Celtics trade grades?

[colincb]

So far 3 of the 7 players we traded have been let go. Can Bruno be far behind?

[liam]

Guards: Marcus Smart, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, Brodric Thomas

Forwards: Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Grant Williams, Aaron Nesmith, Sam Hauser

Bigs: Rob Williams, Al Horford, Daniel Theis

Well balanced roster.

[Chief]

Guards: Marcus Smart, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, Brodric Thomas

Forwards: Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Grant Williams, Aaron Nesmith, Sam Hauser

Bigs: Rob Williams, Al Horford, Daniel Theis

Well balanced roster.

I agree. We are much better.

Hopefully a buyout candidate will be interested in us too.

[todd_days_41]

Basketball objectives going in:

1. Adding a "Third Star"
2. Adding shooting
3. Adding a veteran (pure) PG
4. Balance the roster
5. If none of the above happen, adding assets for use this summer to aid 1, 2, 3 and / or 4

Results:

1. Survey Says? XXX

Nada surf here.

2.  Survey Says? XXX

White isn't spacing the floor. Theis isn't spacing the floor. Richardson shot better than expected (especially lately), and is gone. Langford is awful, but could hit 3s at a reasonable rate, and is gone. Schroder was not really a positive or a negative here. 

3. Survey Says? Push.

White is a good player, but quite similar to Smart, and not a pure PG. Schroder's a valuable 6th man PG, and was traded.

4. Survey Says? XXX

The roster is less balanced. White duplicates Smart. Richardson was first wing off bench, is now gone. Theis plays our second strongest position -- unclear whose minutes he takes. We have many open roster spots and lack depth.

5. Survey Says? XXX

We sent out our most valuable pick, a baffling future pick swap, and Richardson (nice player on an expiring as of this summer) -- only to get none of 1, 2, 3 or 4 done. We added more long term salary. Theis is not a valuable trade chip (scheme player, one of the worst offensive players in the NBA, longer contract that Richardson). White is not a major + asset to a team trading away a star / rebuilding.

=======

So, not a great grade. Add that sounds like Stevens  pulled the trigger on Theis at the last minute when he couldn't get value for Schroder, and it feels knee-jerk and non-strategic. Then add that the top of the Eastern Conference seemingly ALL got better, and its less great.

Lastly, someone will say: "well we got below the lux tax". That's fine, but a) it was the first trade of the day and therefore wasn't necessitated by other moves, and b) it was an easy non-brainer move we all expected, and c) it wasn't a basketball move but a financial one. So I just give that a passing grade.

Overall, I think Stevens looks like an amateur GM today... which makes sense, since he is.

[sgrogan]

I'm in the C range, pending how we fill out the roster.

White comes off the bench replacing Richardson as our 6th man. I think this is an upgrade given that Shroeder was moved as well. White is a starter level PG with size. Not a great shooter, but a good defender. He has a similar contract to Smart and a similar role. We could move either and still have one left on the team.

Theis is Al's replacement next year, at least as a backup to RWIII. He's an upgrade over Freedom, primarily on the defensive end, so maybe he plays. I'm not clear on what combinations with GWII, AL, and Grant. I think he gets some of Shroeder's minutes and we play big more often. i.e. Grant plays more 3.

[radiohead]

I love the Derrick White trade. I think Ime can unlock something in him. He was a Team USA member right? He adds a lot of toughness and grit to his Celtics roster. He may not be a great three point shooter but he has a nice mid range stroke. I remember him hitting dagger jumpers against us this year. He can hit big shots in crunch time. Sad to see JRich go but White I think is a talent upgrade.

The pick swap may be concerning but that’s a long time from now. I think we’re a better team now and can make some noise in the playoffs.

[Alleyoopster]

Basketball objectives going in:

1. Adding a "Third Star"
2. Adding shooting
3. Adding a veteran (pure) PG
4. Balance the roster
5. If none of the above happen, adding assets for use this summer to aid 1, 2, 3 and / or 4

Results:

1. Survey Says? XXX

Nada surf here.

2.  Survey Says? XXX

White isn't spacing the floor. Theis isn't spacing the floor. Richardson shot better than expected (especially lately), and is gone. Langford is awful, but could hit 3s at a reasonable rate, and is gone. Schroder was not really a positive or a negative here. 

3. Survey Says? Push.

White is a good player, but quite similar to Smart, and not a pure PG. Schroder's a valuable 6th man PG, and was traded.

