Would Moving JB for KAT Push Us Over the Top?

[nickagneta]

I hear a lot of criticism of ideas, but I don’t see any alternative ideas. Is status quo really gonna do it? Can’t see it until Tatum turns into MJ and Brown turns into Pippen…

How about this:

Sign and trade Fournier, along with Smart and 4 1st round picks to Washington for Beal and a highly protected 2nd rounder

[gouki88]

KAT is one of the best offensive bigs in the game (really only behind Jokic and Embiid), is the best shooting big man in the competition, and is a net neutral on defence. In his last 16 games he averaged 24/9/4, but more importantly Minny were above .500 in those games, going 9-7.

Edwards and KAT were clicking better than Wiggins and KAT ever did. They need some ping-pong balls to fall favourably to get their pick this year, but even so they'll have Edwards, McDaniels, Vanderbilt, Reid, Culver, Nowell and Okogie all playing serious minutes, and they're all 22 or under. I think Minny persists with their young team and Chris Finch.

There'd also be no interest in Brown for Minny. Edwards is a SG/SF, Beasley is a SG/PG, and D-Lo is a PG/SG. If they added Brown their four best players would all be 6'6" or below wing-guard type players.

[A Future of Stevens]

#JKJB

Just Keep Jaylen Brown

To echo the sentiments of Jackie Mac: "Jaylen is part of the solution."

#JKJB

[Celtics4ever]

Kat is good on offensive but what good has that done his team in terms of winning.  No heart or fire.

[Vermont Green]

I am convinced that if we could get Towns right now, we would be totally buying low.  If the trade was Brown, we might be selling low on him also, so it is a tough trade.  I definitely take Towns over Ayton (although I like Ayton).

Brown is a great player, a scoring wing with size and strength but Towns is big, something we really need.  I would trade Brown for Towns but I doubt MIN would.  If they trade Towns for Brown, they become wing heavy and big scarce.

That kind of big is much more rare in the league than a Brown level wing.  Supply and demand.

[td450]

The path to over the top does not require taking any big chances.

I think the team has lots of built in improvement coming, and we likely won't have this level of bad luck with injuries again. To me, the roster has a couple of glaring problems that need fixing. We don't need stars to fix them, just good complimentary players.

What worries me is that Ainge just won't part with Marcus Smart, which absolutely must happen. We've always needed him, but now we have Brown, Fournier, Nesmith and Langford. Smart's only utility is as a backup point, and we have a better option there in Pritchard. Smart and Walker just don't work, and Smart just isn't a good enough point guard on his own to start.

Trade Smart so we can get Scottie Barnes, or some other solid option at power forward. If Robert Williams can stay healthy next year, we get dramatically better fast. At some point we need a point guard for the future, but that is the easiest position in the NBA to fill.

[JBcat]

I hear a lot of criticism of ideas, but I don’t see any alternative ideas. Is status quo really gonna do it? Can’t see it until Tatum turns into MJ and Brown turns into Pippen…

How about this:

Sign and trade Fournier, along with Smart and 4 1st round picks to Washington for Beal and a highly protected 2nd rounder

Wow to that offense Walker, Beal, Brown, and Tatum.  We would still have kind of small team complex, but so be it.  Lol

[Sophomore]

I am convinced that if we could get Towns right now, we would be totally buying low.  If the trade was Brown, we might be selling low on him also, so it is a tough trade.  I definitely take Towns over Ayton (although I like Ayton).

Brown is a great player, a scoring wing with size and strength but Towns is big, something we really need.  I would trade Brown for Towns but I doubt MIN would.  If they trade Towns for Brown, they become wing heavy and big scarce.

That kind of big is much more rare in the league than a Brown level wing.  Supply and demand.

A “Brown-level wing”. You mean a 24-year old all-star on a bargain contract for three more years? Who has elevated his game every year, competes very very hard, comes up big in big games? I don’t think they’re easy to find at all. 

[td450]

I am convinced that if we could get Towns right now, we would be totally buying low.  If the trade was Brown, we might be selling low on him also, so it is a tough trade.  I definitely take Towns over Ayton (although I like Ayton).

Brown is a great player, a scoring wing with size and strength but Towns is big, something we really need.  I would trade Brown for Towns but I doubt MIN would.  If they trade Towns for Brown, they become wing heavy and big scarce.

That kind of big is much more rare in the league than a Brown level wing.  Supply and demand.

