Take It From Here: What Moves Would You Make?

[gouki88]

I would sign Melo firstly.

Secondly, try and add one of Boogie or Dwight, but would settle for Greg Monroe.

[sgrogan]

I believe Brad will NEVER pick up Cousins. Because of the way that he wastes possessions by arguing with the ref or not getting back on defense because he's upset over something. Boogie's ship has SAILED. I'd take Dwight or Melo over him, and I can't stand either of them.

If that's his thinking it's a shame, because Boogie is the best combination of scoring, shooting, rebounding and passing available.  But, if people are more defensively oriented, I'm fine with Whiteside or Dwight.  Temporarily losing focus isn't a good thing (something that all of Cousins / Whiteside / Dwight do), but I think it's better than running Kornet / Vonleh / Bruno out there.

We need better players.

If you believe any of the mentioned players are negative due to attitude or influence. I'll respect that opinion.
But the C's need real NBA players, just like any other team. Give me a bench of used to be's, or almost was's, than a gang of G' leaguers.

Vet min contracts don't cost more against the tax than the guys we have (don't have).

Our 13th, 14th, and 15th spots are empty. I'll need some convincing that Dwight, Whiteside, Boggie, and Carmelo are worse than air.

With any luck they don't play in the playoffs. They get us there rested and healthy with home court advantage.

[sgrogan]

Dwight, fully guaranteed 1 year vet min,
Carmello, fully guaranteed 1 year vet min.
Thomas non-guarnteed 1 year vet min.

Cut one of Kornet, Caboclo, or Vonleh.

I think that leaves me with 14 (Including Gallo) and the 2-ways.
At the deadline I look to use the TPE's (possibly including Gallos's full contract).

I want the vet-mins for training camp/pre-season.

There is an 8 man rotation
Smart 32, White 16
Brogdon 30, Brown 8, White 10
Tatum 23,Brown 25
AL 6, Tatum 12, Grant 24
RWIII 28, 20

With 6 mpg + available.
When Al, or Rob, or Jaylen, or Brogdon, or Smart is out, ther are more minutes.
Dwight, Carmello, Pritchard
Hauser, Kornet, Vonleh, (Caboclo)

[td450]

I believe Brad will NEVER pick up Cousins. Because of the way that he wastes possessions by arguing with the ref or not getting back on defense because he's upset over something. Boogie's ship has SAILED. I'd take Dwight or Melo over him, and I can't stand either of them.

If that's his thinking it's a shame, because Boogie is the best combination of scoring, shooting, rebounding and passing available.  But, if people are more defensively oriented, I'm fine with Whiteside or Dwight.  Temporarily losing focus isn't a good thing (something that all of Cousins / Whiteside / Dwight do), but I think it's better than running Kornet / Vonleh / Bruno out there.

We need better players.

If you believe any of the mentioned players are negative due to attitude or influence. I'll respect that opinion.
But the C's need real NBA players, just like any other team. Give me a bench of used to be's, or almost was's, than a gang of G' leaguers.

Vet min contracts don't cost more against the tax than the guys we have (don't have).

Our 13th, 14th, and 15th spots are empty. I'll need some convincing that Dwight, Whiteside, Boggie, and Carmelo are worse than air.

With any luck they don't play in the playoffs. They get us there rested and healthy with home court advantage.

We have Brogdon, White, Grant Williams and Payton Pritchard. We just lost Gallinari to injury. I expect Stevens will do something significant, and certainly if no one steps up.

We could use a real rotation big, but other than that, that is a pretty huge bump to our bench over last year.

The smart move is to wait for an opportunity, and then be aggressive. Depending on what's there, White, Grant Williams and/or Pritchard and picks could be used. They don't need to make a move now.

We have just the right minutes distribution to keep everyone happy. We should bring in someone who makes us better when it counts and not sweat it if Robert Williams or Al misses 5-10 games. You just don't get the same value when you are the team pushing for a trade. Wait until another team needs something. They always do.

[Roy H.]

We have Brogdon, White, Grant Williams and Payton Pritchard. We just lost Gallinari to injury. I expect Stevens will do something significant, and certainly if no one steps up.

We could use a real rotation big, but other than that, that is a pretty huge bump to our bench over last year.

Right now we’ve traded Theis for Brogdon.  Adding a good sixth man is very significant, but at this point due to Gallo’s injury we’ve only upgraded one position, while downgrading our backup center.

