Per Woj: Celtics sign Lonnie Walker (waived)

[mobilija]

Somehow this deteriorated into a debate about whether Hauser is a 2/3, a 3, a 3/4 or whatever.  I am willing to say he is primarily a 3.  Not willing to say he is a PF.

But the point in relation to Walker is that Walker is a guard and there are not going to be very many minutes available with Holiday, White, Pritchard, and Springer all returning.  That is who I see Walker potentially competing with for minutes.

If you look at the minutes for those 4 last season, adjusting Springer's some to account for him being here all season, it totals 6,859 total minutes or about 84 minutes per game.  That means there would be 36 minutes per game when 2 of these guys are on the floor, and 12 minutes when only 1 of them are.  Even if Walker were to take all of Springer's minutes, there aren't that many for him, and it would be kind of a waste.

That is why I say that Walker doesn't just have to beat our Springer for minutes, he probably needs to be taking minutes from Pritchard too, if he is going to have a regular rotation role.  Maybe they try to give him minutes as a wing, but then he is competing with Tatum, Brown, and Hauser.  If he doesn't have a regular rotation role, he is insurance.  I am not sure that the Celtics will be willing to pay the tax for him to be insurance.

I think they need some vet insurance. They should be managing the top 6 players health and minutes played heavily this year. Keeping the core healthy and as fresh as possible should be one of the top coaching priorities on this team this year. They played a long season and half of the top 6 played thru the summer.

 I?m expecting Pritchard, Hauser, Springer and hopefully Walker to play a role in absorbing days off for Jrue in particular (maybe he starts to get the back to back treatment) and the J?s to take a few weeks off here and there for bumps and bruises. The coaching staff should absolutely be finding 5min/game roles (not necessarily every game) for Springer and Walker to rest our main guards and wings, esp the first half of season.

Yeah.  Even if Walker doesn't have a rotation spot immediately, who knows what's going to happen over the course of a year?  The minutes analysis above essentially ignores major injuries.  The idea that one of Jrue, White or Pritchard could get injured and miss 20+ games isn't farfetched.  It doesn't hurt to have good backups to our backups.

Holiday and White are going to be on the cover of Slam magazine this month, which is pretty cool. I don't know what kind of cache that sort of thing still has but it might get me to buy a magazine which I haven't done in a few years.

So what we seem to all agree on is that Walker's competition for minutes is going to be with Pritchard and Springer, which is interesting because he's a better offensive player than Springer and he might be a better defender than Pritchard (although I think PP's defensive limitations are overstated).

Another tool in the tool box.

Management is already paying top dollar for the top contender, they shouldn?t be gun shy about extra luxury tax at this point. They?re already committed.

Pony up for 19! This years slogan

[Goldstar88]

Lonnie Walker has looked good in preseason. He?s much better than Springer or any other of the G-league guys. It?s crazy that Lonnie didn?t get a guaranteed contract somewhere.

[Kernewek]

I sincerely hope that winning the championship & the pending sale/estate decision making won't impact our ability to spend in the future, but if it does, these are precisely the type of players that we'll have to watch leave.

[ozgod]

I prefer Walker over springer. Springer is not an nba player. Guy can?t shoot.

Trade springer.

Jrue and white have played a lot a basketball lately and I?d love to have Walker to spell one of them for those games vs bad teams.

Just don?t think springer adds much

I think they want to keep Springers $4m contract in their back pocket in case they need to trade for someone due to an injury later in the year. He?s really our only contract that is somewhat fungible thst might fetch someone meaningful.

The question is, what is more valuable to our team right now, a $4m contract that can be used later on for a need that might arise, or do we use it now for someone who might not break into our rotation but would make us feel better. Or do we waive him and use the spot for Walker as a backup to PP in the backcourt?

[Goldstar88]

Joe?s thoughts on Lonnie:

I think he's been really good, Mazzulla said. I think it's an adjustment coming here. It's a different style of basketball. I like his open-mindedness to learning. I like his patience.

