Celtics Off-Season News

[droopdog7]

Celtics making a run at porzingus?

Feels like a done deal even

[Neurotic Guy]

Duke assistant Amile Jefferson is finalizing a multi-year deal to become an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics, a source tells 247Sports. Jefferson, who won a National Championship with Duke as a player in 2015, joined the Blue Devils staff in July of 2021. After a season as the team’s director of player development, he was promoted to assistant coach. 2 hours ago – via Travis Branham @ 247Sports

I loved Amile Jefferson. College teammate of Tatum too!

What an interesting staff for the C's.  Lots of youth, some solid experience, too, and some interesting player connections.  I think Joe's leadership will be tested early -- seems like if he's not a strong leader things could get muddled quickly as assistants are likely to be popular with the players.  I don't know a lot about the assistants (other than Cassell), but what I've read makes me feel pretty positive about this staff.

[SparzWizard]

Bruce Brown posted on his IG story this morning of a black background and tagged "Boston, Massachusetts" as his location with three smiley faces.

👀👀👀

[RJ87]

Bruce Brown posted on his IG story this morning of a black background and tagged "Boston, Massachusetts" as his location with three smiley faces.

👀👀👀

He grew up in Boston.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Bruce Brown posted on his IG story this morning of a black background and tagged "Boston, Massachusetts" as his location with three smiley faces.

👀👀👀

He grew up in Boston.

Absolutely! Come home. TPMLE, as many years or player options as you want. Great player.

[theswitch]

Have we heard anything on TPMLE candidates? I'm curious to see who is cooked up this summer for that role. We could pretty much use help 1-5 so it's a wide open question. A guy like Josh Richardson or Malik Beasley on the wing? How pricey is a Harrison Barnes? A Torrey Craig type of guy who can help in a bunch of ways? A reinforcement at the big like Saric or Mason Plumlee or Naz Reid? A guard like Donte DiVincenzo? PatBev to replace the Smart intensity? Jevon Carter? Probably not worth it.

A bunch of different ways this could go. Guys like Torrey Craig, Naz Reid, Donte DiVincenzo jump out to me from my quick brainstorm. No idea on value for those guys.

Oh, yes Bruce Brown would obviously be amazing but I can't imagine the playoff breakouts like Brown or Gabe Vincent are in that range.

[RJ87]

Bruce Brown posted on his IG story this morning of a black background and tagged "Boston, Massachusetts" as his location with three smiley faces.

👀👀👀

He grew up in Boston.

Absolutely! Come home. TPMLE, as many years or player options as you want. Great player.

Let me clarify, his IG story was more so about the fact the he's from Boston and he's currently in town. I seriously doubt he's coming to the Celtics. He's in line for a big pay day but will probably go back to the champs on bargain money. I don't see him taking even less money to come to Boston.

[Who]

Have we heard anything on TPMLE candidates? I'm curious to see who is cooked up this summer for that role. We could pretty much use help 1-5 so it's a wide open question. A guy like Josh Richardson or Malik Beasley on the wing? How pricey is a Harrison Barnes? A Torrey Craig type of guy who can help in a bunch of ways? A reinforcement at the big like Saric or Mason Plumlee or Naz Reid? A guard like Donte DiVincenzo? PatBev to replace the Smart intensity? Jevon Carter? Probably not worth it.

A bunch of different ways this could go. Guys like Torrey Craig, Naz Reid, Donte DiVincenzo jump out to me from my quick brainstorm. No idea on value for those guys.

Oh, yes Bruce Brown would obviously be amazing but I can't imagine the playoff breakouts like Brown or Gabe Vincent are in that range.

Malik Beasley is worse than Hauser. Awful defender and and inconsistent outside shooter who provides his team nothing outside of three point shooting.

[Vermont Green]

So roster update.  The following are the current contracts (and my opinion on position):

Porzingis (Big)
Tatum  (Wing)
Brown  (Wing)
Brogdon (G)
White  (G)
RWill (Big)
Horford (Big)
Pritchard (G)
Kornet (Big)
Champagnie - NG (Wing)
Hauser (Wing)

That is 11 contracts, one of then not guaranteed.  It is 3 guards, 4 wings, and 4 bigs.  Ideally, we would have 5 of each.  I don't see Champagnie as any more "signed" than Davison, even though technically, he is signed.  But say both of them make it on to the opening day roster, that would give us 4 guards, 4 wings, and 4 bigs, we essentially need to add one of each.

