Brad outpacing Ainge as GM. Just wish he didn't trade Moses

[BudweiserCeltic]

Put me in the lukewarm camp until we see how this further plays out. If we are able to trade for a KAT or Siakam without giving up Tatum/Brown, then I will be impressed. The extensions were nice, but they are currently preventing us from going after a guy like Simmons. Yeah, I get it, it's Simmons, but he's an All-Star level player who would fit extremely well with Tatum and Brown.

I also see a lot of praise for the Kemba/Horford trade, but this was only about $$. Kemba's buy-out is about the same as Horford is scheduled to make the next two years. If we waive Horford in year 2, then we save around $13M. Was giving up Sengun or the two 1sts that OKC got for our pick worth one year of Horford and some cash?

I like Brad as a Danny successor and his moves so far have been 'okay' - and heck, maybe that's all we need - but I am not going to pretend that Danny wasn't one of the best GMs in this league for many years. If it weren't for the Hayward injury, we may be talking mini-dynasty right now. That Kyrie trade was one of the best in recent decades - talk about timing.

Not sure what your point of Simmons and the extensions is, they have nothing to do with each other.

Lol - it's like you personally took offense to that. The extensions are nice, but they limit our flexibility to make a big move until at least the deadline. I used Simmons as an example ('guy like' was in my post) as star player who may be had at a bargain, but we are essentially out on him as a suitor since our best non- Jays assets are now blocked out of trade discussions for several months. Whatever, I know this is small, but it limits our flexibility in the short-term.

I didn't take offense to that, I just didn't see the relationship between Simmons and the extensions. If you were to tell me about some other player, like Beal that can be had via free-agency, then that's another issue entirely.

But Simmons? That doesn't apply, just don't see Philly looking for expiring contract type of players. But, to your clarification now that it's about availability to be traded at all now, then yeah I can see were you're coming from. Regardless, don't think it matters much with Simmons in the end.

[pablohoney]

If Danny took over the Celtics in 2003 and said “PP, Antoine and Eric Williams” is the core and then gave up a #1 pick to dump Vin Baker for another bad contract ….. then you compare him to Brad. What Ainge did back then, turning Walker into picks and assets that would become eventually become Tony Allen, Delonte West and Rondo and then an expiring contract (via Raef) that would become KG is still shocking.

Hiring a former player in Udoka seems a lot like hiring Doc Rivers except that Doc already had success as a head coach.

That said, I like Brad’s approach.  Unlike the 2003 team, this young nucleus may be like the 1988 Bulls….less dominant obviously….but worth keeping together and maximizing its strengths until it’s ready to contend.

[ETNCeltics]

Brad appears to have done a better job filling in the little holes every roster has than Danny did. Otherwise, the statement is unfair. Danny did the heavy lifting to put us in a place to contend. Brad hasn't accomplished anything like that yet, and even if he does, he's going to owe a lot to Danny's success. 

[Vermont Green]

Put me in the lukewarm camp until we see how this further plays out. If we are able to trade for a KAT or Siakam without giving up Tatum/Brown, then I will be impressed. The extensions were nice, but they are currently preventing us from going after a guy like Simmons. Yeah, I get it, it's Simmons, but he's an All-Star level player who would fit extremely well with Tatum and Brown.

I also see a lot of praise for the Kemba/Horford trade, but this was only about $$. Kemba's buy-out is about the same as Horford is scheduled to make the next two years. If we waive Horford in year 2, then we save around $13M. Was giving up Sengun or the two 1sts that OKC got for our pick worth one year of Horford and some cash?

I like Brad as a Danny successor and his moves so far have been 'okay' - and heck, maybe that's all we need - but I am not going to pretend that Danny wasn't one of the best GMs in this league for many years. If it weren't for the Hayward injury, we may be talking mini-dynasty right now. That Kyrie trade was one of the best in recent decades - talk about timing.

This isn't really accurate.  We got Moses Brown in exchange for the first and then Moses Brown became Josh Richardson.  So we gave up Sengun for Josh Richardson and some savings.  I am OK with that.  We got good value for the pick.

Sengun may become a star, who knows.  Most 16th picks don't though.  Richardson is a solid player on a reasonable contract that will help the team in the regular rotation and potentially be a useful trade asset.  It is hard to assess the subsequent trade of #16 for two "heavily protected" first round picks, but is is far more accurate to say Sengun for Richardson and Savings over just saying Sengun for Savings.

[colincb]

Put me in the lukewarm camp until we see how this further plays out. If we are able to trade for a KAT or Siakam without giving up Tatum/Brown, then I will be impressed. The extensions were nice, but they are currently preventing us from going after a guy like Simmons. Yeah, I get it, it's Simmons, but he's an All-Star level player who would fit extremely well with Tatum and Brown.

I also see a lot of praise for the Kemba/Horford trade, but this was only about $$. Kemba's buy-out is about the same as Horford is scheduled to make the next two years. If we waive Horford in year 2, then we save around $13M. Was giving up Sengun or the two 1sts that OKC got for our pick worth one year of Horford and some cash?

I like Brad as a Danny successor and his moves so far have been 'okay' - and heck, maybe that's all we need - but I am not going to pretend that Danny wasn't one of the best GMs in this league for many years. If it weren't for the Hayward injury, we may be talking mini-dynasty right now. That Kyrie trade was one of the best in recent decades - talk about timing.

If we don't do the trade, we end up with Sengun (who shouldn't have been available at 16 and wasn't in any mock I saw),  and Kemba, who had no incentive whatsoever to take a partial buyout unless there's a contract awaiting him at a top contender. So we have a rookie backup to TL assuming we still trade TT (which is now a big FN-IF) and Kemba, who in his second year after his knees became an issue wasn't able to stay on the court.

Dumping Kemba was always going to cost a bunch.