We’re getting overall, but so are Milwaukee, Brooklyn and Philly.

[pokeKingCurtis]

We have just the right minutes distribution to keep everyone happy. We should bring in someone who makes us better when it counts and not sweat it if Robert Williams or Al misses 5-10 games. You just don't get the same value when you are the team pushing for a trade. Wait until another team needs something. They always do.

Would be interesting to see how Brad navigates this. Danny seems to have:

• Gone for proven though discount talent during the Big Three years (has-beens like Jermaine O'Neal and Jason Terry; or Delonte's second stint), and I think didn't/wasn't able to really swing for the fences
• Gone for value over marginal improvement while building the team during the sort of post Big Three years (keeping FRP, shrewd trades like Jae Crowder and Isaiah)
• Gone for value over character during Kyrie years, where we had championship talent (keeping Morris/Rozier)
• Gone for character during Kemba years (signing Kemba I guess), while maintaining firsts

for value over marginal improvement (keeping all the FRPs),

Kind of repeating the first bullet point here with Brogdon/Gallo. There are reasons why they were available - part of it is they are injury prone. Though part of it is definitely about what can you really afford (in terms of tax, and in terms of FRP).

I'm pretty confident Brad will make the right call though. Now that I think about it, trading for Horford (obvious win there) and Derrick White deal (a couple FRP to get the Jays in the finals is a win in my book) are pretty aggressive - kind of runs in counter to similar moves Danny made imo. In terms of similar caliber/impact moves, Crow and Isaiah were statistical darlings, and they came for pretty cheap if I recall correctly, so more shrewd - and I guess if we were to talk about moves during contention, the counterpart to White/Horford would be Danny's decision to keep Rozier/Morris, which again seems relatively conservative to me - though again, slightly different situation given Danny's decision was whether or not to keep the team intact, whereas Brad "merely" traded assets for the most part.

Again, would be interesting to see how Brad navigates. I wonder if he goes for sort of the Rasheed Wallace type signing - which seems to be Dwight Howard here (I say this with full expectation I'll get flack about how Howard/Wallace can't be more different and how I'm an idiot - but what can I say, I love lazily comparing NBA players and making weird and maybe nonsensical connections).

[Csfan1984]

I'm leaning towards more scoring from the bench. Thinking about

White and three 2nds
for
Clarkson and Vanderbilt

Clarkson is a good spark plug player off the bench. Vander is an opportunist off ball scorer. Both can play multiple spots. Would cost the team it's better seconds but probably not any 1st.

If Magic want to tank I'd really want
White, a 1st, plus two seconds
for
Wendell Carter Jr

Carter would be Al's replacement long term.

Only two moves I can think of right now.

[celticinorlando]

Sign Melo and a big. Bury Kornet in Maine or cut him.

Without Gallo, Boston in jeopardy of falling behind in the east if they feel that Sam Hauser is a guy that can play regularly (he’s not).

[Who]

Carmelo is a dead man walking. His career is over. He can't move.

Not convinced Cousins is any better.

[gouki88]

Carmelo is a dead man walking. His career is over. He can't move.

Not convinced Cousins is any better.

You keep saying this despite Melo providing almost exactly what Gallo did last season, and without providing any evidence for your claim.

[Who]

Carmelo is a dead man walking. His career is over. He can't move.

Not convinced Cousins is any better.

You keep saying this despite Melo providing almost exactly what Gallo did last season, and without providing any evidence for your claim.

Evidence? Watch him move! He can't run. He can't make multiple effort plays on defense. He is finished.

Pro athletes are only as good as their bodies allow them to be. Melo's body has given up on him. It is not his fault. It just happens. He is cooked.

I didn't think much of the Gallo signing. He was inferior to G Will last season. Gallo had some capacity as a backup center ala Bjelica on GSW last season + some hope that his offensive game may fare better away from the ball dominant midget Trae Young which may have hindered Gallo's game.

Melo on the other hand had his best offensive season in years playing next to the ball-dominant LeBron and on a team that routinely played all-offense no-defense lineups (such as LeBron at center next to 4 smalls) jacking up Melo's individual stats & efficiencies in a way that is highly unlikely to be repeatable in a system elsewhere.

Stat inflation vs possible stat deflation + Gallo's superior ability to play as a small ball offensive center. That is the difference between a non-NBA player like Melo and a solid end of rotation / high end 3rd stringer piece like Gallo.

