Grade Our Off-Season

[Birdman]

1. Coach- B  Everyone needs a chance to get a chance to coach in any sport, so let’s see what Ime can bring..seems like a lot of ppl endorse him, so we shall see

2. Draft-  D.  I don’t like draft & stash players.. some dont ever come to America..a waste of time and money for teams..just draft a player and develop him in d-league

3.  Trades & Free Agency. A-  Got Schroeder & Katner very cheap..Richardson & Dunn are good backups..But wish we would kept Moses Brown..that may come back and bite us

4.  Overall & Future  C-   Still have Grant, Romeo & Carsen on roster which they shouldn’t be..Nesmith & Payton could turn out pretty good..TimeLord is waaaaay overrated.. Lock in Tatum & Brown for awhile..got some spending money in couple of years after this year. Hopefully trade Smart

[colincb]

1.  Coaching Search: (B+) Wasn't much available as far as A candidates and a few dubious candidates that they successfully avoided. Otherwise, I like that Ime's played in the NBA, has emphasized defense and ball movement, and has a decent pedigree.


2.  The Draft: (A) The fact that they didn't have the 16th pick had nothing to do with how they did with what they had. Off of what most second-rounders look like, I liked the Begarin pick a lot after seeing him at the VSL. I'm lumping Hauser in here also. I'd wager both players end up in the NBA barring injuries.


3.  Trades And Free Agency: (B+) Details below.

• Dumping Kemba: (A) Best deal you would get for Kemba, whom I like and whose defense is better than the consensus here. Trade grade is about Kemba's knees/availability combined with Al being a significant upgrade to the frontcourt. When Al played at the center position the last two seasons, he played well. He might have played better at PF, too, if the rest of the Philly roster made any sense. Also, add a lot of cap flexibility. Finally, you weren’t dumping Kemba without a first-rounder.
  
  JRich trade: (C+/B-) A defense-first player who was also a victim of the PHI roster fiasco two years ago and was an early COVID-19 casualty last year. He shoots 36% from beyond the arc and 83% from the FT line for his career, so he's passable offensively. Lot better value than Fournier, and if he returns to form, this would be a B+/A-. Worthwhile gamble.
  
  Dumping Thompson: (B+/Incomplete) Thompson's rebounding was fine, but his defense was not anywhere as good as expected. The rest of the trade is TBD. Dunn is an outstanding defender who may be redundant and moved. Fernando seems like an apt candidate for a 4th-string center who can be dumped late-season for tax purposes.
  
  Adding Schroder: (A+) 15-19 PPG for the last five years at the taxpayer MLE.
  
  Trading Fournier for a TPE: (B+) Wasn't worth what the NYK paid him, and we got a big TPE back for a 2nd.
  
  Smart's extension: (B-) Mixed feelings. If he plays smarter, it will be a good deal. We avoided him walking for nothing, and he becomes tradeable before the trade deadline under the new NBA rules if he doesn't pan out as the starting PG.
  
  Kantar: (A-) A bargain at the vet min

4.  Overall:  2021 Season And Beyond (B+) We'll be better this year. We'll have flexibility next year.

[Celtics4ever]

Coaching:  Incomplete

Draft: B  I too like Begarin

Trades/Moves:   B+ our roster was a mess and now we have some flexibility which is good and got rid of guys who I thought we needed to do so.   If we get should shed Carsen and Grant I might even give us an A-.  Schroder was a nice signing for a great Price

Overall:  B

[footey]

Hopefully we still have some minor tinkering to do, but how would you rate Brad so far?  Evaluate him in the following categories:

1.  Coaching Search

2.  The Draft

3.  Trades And Free Agency

4.  Overall:  2021 Season And Beyond

1. B
2. B
3. B
4. B

[GreenlyGreeny]

1. Coach: A

Defensive-minded disciple of Pops with NBA playing experience who is going to massively connect with Tatum, Brown and Smart, our core for better or worse. The best available this off-season once it became clear that Tony Bennett was staying at Virginia.

2. Draft: TBD

Drafts are impossible to grade until we near the end of the rookie contracts of the players drafted. Given that we had 45, it made sense to draft and stash a raw Frenchman.

3. Trades/Free Agency: A+

We absolutely needed to move Kemba and Thompson, while simultaneously upgrading our woeful bench. We needed to re-sign Smart, our defensive heart and soul, such that we prove we show our homegrown talent the money. Mission accomplished, as demonstrated by our roster:

Schröder/Pritchard/Edwards
Smart/Dunn/Langford
Brown/Richardson/Nesmith
Tatum/Parker/G. Williams
Horford/R. Williams/Kanter/Fernando

That is ten-deep with a lot of promising youth headlined by our core of Tatum/Brown/Smart.

We still need to move Fernando and/or Edwards IMHO, so fingers crossed we can do it rather than absorbing a cap loss by cutting one.

Turning two heavily protected garbage second rounders into a $17 million TPE was icing on the cake.

4. Overall: A

If Tatum/Brown become all-pros, Smart reverts back to being a first-team all-defender, and Horford taps into TB12, we could win it all with this bench, particularly if Dunn stays healthy, Pritchard develops, Richardson returns to form and both Nesmith and Langford emerge.

