Shams: Porzingis to Boston?

[Who]

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!

I am not as keen on D White's D. Smart over D White for me.

[GreenEnvy]

I’m still trying to wrap my head around what happened.

I really can’t believe Brad dealt Smart. I get that he’s had eyes for Porzingis for awhile, but Smart has been here for 9 years. He’s the heart and soul of this team. He’s been to, what, 5 conference finals?

Our entire defense changes now. White, Tatum, and Robert Williams are elite defenders. But Smart is special defensively.

And he was our only true pass-first PG.

I loved the trade as it was first reported. And I get they had a very, very small window to get a deal done. But wow, losing Smart definitely stings for me.

I’m sure this roster isn’t complete but relying on Brogdon, Williams, and Porzingis is risky.

Definitely a bittersweet deal, even with the draft picks we got back.

[Atzar]

Will be interesting to see if this impacts negotiations with Jaylen regarding a new contract.  Smart was reportedly his closest friend on the team.

[celticinorlando]

Brad’s next move will be interesting

If you keep brogdan how do you smooth that over seeing he was legit out the door?

Is brogdan hurt seriously?

Do you keep PP or do your move him and brogdan out?

What about grant?

Do you make the pick tomorrow?

The next few days will be certainly interesting

[Who]

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.

Agreed. Moving on from Smart is one of the best ways for the team to improve it's consistency / stability and Smart was one of the big offenders in this regard. He was obviously highly inconsistent with his shooting but as you said in another post, it was his turnovers on top of that which could kill you. So many mental errors.

Losing Smart is hurts a little, but the one upside from it is that Brogdon and White are both have very low turnover rates for their careers (11.4% and 11.3%) both have averaged around 5 around 2.5 AST/TO for their careers.  Turnovers have been a big problem for Boston over the past few years and absolutely killed as at times in this last playoff run - and Smart was one of the three guys most responsible for that. The other two were Tatum and Brown - both of whom are essentially untouchable. That left Smart as really being the odd one out.

[ozgod]

Brads got some balls for sure, fireworks for three off seasons in a row 

I think the trade results in a net gain for us. KP is (was) an All Star after all. He should flourish as the third option on our team and help open things up for the Jays. Whether it’s Malcolm or Derrick thst starts, Joe will be able to play a five out offense with everyone a spacer and everyone a perimeter threat. KP is also a solid rim protector.

I will miss Smartacus though, warts and all. He drove my head crazy at times with his high risk plays that only came off 20% of the time but when they did my heart wanted him to retire a Celtic.

[radiohead]

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

Are there any protections on the GS pick?

GS pick is top 4 protected. It could be very valuable.

[johnnygreen]

I don't think we can assume Brogdon will be playing to start the season. It may be best to give him time to completely heal. Have White be the starting pg, with Pritchard backing him up. If anything, Brogdon comes back healthy a few months into the season, and we increased Pritchard's value for the trade deadline.

[RPGenerate]

No offense to Ainge, but does anyone wish that Brad took the reigns of GM sooner than he actually did? Dude has pulled off banger after banger for trades.

[kraidstar]

I feel bad for Smart. I appreciate what he did here.

But it was time for a change. In crunch time in big games he freezes up on offense and slows the ball down. He was the chauffeur of the Chokemobile one too many times. It's time for the Jays to step up and start leading.

With that being said, I have mixed feelings about Porzingis. He has had minimal impact on three different teams now. He's an underachiever. Should be a dominant rim protector. Should dominate in general.

Are his failures due to mediocre talent surrounding him? We're about to find out. I have some serious doubts about his competitiveness and character. The two first-rounders do help ease those concerns, however.

[CelticSooner]

The question I have, does Stevens value defense the same anymore? Every move he has made since Udoka was let go has gone the opposite of that thinking. This reeks of Mazzulla ball.

[gouki88]

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.

White was a more than adequate passer in Smart's absence. 15/5/4 on 47/40/89 shooting with great defence is better than what Smart was offering us. I think you're selling White's passing short.

What if we go small ball? Tatum at the 4, as he is perfectly capable of doing. Use the MLE to beef up the bench, aim to draft a forward or big. I think that might offset some of your worries. Tatum IMO has the size to play that power wing role on defence, similar to an Aaron Gordon.

White / Pritchard
Brogdon / Hauser
Brown / #25 / MLE (?)
Tatum / Horford
Porzingis / Williams 3

[gouki88]

No offense to Ainge, but does anyone wish that Brad took the reigns of GM sooner than he actually did? Dude has pulled off banger after banger for trades.

I think people might start treating Brad similarly to how Ainge was treated towards the end of his time here. Can't keep getting away with this!

As soon as Ainge left, he pulled off a monstrous heist. People might have forgotten to block Utah's # when he went there.

[gouki88]

The question I have, does Stevens value defense the same anymore? Every move he has made since Udoka was let go has gone the opposite of that thinking. This reeks of Mazzulla ball.

I mean, if you ignore him trying to trade Brogdon, then maybe.

[ozgod]

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?

I think we will have trouble hanging on to KP after this season as it is, especially if he’s looking for an upgrade on that $36m salary. Now if we want to keep everyone else and avoid that second apron.