According to a report from ESPN?s Shams Charania, the Celtics were among several playoff teams that tried to land Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo in February.
The Celtics, Lakers, Knicks, Timberwolves, and Cavaliers all reportedly pursued Antetokounmpo.
According to Charania, the way those teams finish the playoffs will play a ?major? role in how aggressive they are in any upcoming pursuits this summer.
Charania used the words ?open for business? to describe where the Bucks are at in terms of fielding trade calls for Antetokounmpo.
It's an odd report, in that there were no rumors at the time and because any deal involving JB would have been way better than what other teams were dangling. Maybe it was White * Simons.
Agreed. Brown played superbly during the regular season and carried the team very well. I really liked the way the team passed and moved the ball. I believe Giannis was still injured around that time too. Trading Brown for Giannis at the trade deadline would have meant the Cs saw tanking a better option.
Didn?t Brad make comments recently that he did not think the Cs were as good as their record. That they didn?t do well against the better teams during the regular season.
It was not that they weren?t as good as their record, but that there was more of a gap between them and the teams likely going to the Finals. And the specific aspect was that he thought they needed someone in addition to Brown and Pritchard (and ultimately Tatum) to create more penetration on offense. That against those top teams, going back to the playoffs last year even against Orlando, the defense becomes a lot more physical and we could not create enough opportunities inside where we broke down their defense, and thus the outside options became that much more difficult too. But that discussion would not necessarily point to Jaylen being traded for Giannis.
Also, if you remember the news coming out of the Feb deadline regarding Giannis, it was that no one expected Giannis to be moved then, and teams were gauging what it would cost to trade for him during the offseason. So that the Celtics called around the deadline does not mean that they thought a trade would happen then, regardless of who was included.
This was his quote. Thats how I interpreted it.
"Though we did a lot of good things, we lost in the first round, and we were also 3-11 against the top three seeds in the West and the other top two in the East," Stevens said at the Auerbach Center. "And so we've got to get better. And that's been the communication in here, just talking to the team."
He also said that there won't be nearly as many teams playing to lose next year (implying the Celtics had an inflated win total) and that the team's margin for error needs to get bigger.
I know people think we aren't going to make major moves, but this is our worst two year stretch in the playoffs in over a decade. And it's not like Brad hasn't made major moves before; he just does it with a smile.
I agree he is going to make some move, or try really hard to do so. I do not, however, think it is likely he will break up the Js. With the Simons deal at the deadline he has set the team up to afford to add real talent at a starting position (most likely the 2 or 4, but also potentially PG in shifting White to the 2-guard) without subtracting more than Hauser from the rotation. Also, by being under the apron by enough (and under the tax by enough, he can also aggregate salaries like White and Hauser to bring in a third start while keeping the Js together. The goal is to add to the overall talent of the team. Trading Jaylen for someone else in their prime is likely to be more of a lateral move in terms of overall talent. Maybe you get better because a skillset fits the teams needs better, but it isn?t a true talent increase to get you over the top. Alternatively, maybe you add raw talent by trading Jaylen for picks and prospects, and hope that the coaching can get that raw talent up to speed with Tatum?s window in time (because playoff disappointment aside, they really got a lot of guys to take big steps forward this year).
Looking at our top 6 players entering the playoffs in 2024 we had:
Three players at #3 overall
One player at #4 overall
One at #17 overall
One at #29 overall
Entering this playoffs, we instead had:
Two at #3 overall
One at #26 overall
One at #29 overall
One at #39 overall
One undrafted
The draft is not the be all and end all (obviously Giannis was #15 and he is the big target this offseason), but it is also clear we had a major step down in talent behind the Js, and I think that is what Brad needs to fill in.