[Neurotic Guy]

Carmelo is a dead man walking. His career is over. He can't move.

Not convinced Cousins is any better.

You keep saying this despite Melo providing almost exactly what Gallo did last season, and without providing any evidence for your claim.

Evidence? Watch him move! He can't run. He can't make multiple effort plays on defense. He is finished.

Pro athletes are only as good as their bodies allow them to be. Melo's body has given up on him. It is not his fault. It just happens. He is cooked.

I didn't think much of the Gallo signing. He was inferior to G Will last season. Gallo had some capacity as a backup center ala Bjelica on GSW last season + some hope that his offensive game may fare better away from the ball dominant midget Trae Young which may have hindered Gallo's game.

Melo on the other hand had his best offensive season in years playing next to the ball-dominant LeBron and on a team that routinely played all-offense no-defense lineups (such as LeBron at center next to 4 smalls) jacking up Melo's individual stats & efficiencies in a way that is highly unlikely to be repeatable in a system elsewhere.

Stat inflation vs possible stat deflation + Gallo's superior ability to play as a small ball offensive center. That is the difference between a non-NBA player like Melo and a solid end of rotation / high end 3rd stringer piece like Gallo.

But Carmelo had his worst year statistically on offense last year.   13.3 points in 26 minutes v. 13.4 points in 24.5 minutes the previous year in Portland.    I don't think the stats make your case unless your point is that it was easier for him to score last year and he couldn't improve on previous years.   If you say his body looks spent, I believe you.

[RPGenerate]

I'd love to get Dwight on the team. No way on Boogie and Monroe tho, we don't need human traffic cones, we need guys who will fit our system. For Melo, I'm kind of just ambivalent on him. I'd probably agree with Who that his body might be spent, but I think it's still worth a try.

[Who]

Carmelo is a dead man walking. His career is over. He can't move.

Not convinced Cousins is any better.

You keep saying this despite Melo providing almost exactly what Gallo did last season, and without providing any evidence for your claim.

Evidence? Watch him move! He can't run. He can't make multiple effort plays on defense. He is finished.

Pro athletes are only as good as their bodies allow them to be. Melo's body has given up on him. It is not his fault. It just happens. He is cooked.

I didn't think much of the Gallo signing. He was inferior to G Will last season. Gallo had some capacity as a backup center ala Bjelica on GSW last season + some hope that his offensive game may fare better away from the ball dominant midget Trae Young which may have hindered Gallo's game.

Melo on the other hand had his best offensive season in years playing next to the ball-dominant LeBron and on a team that routinely played all-offense no-defense lineups (such as LeBron at center next to 4 smalls) jacking up Melo's individual stats & efficiencies in a way that is highly unlikely to be repeatable in a system elsewhere.

Stat inflation vs possible stat deflation + Gallo's superior ability to play as a small ball offensive center. That is the difference between a non-NBA player like Melo and a solid end of rotation / high end 3rd stringer piece like Gallo.

But Carmelo had his worst year statistically on offense last year.   13.3 points in 26 minutes v. 13.4 points in 24.5 minutes the previous year in Portland.    I don't think the stats make your case unless your point is that it was easier for him to score last year and he couldn't improve on previous years.   If you say his body looks spent, I believe you.

Melo had individual scoring efficiency in Portland at 52.5% TS% and 54.7% relative to league averages 56.5% and 57.2%. So well below league average both years.

Bear in mind, scoring is Melo's best (and only) supposedly positive contribution because we all know it ain't his D or his passing.

In Los Angeles, Melo posted a TS% of 57.9% relative to a league average 56.6%.

I believe this was the first year Melo posted a league average or better TS% since his days as an All-Star in New York around 5yrs or so ago. It is unclear, frankly higher doubtful, that this is repeatable in a system outside of LA where he doesn't have LeBron + all-offense no defense lineups to juice up his offensive numbers.

[tenn_smoothie]

Please explain how the TPE works and how the Celtics could have used theirs before it expired.

Did we lose it because of cheap ownership - if so, that is a very bad sign.

Also, I hate missing out on Harrell - seems to me the guy could have helped us a lot more than any of the three G-leaguers who will be vying roster spots in training camp. Harrel is an aggressive post guy who will mix it up inside and we need that - we are still too soft.