Backup bigs

[cman88]

I do have to say that kornet is surprising me. He's not great. But he holds his own, gets some blocks and isn't the defensive liability I thought he would necessarily be.

No rob Williams obviously. But he's playing his role and contributing

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Isaac + a end of bench player into our TE (Okeke, Hampton)
for
Pritchard, Gallo, Jackson, Vonleh, and Griffin, and a future protected first that converts to 2 seconds

Why for the Magic? They have too many bigs/wings and there isn't enough space for Isaac. They are primed to move on and they need more shooting to open the floor for Wagner and Banchero.

Guards - Suggs, Anthony, Fultz, Pritchard
Wings - Wagner, Banchero, Harris
Bigs - Bol, Carter, Bamba

Why for the Celtics? This is a relatively low risk high upside move. The Cs have enough guards and ball-handlers, but they need another 3-4 that can play defense and pick his spots in the flow of an offense. Isaac could play either Williams' role on defense as the baseline help defender or Horford's role as the pick-and-roll defender. If he emerged, he could start as Horford becomes a high-level glue guy off the bench.

Guards - Smart, Brogdon, White, Brown
Wings - Tatum, Isaac, Hauser
Bigs - Horford, Williams, Williams

[footey]

Isaac + a end of bench player into our TE (Okeke, Hampton)
for
Pritchard, Gallo, Jackson, Vonleh, and Griffin, and a future protected first that converts to 2 seconds

Why for the Magic? They have too many bigs/wings and there isn't enough space for Isaac. They are primed to move on and they need more shooting to open the floor for Wagner and Banchero.

Guards - Suggs, Anthony, Fultz, Pritchard
Wings - Wagner, Banchero, Harris
Bigs - Bol, Carter, Bamba

Why for the Celtics? This is a relatively low risk high upside move. The Cs have enough guards and ball-handlers, but they need another 3-4 that can play defense and pick his spots in the flow of an offense. Isaac could play either Williams' role on defense as the baseline help defender or Horford's role as the pick-and-roll defender. If he emerged, he could start as Horford becomes a high-level glue guy off the bench.

Guards - Smart, Brogdon, White, Brown
Wings - Tatum, Isaac, Hauser
Bigs - Horford, Williams, Williams

Isaac despite his injury history has a higher trade value than what amounts to a late 1st round Celtic pick.  Would love to get him, he would be perfect stretch forward, but just don't see him becoming available.  I think he will fit in well with Magic once he is healthy.  Man they are going to be really good in a couple of years.  And if they luck into VW next draft, they could become a serious championship threat.  Their biggest weakness is at the guard position.   

[Sophomore]

Isaac + a end of bench player into our TE (Okeke, Hampton)
for
Pritchard, Gallo, Jackson, Vonleh, and Griffin, and a future protected first that converts to 2 seconds

Why for the Magic? They have too many bigs/wings and there isn't enough space for Isaac. They are primed to move on and they need more shooting to open the floor for Wagner and Banchero.

Guards - Suggs, Anthony, Fultz, Pritchard
Wings - Wagner, Banchero, Harris
Bigs - Bol, Carter, Bamba

Why for the Celtics? This is a relatively low risk high upside move. The Cs have enough guards and ball-handlers, but they need another 3-4 that can play defense and pick his spots in the flow of an offense. Isaac could play either Williams' role on defense as the baseline help defender or Horford's role as the pick-and-roll defender. If he emerged, he could start as Horford becomes a high-level glue guy off the bench.

Guards - Smart, Brogdon, White, Brown
Wings - Tatum, Isaac, Hauser
Bigs - Horford, Williams, Williams

Isaac despite his injury history has a higher trade value than what amounts to a late 1st round Celtic pick.  Would love to get him, he would be perfect stretch forward, but just don't see him becoming available.  I think he will fit in well with Magic once he is healthy.  Man they are going to be really good in a couple of years.  And if they luck into VW next draft, they could become a serious championship threat.  Their biggest weakness is at the guard position.

I’m not sure what value Isaac has. He’s excellent when healthy, but his recent injury history makes Robert Williams look like an iron man. I am not interested in him at any price until he’s played some NBA games and medical experts sign off.

[Sophomore]

To say a little more - Pritchard has value, right now, to this team during its title run. If we lose a guard to injury I’m comfortable giving him minutes in a playoff game. I would trade him to make the team better in this title run, but not to buy a lottery ticket.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

To say a little more - Pritchard has value, right now, to this team during its title run. If we lose a guard to injury I’m comfortable giving him minutes in a playoff game. I would trade him to make the team better in this title run, but not to buy a lottery ticket.

But the problem is that he couldn't make our consistent rotation last year when we didn't have Brogdon. You may be comfortable with it, but he has flaws to his game that make him difficult to play.

However, I don't necessarily disagree with you. In some matchups, he can be helpful if we had injuries to our other guards. But our offense filters through Tatum and Brown anyway. His value is primarily as a spot-up shooter. Even that is a role that others on the team have eaten into.

I'm not sure if the Celtics need to make any move, but they are probably weakest at the backup 4-5 role. Have effective and reliable bigs takes a lot of stress off of Tatum or Brown to play up in the rotation.

