasn't really a good enough offseason.

Should have traded Hayward to Indy (his preferred place anyway) for Turner and McDermott.

[Kuberski33]

Must be a real disaster when none of the Danny fanboys is giving it C+ or better lol

That's definitely saying something. Although I've considered myself a bit of a Danny fanboy myself.

And this is only the 2020 offseason.

How would we grade the 2019 offseason now?

Drafting Langford, Grant Williams and Edwards?
Signing Walker, Kanter and Poirier?

Luckily Ainge is still doing a very good in extensions as the Brown contract is great.

If you look back on the 2019 offseason, I'd give that draft an F. He didn't have a lot of options with the Walker signing because they had lost Kyrie and Horford. Rozier's numbers btw shot up considerably last season, but his game wouldn't mesh with Jaylen/Jason right now because he needs to have the ball in his hands to be most effective.  Kemba is similar - the hope is that he can adjust. But what other options did they have other than those two?

I just think that draft was a killer and is a big reason why they're in the situation they are right now.