[sgrogan]

Coaching B
I don't think there was a move to get an A.
We avoided re-treads and bad baggage candidates.
I'm still a CBS fan, but a change of voice will probably end up being a good thing.
Udoka seems to have a defense first/ball movement philosophy similar to CBS
An ex-player who made hid career on hustle and grit,  I think the will be a positive at least in the short term. We'll see how the "relationships" with star players goes now that he is the boss, not the buffer.
I agree that an assistant with head coaching experience would have been a plus. PBS will mitigate this, but Udoka going to his boss vs. going to a subordinate is a different dynamic.

Draft C
Swing foe the fences on a stashable player, keeps a 2-way open for a player that may actually see time in an emergency.

Trades and Free Agency  B-
Overall I think the roster construction is slightly better and more flexible.
I don't think we fleeced anybody and nobody fleeced us.
I think we have a better balance of proven NBA players and youth challenging for playing time.
We still have a glaring need for a rotational PF.
I'm fine with the numbers for Smart's extension, but I probably would have waited until next off-season, to be fair though Marcus "playing for his next contract, would have scared the crap out of me.
We have two more minor moves, at least.
Trim the roster to 15 and add a second 2-way.

Overall and beyond C+
We don't have any clear paths to great improvement, but it's not hopeless. This grade would go up if I had more confidence we would spend dollars. If Wyc would open the purse strings we do have more avenues to pursue.

[Vermont Green]

Quintessential Brad Stevens:

Jared Weiss: Brad Stevens comparing this year’s team to last year: “Obviously we improved our coaching and added some good players.” Wonder how last year’s coach would feel about that shade. 4 hours ago – via Twitter JaredWeissNBA

[sgrogan]

Quintessential Brad Stevens:

Jared Weiss: Brad Stevens comparing this year’s team to last year: “Obviously we improved our coaching and added some good players.” Wonder how last year’s coach would feel about that shade. 4 hours ago – via Twitter JaredWeissNBA

I wouldn't expect anything different.

[nickagneta]

Quintessential Brad Stevens:

Jared Weiss: Brad Stevens comparing this year’s team to last year: “Obviously we improved our coaching and added some good players.” Wonder how last year’s coach would feel about that shade. 4 hours ago – via Twitter JaredWeissNBA

Obviously.😂

Couple things to keep in mind when judging Brad. First, he has only been on the job for 10 weeks and is new to being a GM. Given that, I think he has done a great job with what Danny left him.

A small aside: Wyc was right about it being a busy July/offseason.

[Birdman]

At least we finally got some good bench players like Katner, Dunn, Parker & Richardson..last year bench was the worst I ever saw for the Celtics & been a fan since 1980..

[gouki88]

Coaching gets a D
Free Agency gets a D

Udoka has some Lloyd Pierce in him with his need to publicly challenge players. Doubt that ends well for Udoka either.

Adding players that can’t shoot from the perimeter is the opposite of where the league is going. Someone should tell Stevens this isn’t the 90’s where Pat Riley style defense makes you a contender.

This is a six or seven seed at best. Just a waste of a Jays season.

Which players has he publicly challenged?

I do like the assumptions of the worst you're making. Prior to last season Richardson was a 36% career shooter from three. Bang on league average. Al Horford has been a 37% shooter from three over the last 5 seasons. Schroder has been a 35.5% shooter from three over his last three seasons. They're not elite shooters, but I think painting them as players who cannot shoot is pretty dishonest.

[flybono]

F

[nickagneta]

F

Not a surprise.

[gouki88]

F

Any reasoning?

[jpotter33]

Coaching: A (with the possibility of A+ if it all pans out). Lots still to prove for Ime, but so far he looks to be the perfect blend of what we need from the coaching position - someone who is a player's coach but will also hold his guys accountable. Best move of our offseason, I think.

GM Change: A -. As much as I was critical of Brad as the coach, I think his basketball savvy and IQ will really shine through here in this role. He's been pretty good for us thus far in a tough situation, and I think it was time for Danny to move on.

Draft: B. Eh, we only had a late second round pick. Looks like a solid pick thus far, but not too much value there.

Trades/Free Agency: B+. It definitely started off rough, and we didn't make a big splash for a Beal or third star type. But I think we're a better team now than last year, and much more of a defensive, tough-minded team than last year, which I think is important. Even beyond any moves that we make during the season, I think we'll be a legitimate contender to come out of the East this year. The best moves to me were extending Timelord at that number, bringing in Schroeder, and the Richardson trade. All three were A level moves.

Overall: Incomplete. I'm copping out on this one and putting an "Incomplete" here, because there's just so much variability and "shoes to drop" still. I do think we're primed to and will make a deadline deal this year, whether that's for a Beal, KAT, Lillard, Siakam (who I'm actually probably most excited about given his fit and likely cost compared to the others), etc. So it's hard to really gauge this yet. But I'm excited to see how we play this year with a team that has a much better bench, vet presence, and defensive mindset than last year, along with a better suited coach.