Celtics News

[ozgod]

I thought Paul George and Mike Conley said all the right things.  You could see Mazulla rage about  the figured out the Celtics comment by George.  You saw Joe look like he was ready to go Quentin Tarantino style level of violence of Paul for a second.

One think about Devin Carter is he can provide a lot of rim pressure.   Dude has a 42 inch vertical.  I watched a lot of tape and he seems to play D and hustle.    I think his shot could be fixed by adjusting his base of his feet, which looked awkward a lot.  I think this could make preseason interesting.

I hope fans give George a fair shot.   He did not make the trade, nor did he have control of what was sent back.  I blame Bill Chisholm, because Brad had a great trade record before.   Our moves came more about finance once Bill bought the team.   This move was about the finance of the Celtics and less about a basketball decision.

So, not having seen the press conference, what was the exact quote from Paul George about figuring out the Celtics (I assume he was talking about the playoff series from last season) ?

This was the specific quote that caused Mazzulla to give him the "stare of death" (though that's probably more Joe's weird sense of humor than any genuine anger):

?The limitations physically, and then to be healthy again, it just felt like I was able to do things, and quite frankly it might?ve caught Boston off guard from an expectation that I could no longer move,? George said at his introductory news conference Tuesday. ?But I was feeling good. I felt that I was able to do all the things out there to gain an advantage or be a weapon.?

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/19/sports/paul-george-celtics-health/

[ozgod]

Couple of interesting charts from Julian Benbow in the Globe about PG13 that caught my eye. The first is basically PG13's games played/unavailable since he came to the league, cross referenced against the league average for players of his age each of the years:



The second is the Top 10 and total age-36 seasons by ppg. PG13's 17ppg average is actually pretty decent for his age (35) last season, there's only a handful of players who have averaged more, and all of them (other than maybe Buckets and DeRozan) are or will be in the HoF:

(click to enlarge)


(click to enlarge)
It's interesting information in terms of setting expectations for this guy, in case anyone still entertained dreams (fantasies) he was going to be Jaylen 2.0 in terms of personal output...but if he can add value and make Tatum a better player then that's all we can ask of him I suppose.

[Goldstar88]

Cenac Jr and Trae Young have some nice chemistry.   

https://x.com/lockedupjb/status/2100386034181714214?s=46

[Goldstar88]

Speaking on SiriusXM?s The Starting Lineup show with Frank Isola and Brian Scalabrine on Friday, Stevens expanded on the decision to move on from a foundational player in Brown.

This is the part where I?m glad I?m 50 and not 30, Stevens said. I?ve been, fortunately or unfortunately, under the public eye for a long time and you?re just kinda used to the reaction, good or bad. And at the end of the day, you just have to do what you think is the best thing for the organization. And it?s not always gonna be the popular thing. And it may be right, it may be wrong, who knows, right?

For all of the talk of the Celtics removing another supermax contract from their books after signing Jayson Tatum to a five-year, $315 million contract in July 2024, Stevens acknowledged that the decision to move Brown wasn?t just rooted in money and contractual commitments.

Stevens stressed on SiriusXM that Boston also wanted to augment its overall approach this offseason, noting that having two primary scoring threats who both want the ball in their hands wasn?t sustainable.

​At the end of the day, the biggest thing is that when evaluating how the team played in the past couple of Playoffs, we have to build the depth to stay competitive as we can to build for a long, sustainable run; it was inevitable,Stevens said. For us, it was a really hard decision.

There were a lot of things that went into it. You have two max players, two max usage; those are the things you have to make a decision on. Jaylen?s a great player, but I like the team we have.

Considering the Celtics current financial commitments especially in the restrictive CBA environment now in place across the NBA Stevens admitted that the Celtics can?t rely on free agency to try and push this roster back into legitimate title contention over the next few years.

We don?t have the ability to pay free agents, Stevens admitted. We?re gonna have to bring in some guys on two-ways and bring in some guys as minimums and hope they hit. And huge kudos to the players and their work ethic and a huge kudos to our coaching staff and our player development staff. It built a really deep group.

And that?s what you need to be to win in this day and age. We think that?s really important. We do think that we have a lot of strengths and we?ll evaluate the team early on, but we?re gonna be pushing like we always push. And now we have a few more assets in the cupboard to work with.

[SparzWizard]

If that's the case Brad should've still just traded Brown/Hugo/Baylor/picks for Giannis/Portis, and then signed some ring-chasing veterans like Eubanks, Konchar, and Bruce Brown.

[Jiri Welsch]

If that's the case Brad should've still just traded Brown/Hugo/Baylor/picks for Giannis/Portis, and then signed some ring-chasing veterans like Eubanks, Konchar, and Bruce Brown.

Sounds like the Bucks didn't want that package unless the Celtics gave up a ton of picks.

[Vermont Green]

Cenac Jr and Trae Young have some nice chemistry.   

https://x.com/lockedupjb/status/2100386034181714214?s=46

What is this from?  Cenac looked good in Summer League for a 27th pick and only 19 years old (not 20 until February).  There was really no attempt to play defense in this workout or whatever it was, but he still moved very well for a 6'-11" 19 year old.

[Roy H.]

If that's the case Brad should've still just traded Brown/Hugo/Baylor/picks for Giannis/Portis, and then signed some ring-chasing veterans like Eubanks, Konchar, and Bruce Brown.