I don't think you can do that chemistry wise. Tatum is a clutch guy, but stoical, and can sometimes zone out competitively. KAT is worse than that. I just don't see them as a great pairing. Brown has a chance to be a real leader. KAT isn't going to ever be that.

[nickagneta]

I am convinced that if we could get Towns right now, we would be totally buying low.  If the trade was Brown, we might be selling low on him also, so it is a tough trade.  I definitely take Towns over Ayton (although I like Ayton).

Brown is a great player, a scoring wing with size and strength but Towns is big, something we really need.  I would trade Brown for Towns but I doubt MIN would.  If they trade Towns for Brown, they become wing heavy and big scarce.

That kind of big is much more rare in the league than a Brown level wing.  Supply and demand.

A “Brown-level wing”. You mean a 24-year old all-star on a bargain contract for three more years? Who has elevated his game every year, competes very very hard, comes up big in big games? I don’t think they’re easy to find at all.

Let's also mention that Brown is an elite two way wing, the current most important type of player in the league, while KAT is a scoring, but not so great defending center, perhaps the least important type of player in the league.

Here are the starting centers for the NBA champion recently:

2020: JaVale McGee
2019: Serge Ibaka
2018: Zaza Pachulia
2017: Zaza Pachulia
2016: Timofey Mozgov
2015: Andrew Bogut
2014: Tiago Splitter

Not looking like great scoring centers are really necessary for winning titles.

[Moranis]

I am convinced that if we could get Towns right now, we would be totally buying low.  If the trade was Brown, we might be selling low on him also, so it is a tough trade.  I definitely take Towns over Ayton (although I like Ayton).

Brown is a great player, a scoring wing with size and strength but Towns is big, something we really need.  I would trade Brown for Towns but I doubt MIN would.  If they trade Towns for Brown, they become wing heavy and big scarce.

That kind of big is much more rare in the league than a Brown level wing.  Supply and demand.

A “Brown-level wing”. You mean a 24-year old all-star on a bargain contract for three more years? Who has elevated his game every year, competes very very hard, comes up big in big games? I don’t think they’re easy to find at all.

Let's also mention that Brown is an elite two way wing, the current most important type of player in the league, while KAT is a scoring, but not so great defending center, perhaps the least important type of player in the league.

Here are the starting centers for the NBA champion recently:

2020: JaVale McGee
2019: Serge Ibaka
2018: Zaza Pachulia
2017: Zaza Pachulia
2016: Timofey Mozgov
2015: Andrew Bogut
2014: Tiago Splitter

Not looking like great scoring centers are really necessary for winning titles.

Not that it changes your point a whole lot, but you have a lot of that stuff wrong.  And of course completely ignore that most of those teams had scoring or at least solid offensive PF's. 

2020 - McGee didn't play a single second in the Finals.  Howard started 5 games but played 71 minutes total in the 6 games.  Davis was basically the center for the Lakers. 

2019 - Ibaka was the starting PF, Gasol started at center for the Raptors (and Gasol played way more minutes than Ibaka).

2018 - Pachulia didn't start and played a whopping 6 minutes in the entire finals.  McGee started 3 games and played 55 minutes in the series, Looney started the other game and played 39 minutes total.

2017 - Zaza did start but played a whopping 66 minutes in the 5 games.

2016 - Thompson was the starting center.  Mozgov played 25 minutes over the entire 7 game series.

2015 - Bogut started 3 of the 4 games he played.  Iguodala started the 3 games Bogut did not at PF moving Green from PF to C for 3 of the games.

2014 - Splitter only started 2 of the 5 games, Boris Diaw started the other 3. 

[slamtheking]

https://tradenba.com/trades/B4Es_XV0H

He complements Tatum’s game better than Brown, he allows us to move Tatum back to the 3, and he improves our play in the paint with a monster who can crash the glass. Is it enough to move us over the top?

Assuming the other big move is re-signing Fournier, we’ll have a  solid eleven-man rotation with our 2021 1st, 2021 2nd, Madar, GWill off the bench:

Walker/Pritchard
Smart/Fournier/Langford
Tatum/Nesmith
KAT/Parker
TT/Timelord

I hear a lot of criticism of ideas, but I don’t see any alternative ideas. Is status quo really gonna do it? Can’t see it until Tatum turns into MJ and Brown turns into Pippen…

bad ideas (or more accurately horrible ideas) are bad in their own right and worthy of criticism or worse.  just because those ideas are criticized (and rightly so) it doesn't mean that other people need to propose one as an alternative.  Perhaps they see no trade is better than a bad one made for the sake of just making a trade.