[Sophomore]

To say a little more - Pritchard has value, right now, to this team during its title run. If we lose a guard to injury I’m comfortable giving him minutes in a playoff game. I would trade him to make the team better in this title run, but not to buy a lottery ticket.

But the problem is that he couldn't make our consistent rotation last year when we didn't have Brogdon. You may be comfortable with it, but he has flaws to his game that make him difficult to play.

However, I don't necessarily disagree with you. In some matchups, he can be helpful if we had injuries to our other guards. But our offense filters through Tatum and Brown anyway. His value is primarily as a spot-up shooter. Even that is a role that others on the team have eaten into.

I'm not sure if the Celtics need to make any move, but they are probably weakest at the backup 4-5 role. Have effective and reliable bigs takes a lot of stress off of Tatum or Brown to play up in the rotation.

If a better player is available by combining PP with a draft pick I am in. But I won’t buy a lottery ticket on a guy who missed most of two seasons ago, all of last year, and all of this year so far - who might never play another nba game.

It’s misleading to say PP didn’t crack the rotation. They had Schroder at the start of the year and, in Ime’s worst decision, gave him minutes Pritchard should have had. In the playoffs last year, he averaged 13 minutes/game. This year he seems better and there are some matchups he is especially well suited to. If we did not have him and we would look at a player like PP and think: man, he would be a great 4th guard.

[moiso]

Isaac + a end of bench player into our TE (Okeke, Hampton)
for
Pritchard, Gallo, Jackson, Vonleh, and Griffin, and a future protected first that converts to 2 seconds

Why for the Magic? They have too many bigs/wings and there isn't enough space for Isaac. They are primed to move on and they need more shooting to open the floor for Wagner and Banchero.

Guards - Suggs, Anthony, Fultz, Pritchard
Wings - Wagner, Banchero, Harris
Bigs - Bol, Carter, Bamba

Why for the Celtics? This is a relatively low risk high upside move. The Cs have enough guards and ball-handlers, but they need another 3-4 that can play defense and pick his spots in the flow of an offense. Isaac could play either Williams' role on defense as the baseline help defender or Horford's role as the pick-and-roll defender. If he emerged, he could start as Horford becomes a high-level glue guy off the bench.

Guards - Smart, Brogdon, White, Brown
Wings - Tatum, Isaac, Hauser
Bigs - Horford, Williams, Williams

Isaac despite his injury history has a higher trade value than what amounts to a late 1st round Celtic pick.  Would love to get him, he would be perfect stretch forward, but just don't see him becoming available.  I think he will fit in well with Magic once he is healthy.  Man they are going to be really good in a couple of years.  And if they luck into VW next draft, they could become a serious championship threat.  Their biggest weakness is at the guard position.

I’m not sure what value Isaac has. He’s excellent when healthy, but his recent injury history makes Robert Williams look like an iron man. I am not interested in him at any price until he’s played some NBA games and medical experts sign off.

Yup.  He's a professional rehabber.  He plays basketball on rare occasions.

[Hoopvortex]

To say a little more - Pritchard has value, right now, to this team during its title run. If we lose a guard to injury I’m comfortable giving him minutes in a playoff game. I would trade him to make the team better in this title run, but not to buy a lottery ticket.

But the problem is that he couldn't make our consistent rotation last year when we didn't have Brogdon. You may be comfortable with it, but he has flaws to his game that make him difficult to play.

However, I don't necessarily disagree with you. In some matchups, he can be helpful if we had injuries to our other guards. But our offense filters through Tatum and Brown anyway. His value is primarily as a spot-up shooter. Even that is a role that others on the team have eaten into.

I'm not sure if the Celtics need to make any move, but they are probably weakest at the backup 4-5 role. Have effective and reliable bigs takes a lot of stress off of Tatum or Brown to play up in the rotation.

You raise some interesting points.

What is a rotation player? The old traditional NBA benchmark is a consistent 10 minutes/game; last year in the regular season he met that mark from Feb. 8th to the end of the season, with one exception (9:08). The trade deadline was Feb. 9th last year. He played in every playoff game, and met the old benchmark in those games in 14/24 games.

If we mean that a rotation player is one who comes in at consistent times when the outcome is still in doubt, regardless of total minutes, then there's an argument to be made that he was a rotation player in the playoffs.

It's fair to call Pritchard a ballhandler, and certainly his coaches appreciate how quickly he pushes the ball up the floor in early offense. But in lineups last year he played relatively few minutes as the lone ballhandler, and virtually never after the Trade Deadline; he was more likely to play off the ball, with Smart or White as primary ballhandler.

Much was made last year of Udoka's preference for two-big lineups, but he also was fond of two-ballhandler lineups. Derrick White, in fact, played virtually all his minutes with either Smart or Pritchard as his partner.

Peyton is more than a spot-up shooter, by the way. One of the things he seems to have developed in the off-season is a highly effective set of midrange areas off the dribble. He's getting to the rim more often this year, too; it was evident in Summer League that he'd made that a point of emphasis.

You say that Boston's offense filters through Tatum and Brown. That is less true this year. One of the changes in Joeball compared to Imeball is a more central role for Marcus Smart. A lot more offense is now going through him.

Your point about Brogdon is well-taken. It will be especially interesting to see if Peyton is consistently paired with him the way he was with Smart or White last year.