4. Survey Says? XXX

The roster is less balanced. White duplicates Smart. Richardson was first wing off bench, is now gone. Theis plays our second strongest position -- unclear whose minutes he takes. We have many open roster spots and lack depth.

5. Survey Says? XXX

We sent out our most valuable pick, a baffling future pick swap, and Richardson (nice player on an expiring as of this summer) -- only to get none of 1, 2, 3 or 4 done. We added more long term salary. Theis is not a valuable trade chip (scheme player, one of the worst offensive players in the NBA, longer contract that Richardson). White is not a major + asset to a team trading away a star / rebuilding.

=======

So, not a great grade. Add that sounds like Stevens  pulled the trigger on Theis at the last minute when he couldn't get value for Schroder, and it feels knee-jerk and non-strategic. Then add that the top of the Eastern Conference seemingly ALL got better, and its less great.

Lastly, someone will say: "well we got below the lux tax". That's fine, but a) it was the first trade of the day and therefore wasn't necessitated by other moves, and b) it was an easy non-brainer move we all expected, and c) it wasn't a basketball move but a financial one. So I just give that a passing grade.

Overall, I think Stevens looks like an amateur GM today... which makes sense, since he is.

Excellent analysis: have similar opinions. I'm really upset Brad let Richardson go. One player who is a reliable shooter and he trades him away. Reminds me of the deals Ainge used to pull year after year - until his last 4 years or so. Whenever there was a trade, the best shooters would be sent packing. Brad's following the same script.

You forgot to mention that White is injury prone - although, not this year. My suspicion is his poorer shooting may be due to a lingering injury that hasn't been discussed? Just guessing though. 

[Who]

You forgot to mention that White is injury prone - although, not this year. My suspicion is his poorer shooting may be due to a lingering injury that hasn't been discussed? Just guessing though.

There was a post somewhere on here about how he is shooting more jump-shots off the dribble rather than spot up shots compared to previous years because San Antonio's offense is so bad. And that he shot 3s better then because of it and we should expect him to do the same in Boston because the Jays attract so much attention and White should get more open shots as a result.

I think it was 37-39% on threes those two previous years when he was shooting more spot up 3s.

[Birdman]

Who is better? White & Theis or Richardson, Romeo, Enes, Bruno? I like White & Theis better but not liking the firsts they traded

[Celtics2021]

Fivethirtyeight has a fun feature with its RAPTOR stat and playoff odds.  Taking into account todays standings and all the other trades that were made today, the Celtics have a 93% chance of making the playoffs and 5% chance winning the title with Richardson and Schröder, and a 98% chance of making the playoffs and a 17(!!) percent chance of winning the title with White and Theis.  So at least one set of computers says this was a really good set of moves by Stevens.

[PaxtonDarcy]

I take back what I said. It has been deleted because I’m a stupid man.

[cltc5]

So glad they got rid of romeo

[Goldstar88]

Who is better? White & Theis or Richardson, Romeo, Enes, Bruno? I like White & Theis better but not liking the firsts they traded

You forgot Schroder.

[Phantom255x]

One of my takeaways from the deadline is that it seems Brad was never high on some of these previous 1st round picks (the ones in the mid-to-late 1st round, not named Jaylen, Smart or Tatum), OR he grew sour on them over time. Romeo was dealt, and so were two future 1st rounders.

Think about it. Even in the past when the C's had a real contender, Ainge was never willing to surrender even a future late 1st at the deadline to improve the team and usually stood pat.

I know Romeo was the only recent 1st-round draft pick traded by the C's, but guys like Pritchard, Nesmith and G-Will were also made available for the right deals based on rumors. That's not to say those guys are scrubs and they can absolutely find a role on an NBA team, but like Langford and Nesmith IMO were picked too high at #14 and Brad (and possibly the whole FO) seemed to agree.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

At this moment, our luxury tax projections for next season have us 2.7 million over the luxury tax.

The obvious candidate is Al Horford back to a team like OKC, which would open up all that room to get a full MLE.

However, I also think we have another mid-level trade chip now (White), which is something we haven't had for years. I'm not looking to trade White, but I'm pointing out that we now have multiple of those guys that can be aggregated if a certain scoring guard from Washington came available.

Or the other hope is that this opens up minutes for Nesmith down the stretch and instills confidence in him, which either makes him a valuable young player we can have in our rotation on a cost-controlled contract or a helpful trade chip.