Putting aside the Giannis discussion, I think in general it's better to sign guys to the vet minimum rather than keeping a number of mediocre prospects on a team.  In a league where every dollar counts, I would prefer two vet minimum players to Jordan Walsh in the 2028 season.  I would rather have a veteran ring chaser than Ron Harper, Jr. 

The problem with our roster wasn't that it was too focused on two players.  That's spin.  The problems last year were that 1) Queta played lousy, foul-prone defense in the playoffs; 2) Tatum was rusty; 3) White sucked; 4) the coaching didn't make any meaningful adjustments; and 5) we didn't have a reliable 7th, 8th or 9th man in the playoffs.

The Robinson signing addressed the center issue.  Brad didn't really do anything to fix any of the other issues.  We didn't add any reliable depth, and we didn't add to our coaching staff.  If Brown had been traded in a 2-for-1 where we got Trey Murphy and another rotation player, I would understand his point.  Instead, we swapped Brown for a worse player making almost the same salary.

[Ilikesports17]

If that's the case Brad should've still just traded Brown/Hugo/Baylor/picks for Giannis/Portis, and then signed some ring-chasing veterans like Eubanks, Konchar, and Bruce Brown.

Putting aside the Giannis discussion, I think in general it's better to sign guys to the vet minimum rather than keeping a number of mediocre prospects on a team.  In a league where every dollar counts, I would prefer two vet minimum players to Jordan Walsh in the 2028 season.  I would rather have a veteran ring chaser than Ron Harper, Jr. 

The problem with our roster wasn't that it was too focused on two players.  That's spin.  The problems last year were that 1) Queta played lousy, foul-prone defense in the playoffs; 2) Tatum was rusty; 3) White sucked; 4) the coaching didn't make any meaningful adjustments; and 5) we didn't have a reliable 7th, 8th or 9th man in the playoffs.

The Robinson signing addressed the center issue.  Brad didn't really do anything to fix any of the other issues.  We didn't add any reliable depth, and we didn't add to our coaching staff.  If Brown had been traded in a 2-for-1 where we got Trey Murphy and another rotation player, I would understand his point.  Instead, we swapped Brown for a worse player making almost the same salary.

Maybe its just because we have had little success with vet min rin-chaser types, but I just struggle to think that they're actually more useful than mediocre prospects.

For example this year we did sign Mike Conley and outside of being a nice presence in the locker room I just dont expect him to help the team more than Jordan Walsh. I think him and RHJ could be a toss-up but if it were just between the two I honestly would rather have Harper Jr.

Id love if someone filled me in because Im certain that weve had some impactful vet min ring-chaser guys since PJ Brown, but I actually cant think of any. Blake Griffin? Who am I missing?

Edit: Tried to find some going back to the Big 3 days and found:

Shaq, Larkin, Wannamaker and Theis

I'm not sure Theis counts because he was kinda a rookie, but that's a better list than I thought

[Roy H.]

If that's the case Brad should've still just traded Brown/Hugo/Baylor/picks for Giannis/Portis, and then signed some ring-chasing veterans like Eubanks, Konchar, and Bruce Brown.

Putting aside the Giannis discussion, I think in general it's better to sign guys to the vet minimum rather than keeping a number of mediocre prospects on a team.  In a league where every dollar counts, I would prefer two vet minimum players to Jordan Walsh in the 2028 season.  I would rather have a veteran ring chaser than Ron Harper, Jr. 

The problem with our roster wasn't that it was too focused on two players.  That's spin.  The problems last year were that 1) Queta played lousy, foul-prone defense in the playoffs; 2) Tatum was rusty; 3) White sucked; 4) the coaching didn't make any meaningful adjustments; and 5) we didn't have a reliable 7th, 8th or 9th man in the playoffs.

The Robinson signing addressed the center issue.  Brad didn't really do anything to fix any of the other issues.  We didn't add any reliable depth, and we didn't add to our coaching staff.  If Brown had been traded in a 2-for-1 where we got Trey Murphy and another rotation player, I would understand his point.  Instead, we swapped Brown for a worse player making almost the same salary.

Maybe its just because we have had little success with vet min rin-chaser types, but I just struggle to think that they're actually more useful than mediocre prospects.

For example this year we did sign Mike Conley and outside of being a nice presence in the locker room I just dont expect him to help the team more than Jordan Walsh. I think him and RHJ could be a toss-up but if it were just between the two I honestly would rather have Harper Jr.

Id love if someone filled me in because Im certain that weve had some impactful vet min ring-chaser guys since PJ Brown, but I actually cant think of any. Blake Griffin? Who am I missing?

Not all minimum players are ring chasers, of course. Garza has been a very good signing, as was Josh Minott before he got traded to save money.  Queta and Hauser were both signed with minimum contracts, although neither was much of a "vet" at the time.  Luke Kornet. 

For whatever reason, Brad doesn't sign many ring chasers.  As you mentioned, Blake Griffin, and I suppose Torrey Craig counts as well.  Overall, most of Brad's signings fall into two categories:  younger guys with some perceived upside, or draft busts that never panned out (Brad likes these guys on camp deals).  He just doesn't sign many 10+ years to contracts.  Maybe because some of the guys he signed didn't work out?  (Kanter, Gallinari to the MLE, etc.)