Our active cap (with Champagnie) is about $173M.  The Second Apron is at $179.5M as I understand it.  If we sign Grant, even at the QO, (about $8.5M), we are over.  Even if we don't sign Grant, it is going to be hard to stay under the second apron:

Say we keep Champagnie, sign Davison (say $1.5M), sign #25 pick (say $2.5M), use portion of MLE ($2.5M).  That would only be 14 players on the roster but would have us just barely under.  Then we could use 2-way contracts to have some other players.  With that, we would be under the second apron but so close to it that we really couldn't do much anyway.  We couldn't sign a vet min or do a trade that resulted in more salary as either of those would put us over the second apron.

My conclusion is that we should just go ahead and sign Grant, assuming the contract is not unreasonable.  If we do that, I am not sure if we would be able to sign Davison (maybe he stays a 2-way), but we could sign our rookie.

[Who]

Have we heard anything on TPMLE candidates? I'm curious to see who is cooked up this summer for that role. We could pretty much use help 1-5 so it's a wide open question. A guy like Josh Richardson or Malik Beasley on the wing? How pricey is a Harrison Barnes? A Torrey Craig type of guy who can help in a bunch of ways? A reinforcement at the big like Saric or Mason Plumlee or Naz Reid? A guard like Donte DiVincenzo? PatBev to replace the Smart intensity? Jevon Carter? Probably not worth it.

A bunch of different ways this could go. Guys like Torrey Craig, Naz Reid, Donte DiVincenzo jump out to me from my quick brainstorm. No idea on value for those guys.

Oh, yes Bruce Brown would obviously be amazing but I can't imagine the playoff breakouts like Brown or Gabe Vincent are in that range.

I believe GSW expect DiVincenzo to leave because they cannot afford to pay him. That he will get more than the TMLE. So we will probably be priced out of that as well.

I saw somewhere that Pat Beverley was looking for $15mil a year on his next deal. I don't think he'll get it but he should be able to get MLE money at $12mil per.

[theswitch]

Have we heard anything on TPMLE candidates? I'm curious to see who is cooked up this summer for that role. We could pretty much use help 1-5 so it's a wide open question. A guy like Josh Richardson or Malik Beasley on the wing? How pricey is a Harrison Barnes? A Torrey Craig type of guy who can help in a bunch of ways? A reinforcement at the big like Saric or Mason Plumlee or Naz Reid? A guard like Donte DiVincenzo? PatBev to replace the Smart intensity? Jevon Carter? Probably not worth it.

A bunch of different ways this could go. Guys like Torrey Craig, Naz Reid, Donte DiVincenzo jump out to me from my quick brainstorm. No idea on value for those guys.

Oh, yes Bruce Brown would obviously be amazing but I can't imagine the playoff breakouts like Brown or Gabe Vincent are in that range.

I believe GSW expect DiVincenzo to leave because they cannot afford to pay him. That he will get more than the TMLE. So we will probably be priced out of that as well.

I saw somewhere that Pat Beverley was looking for $15mil a year on his next deal. I don't think he'll get it but he should be able to get MLE money at $12mil per.

Ouch, you think so? He's turning 35 years old in a month and is down to consistently shooting less than 35% from deep -- hasn't shot well in 2-3 years now. Hasn't scored anywhere near double digits in a while. I can't imagine paying him that much money.

[Who]

Have we heard anything on TPMLE candidates? I'm curious to see who is cooked up this summer for that role. We could pretty much use help 1-5 so it's a wide open question. A guy like Josh Richardson or Malik Beasley on the wing? How pricey is a Harrison Barnes? A Torrey Craig type of guy who can help in a bunch of ways? A reinforcement at the big like Saric or Mason Plumlee or Naz Reid? A guard like Donte DiVincenzo? PatBev to replace the Smart intensity? Jevon Carter? Probably not worth it.

A bunch of different ways this could go. Guys like Torrey Craig, Naz Reid, Donte DiVincenzo jump out to me from my quick brainstorm. No idea on value for those guys.

Oh, yes Bruce Brown would obviously be amazing but I can't imagine the playoff breakouts like Brown or Gabe Vincent are in that range.

Yeah, some others were mentioning Josh Richardson as a TMLE target in the Porzingis thread. That looks a very good idea to me. He played well here. He fits what we need. A low usage 3+D player who will play off ball. I would be very happy with him.

I think Naz Reid is a possibility for the TMLE although he may be less willin to come here now that we have 3 big men in front of him. I would assume he will look for more money but it is possible the market won't be there for him and he will be available at the TMLE. He is a good target if he is willin to be the 4th big here. Solid player. Solid bench big man. Reinforce that depth and good insurance for the team when those 3 main guys miss games which they will do regularly.

