Shams: Porzingis to Boston?

[Who]

so is the next step to sign chris paul and/or trade for another guard? they cant have pritchard as their third guard all season long.

I would trade Pritchard.

I am happy with JD Davison as 3rd string.

I bet Pritchard still doesn't want to be here.  He wants to play to get that next contract (who could blame him), and is still the 3rd string point guard here. I don't see him getting the 25+ mpg that Smart/White/Brogdon got. Most of the minutes that just opened up aren't going to get distributed down to Pritchard.

I'm wary of having a disgruntled player looking for a contract on the team. I like Pritchard, but wouldn't be upset if the team moved him.

Agreed and Pritchard is too good to be a 3rd string. He should want a trade and I hope he gets it. He deserves playing time. He just won't get it here because we got two quality starting PGs (D White, Brogdon) ahead of him. He's got to move on to forward his career.

We don't need a 3rd string PG as good as Pritchard. I expect JD Davison will do just fine as 3rd string.

[SparzWizard]

But how 'bout it man. The least expected Celtic to go out wasn't even in our radar- Marcus Smart. We were so hellbent on Brogdon going out that it became Smart. Surprising move, but he's had more downs than ups with us last season.

[JSD]

So the Celtics get KP and 2 1st rounders for Marcus Smart?

Are there any protections on the GS pick?

[Who]

C: Porzingis, Rob Williams
F: Horford, Grant Williams
F: Tatum, Hauser
G: Jaylen,
G: D White, Brogdon, Pritchard

It is a pretty fine team especially if Grant Williams returns. Big boost to physical toughness / defense at forward / wing off the bench.

Kinda feel like Horford is going to be wasted on offense on this team.

This reminds me of when San Antonio got LaMarcus Aldridge and I felt that would detract from Tim Duncan's role in the offense. Duncan went from being the facilitator to being a spectator. Instead of the ball running through Duncan, it went to Aldridge in post ups and PnP actions.

With Porzingis there and Jaylen and Tatum. Plus a guard in D White or Brogdon. There just isn't much left for Horford to work with. I expect he'll be even further reduced as a facilitator / passer and more and more of a spot up shooter. Essentially turning him into a 2nd Grant Williams instead of utilizing him for what he actually is = one of the best high post facilitators in the league.

He is, however, now 37 years old. I think pivoting away from him is the way forward. I think Tatum growing as a playmaker could offset this too - use JT in the post a lot with the spacing provided by the bigs. Sort of an inverse 4 out 1 in.

Wouldn't we be better off with Timelord in the starting lineup, bring Al off the bench to reduce his minutes?

I worry about Porzingis spending too much time on the perimeter. He needs to be in the action. Involved in the play. Be in the PnR man. Be the interior player. The guy around the FT line and in.

He gets lost too easily on offense when he isn't regularly involved. He is a low BBIQ guy. You need to simplify the game for him and keep him around the ball.

Playing him more with Timelord will ask Porzingis to be a floor spacer and have him off-ball a lot more than with Horford. I believe the key to keeping Porzingis happy will be his minutes with Horford. Get him feeling good, feeling involved, feeling confident. Then he'll be in the flow and play better in those lineups alongside Timelord when asked to be more of a floor spacer because he'll already be involved in the game.

[0003323344]

Was this our Ray Allen move or Kevin Garnett move?

I sense one more big move coming since we got some picks and still got PP, Grant, and Brogdon...

IMO, this is definitely not a KG move. But it could be a Ray Allen move. We'll see.

So, the speculation is Damian Lillard and could that be our Kevin Garnett move?

Lillard/Brown/Tatum/Porzingis/Timelord

That is a upper 60-win lineup team.

What are we giving up for Lillard? He has said he doesn't want to come to Boston. Would rather go to Brooklyn or Miami.

[Muzzy66]

I'm trading Smart and keeping Brogdon all day long.

Sad to say, but if one of them had to go I would agree.

I used to hate smart, the last 2 years he has started to win me over.  Has been much less wreckless, has been shooting better, taking less bad shots.  Been more consistent on offense too.

BUT

He's still very up and down, and for every night where he makes huge plys to win games there are still nights where he'll either kill you with 7 turnovers or kill you by shooting 1-9 threes.  The one upside is that he was generally pretty healthy and wouldn't miss TOO many games.  But his drastic inconsistency contributed a lot to the Celtics inconsistency as a team I think,  and what this team really needs right now is stability/consistency.  That's the one thing that killed us most in the playoffs this year. 

Brogdon (when healthy) and White are much more stable and reliable then Smart from day to day - you know what you're going to get from them.  Smart was also possibly a bit arrogant being the longest tenured Celtic - not that he's gone it's unquestionably up to Tatum and Brown to be the new face of the franchise.  That might be a good thing.