[slamtheking]

The path to over the top does not require taking any big chances.

I think the team has lots of built in improvement coming, and we likely won't have this level of bad luck with injuries again. To me, the roster has a couple of glaring problems that need fixing. We don't need stars to fix them, just good complimentary players.

What worries me is that Ainge just won't part with Marcus Smart, which absolutely must happen. We've always needed him, but now we have Brown, Fournier, Nesmith and Langford. Smart's only utility is as a backup point, and we have a better option there in Pritchard. Smart and Walker just don't work, and Smart just isn't a good enough point guard on his own to start.

Trade Smart so we can get Scottie Barnes, or some other solid option at power forward. If Robert Williams can stay healthy next year, we get dramatically better fast. At some point we need a point guard for the future, but that is the easiest position in the NBA to fill.

I think the first and third paragraphs are a pretty decent assessment although I don't think Danny would hesitate to move Smart if he could improve the team. That move would not be another draft pick, particularly for one who seems to be as offensively challenged, if not moreso, than Smart.  I would expect a deal for a vet PF/C, not a rookie.

I'd hope the injury/covid bug next season would be minimal but this team has been snakebite with injuries since IT's injury near the end of his last season here. 

[RJ87]

I would trade JB for Ayton though

Suns probably wouldnt

Trading a dollar for a quarter.

Ayton is a quarter?

What?? Lol

Jaylen is an all-star at the most important position in the NBA and Ayton isn't.

Maybe Ayton and Booker for Brown....

Ayton and Booker? I can see wanting more in addition to Ayton, maybe Bridges or Johnson, but thinking Brown is worth both Booker and Ayton doesn't feel like reality.

Doesn't matter anyway. Suns are doing much better than we are, why would they break up a team that just finished as a 2 seed in the West?

[nickagneta]

I am convinced that if we could get Towns right now, we would be totally buying low.  If the trade was Brown, we might be selling low on him also, so it is a tough trade.  I definitely take Towns over Ayton (although I like Ayton).

Brown is a great player, a scoring wing with size and strength but Towns is big, something we really need.  I would trade Brown for Towns but I doubt MIN would.  If they trade Towns for Brown, they become wing heavy and big scarce.

That kind of big is much more rare in the league than a Brown level wing.  Supply and demand.

A “Brown-level wing”. You mean a 24-year old all-star on a bargain contract for three more years? Who has elevated his game every year, competes very very hard, comes up big in big games? I don’t think they’re easy to find at all.

Let's also mention that Brown is an elite two way wing, the current most important type of player in the league, while KAT is a scoring, but not so great defending center, perhaps the least important type of player in the league.

Here are the starting centers for the NBA champion recently:

2020: JaVale McGee
2019: Serge Ibaka
2018: Zaza Pachulia
2017: Zaza Pachulia
2016: Timofey Mozgov
2015: Andrew Bogut
2014: Tiago Splitter

Not looking like great scoring centers are really necessary for winning titles.

Not that it changes your point a whole lot, but you have a lot of that stuff wrong.  And of course completely ignore that most of those teams had scoring or at least solid offensive PF's. 

2020 - McGee didn't play a single second in the Finals.  Howard started 5 games but played 71 minutes total in the 6 games.  Davis was basically the center for the Lakers. 

2019 - Ibaka was the starting PF, Gasol started at center for the Raptors (and Gasol played way more minutes than Ibaka).

2018 - Pachulia didn't start and played a whopping 6 minutes in the entire finals.  McGee started 3 games and played 55 minutes in the series, Looney started the other game and played 39 minutes total.

2017 - Zaza did start but played a whopping 66 minutes in the 5 games.

2016 - Thompson was the starting center.  Mozgov played 25 minutes over the entire 7 game series.

2015 - Bogut started 3 of the 4 games he played.  Iguodala started the 3 games Bogut did not at PF moving Green from PF to C for 3 of the games.

2014 - Splitter only started 2 of the 5 games, Boris Diaw started the other 3.

I was talking starting center through the regular season and a bunch of the playoffs, not just the Finals. Not sure why you decided to concentrate solely on the Finals. There are a lot of games that have to be played and won before making it there and the players I listed did start most of those games.

So yeah add Gasol with Ibaka, add Howard with McGee, Thompson with Mozgov, etc.

The point still stands.