I like Torrey Craig. Good backup wing. Played well for PHO as a starter I thought. He'd be a great pickup. May be available for the TMLE as well.

Harrison Barnes would be very pricey. He would have trade value similar to D White but he plays a position of need for SAC so you'd have to overpay to get him. Out of our price range and we have no trade assets that matchup well with SAC. They don't want more ball-handling guards (D Fox) or more bigs (Sabonis). They need more versatile forwards like H Barnes himself.

Saric should be a minimum contract guy and a 3rd stringer. Not wild about him but he is serviceable. Seems to have had more success as a small ball center than as a big forward these last couple of seasons. Not sure how much we need that.

Mason Plumlee would be good but we are likely offering too small a role for him to come here. He could get more minutes elsewhere I would have thought. Nice player though. I like him.

Not interested in Jevon Carter. We have two good starting PGs in Brogdon and D White. I want to bring in JD Davison as 3rd string PG. I like his talent. He'll be okay short term and very interesting long term.

[Who]

Have we heard anything on TPMLE candidates? I'm curious to see who is cooked up this summer for that role. We could pretty much use help 1-5 so it's a wide open question. A guy like Josh Richardson or Malik Beasley on the wing? How pricey is a Harrison Barnes? A Torrey Craig type of guy who can help in a bunch of ways? A reinforcement at the big like Saric or Mason Plumlee or Naz Reid? A guard like Donte DiVincenzo? PatBev to replace the Smart intensity? Jevon Carter? Probably not worth it.

A bunch of different ways this could go. Guys like Torrey Craig, Naz Reid, Donte DiVincenzo jump out to me from my quick brainstorm. No idea on value for those guys.

Oh, yes Bruce Brown would obviously be amazing but I can't imagine the playoff breakouts like Brown or Gabe Vincent are in that range.

I believe GSW expect DiVincenzo to leave because they cannot afford to pay him. That he will get more than the TMLE. So we will probably be priced out of that as well.

I saw somewhere that Pat Beverley was looking for $15mil a year on his next deal. I don't think he'll get it but he should be able to get MLE money at $12mil per.

Ouch, you think so? He's turning 35 years old in a month and is down to consistently shooting less than 35% from deep -- hasn't shot well in 2-3 years now. Hasn't scored anywhere near double digits in a while. I can't imagine paying him that much money.

I still like Beverley as a quality rotation player. High end bench guy or serviceable starter. His defense is still very good. Some Bulls folks felt he helped turnaround / save their season after arriving midseason. So he still has a pretty good impact out there.

If he gets the full MLE, I expect it'll only be on a 1-2 year deal.

His TS% 53.7% the last two seasons is about the same as Smart's over the last 2-3yrs for Smart at 53.9%. For a high end defender, you can live with that.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Cap experts question: How far below the tax do we need to be in order to use the MLE vs the TP MLE? Also, does an unsigned draft pick count against the cap/tax line for figuring if we can use the TPMLE vs the MLE?

I ask, because one of the iterations I've thought of is a sign-and-trade with Grant and Brogdon going to the Magic for one of their early first round picks and Johnathan Isaac. I can't tell if that would get us close enough to be able to use the full MLE or not.

[Goldstar88]

Brad Stevens said the three-team trade that brought in Kristaps Porzingis but saw Marcus Smart head to the Memphis Grizzlies was all about balancing the team's roster.

"I said this at the start of the summer: I thought that we needed to balance our roster and make sure that we looked at the best ways to do that," Stevens told reporters early Friday morning after the NBA draft. "And that meant that we were going to likely lose a really, really, really good player."

Stevens said Porzingis will help the Celtics' offense and defense near the rim, adding that the 7-foot-3 center is "starting to play at the best level I've seen."

"From our standpoint, we just looked at it as 'what's our best opportunity to continue to grow and improve as a team?'" Stevens said. "Knowing that sometimes really, really hard decisions have to be made. Like I said, not only adding Kristaps with his skill, his size and the positional versatility, we just had many more numbers and options at the smaller positions than we did at the bigs, especially as we look forward too."

Stevens praised Smart, who had spent his nine-year NBA career in Boston after the Celtics drafted him No. 6 overall in 2014, for his contributions to the franchise.

"The greatest legacy that you can leave is to be someplace and it's better off because you were there," Stevens told reporters. "And I think that everybody here feels that way.

"I think that he will always be appreciated and thought of so fondly here for any number of reasons. Obviously, everybody loved the way that he plays and how hard he plays, but also his work in the community. You know, we're all really grateful to have Marcus in our life for as long as we've had and are sad to see him go."