[celticinorlando]

Lots of people overvaluing smart. He was a 6th man who thought he was a starting PG. He was a below average passer and a volume shooter.

Defense was his calling card and he was not nearly as good at it this past season. Will he be missed? I guess. But Brad had the balls to make a big move and got a ton for him.

[libermaniac]

So the Celtics get KP and 2 1st rounders for Marcus Smart?

Are there any protections on the GS pick?

Top 4 protected.

[gouki88]

In keeping with the trend, the Celtics became softer today.

Will miss Smart. It's going to be difficult watching an even more mentally weak team. Hopefully Brown is out sooner than later.

These playoffs made me even more grateful for the IT years. Those teams were fun and played above expectation. The playoff exits were inevitable but never embarrassing. It was easy to feel proud of IT and co.

Smart was the leader of these 'mentally weak' teams. Does culture not come from the top?

[Indocelts]

But how 'bout it man. The least expected Celtic to go out wasn't even in our radar- Marcus Smart. We were so hellbent on Brogdon going out that it became Smart. Surprising move, but he's had more downs than ups with us last season.

Can you imagine if the next move will involve Brown? 🙂

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Was this our Ray Allen move or Kevin Garnett move?

I sense one more big move coming since we got some picks and still got PP, Grant, and Brogdon...

IMO, this is definitely not a KG move. But it could be a Ray Allen move. We'll see.

So, the speculation is Damian Lillard and could that be our Kevin Garnett move?

Lillard/Brown/Tatum/Porzingis/Timelord

That is a upper 60-win lineup team.

I'd consider Lillard a KG-level move.

[gouki88]

In keeping with the trend, the Celtics became softer today.

Will miss Smart. It's going to be difficult watching an even more mentally weak team. Hopefully Brown is out sooner than later.

These playoffs made me even more grateful for the IT years. Those teams were fun and played above expectation. The playoff exits were inevitable but never embarrassing. It was easy to feel proud of IT and co.

Yeah, I was thinking this earlier in the day when Brogdon was the one leaving for Porzingis. Not that Brogdon is tougher or a better defender than Porzingis but that Porzingis is now our best and most important big man and he doesn't play with much defensive intensity or rebounding effort.

That our team identity in terms of interior defense, physicality and teamwork with Horford and Rob Williams will not be the same with Porzingis becoming our leading big man. The big that takes the most minutes. That gets the most touches. That takes the most shots. That is our tallest defender and most likely our defensive center a large chunk of the time.

And that was just with Brogdon leaving ...

Now it is Smart. Our best guard defender. Our inspirational defensive leader. Now not only have we lost that but we also kept Brogdon who was our weakest defender in our main rotation last year (top 8 guys). In addition to our big man rotation losing some of it's identity / toughness with Porzingis.

Yeah, this is going to be interesting to see what happens to our defense. To our interior toughness with Porzingis as a 30+mpg guy. To our perimeter defense without Smart leading the charge.

Wrong!

[Who]

C: Porzingis
F: Horford
F: Tatum
G: Jaylen
G: D White

The other thing I was thinking about earlier was with Porzingis now coming in there is another guy who will be looking for his instead of the ball going to our best player down the stretch.

There were several games were many of us were concerned that Tatum was not getting the ball enough in the 4th quarter. That it ended up in other places.

Now we have not 1 but 2 prolific scorers looking to get theirs alongside Tatum. Both Jaylen and Porzingis are me-first offensive players. Both guys are takers (shot takers) rather than givers (setting up teammates).

I expect we'll see more frustrating games where our best offensive player Jayson Tatum ends up not getting the ball down the stretch and instead our 2nd and 3rd best offensive guys will be the ones making the plays instead of him. Less effective players than Tatum.

Wouldn't that be a coaching issue if they can't figure that out

Not really. Most of that stuff is decided by players.

A lot of the time GMs have to move guys out of the way in order to make sure their best players get the ball. Like when the Lakers traded Nick Van Exel because he wanted to freestyle with the ball instead of dumping the ball into Shaq in the low post.

[gouki88]

Was this our Ray Allen move or Kevin Garnett move?

I sense one more big move coming since we got some picks and still got PP, Grant, and Brogdon...

IMO, this is definitely not a KG move. But it could be a Ray Allen move. We'll see.

So, the speculation is Damian Lillard and could that be our Kevin Garnett move?

Lillard/Brown/Tatum/Porzingis/Timelord

That is a upper 60-win lineup team.

How are we grabbing Lillard with our other 3 max salaries?

[Who]

Smart was also possibly a bit arrogant being the longest tenured Celtic - not that he's gone it's unquestionably up to Tatum and Brown to be the new face of the franchise.  That might be a good thing.

I felt that too. He had too large of a role in things for a player of his talent. Too much leadership. Too much voice. Too much sway over the locker room.