And I saw him make- It's funny, when you get a guy like him who's been in the league for seven years, I saw some things today that he might not think are important, or that other people [won't see], but like, they're really, really important things defensively and offensively. Whether it was his positioning, or whether it was a small cut that he made or a read that he made.

Those things go a long way because they open up opportunities, Mazzulla said. And it may be things that have been taken for granted, but he was efficient, 4-for-7, and some of the stuff that doesn't show up on the stat [sheet], he picked up on. And it was great to see that. He's enjoying just kind of working hard, and he'll get another crack at it again tomorrow.

[86MaxwellSmart]

Keep Walker, trade Springer....Walsh surprised me, he actually looked good.

[radiohead]

Keep Walker, trade Springer....Walsh surprised me, he actually looked good.

This might be the easiest and most practical route to get Lonnie signed. But if we did this, would we be allowed to include Lonnie in a trade this season, assuming the need arises?

[Csfan1984]

Walker is going to be signed by someone. Thought he came here just to showcase himself. Be nice to move on from Springer. I do think Springer is a 14 or 15 roster spot player still, just Walker is better.

[trickybilly]

Really don't like the idea of familiarizing him to our sets and schemes, only for a contender to pick him up.

Just figure it out Brad

[ozgod]

I really feel Springer is a trade chip. I doubt he's going anywhere, at least early in the season. His salary is the only thing we can trade for someone meaningful if we had an injury or a pressing need later on. He's not there to make up the rotation, he's there for his $4m contract and what that can fetch back later on, at a time when Brad is in a better position to know what we might need. Kind of like a cheaper version of Kenyon Martin Jr, who the Sixers gave a 2 year $16m contract to act as a human trade exception.

[Roy H.]

I really feel Springer is a trade chip. I doubt he's going anywhere, at least early in the season. His salary is the only thing we can trade for someone meaningful if we had an injury or a pressing need later on. He's not there to make up the rotation, he's there for his $4m contract and what that can fetch back later on, at a time when Brad is in a better position to know what we might need. Kind of like a cheaper version of Kenyon Martin Jr, who the Sixers gave a 2 year $16m contract to act as a human trade exception.

There aren't really many useful players that make more than the minimum but less than $4 million.  The bad (luxury tax, roster spot, losing a better player) outweighs the good (a trade for a player that probably doesn't exist).

[Goldstar88]

I really feel Springer is a trade chip. I doubt he's going anywhere, at least early in the season. His salary is the only thing we can trade for someone meaningful if we had an injury or a pressing need later on. He's not there to make up the rotation, he's there for his $4m contract and what that can fetch back later on, at a time when Brad is in a better position to know what we might need. Kind of like a cheaper version of Kenyon Martin Jr, who the Sixers gave a 2 year $16m contract to act as a human trade exception.

There aren't really many useful players that make more than the minimum but less than $4 million.  The bad (luxury tax, roster spot, losing a better player) outweighs the good (a trade for a player that probably doesn't exist).

Completely agree. Dump Springer or Scheirman and keep Lonnie Walker.

[celticinorlando]

Get rid of Springer

Walker has more value to winning a title.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I really feel like Walker is one of those rare cases of "How the heck did the reigning champs find a way to get a guy who's that good, and for so little?"

[CelticsWhat35]

I really feel Springer is a trade chip. I doubt he's going anywhere, at least early in the season. His salary is the only thing we can trade for someone meaningful if we had an injury or a pressing need later on. He's not there to make up the rotation, he's there for his $4m contract and what that can fetch back later on, at a time when Brad is in a better position to know what we might need. Kind of like a cheaper version of Kenyon Martin Jr, who the Sixers gave a 2 year $16m contract to act as a human trade exception.

There aren't really many useful players that make more than the minimum but less than $4 million.  The bad (luxury tax, roster spot, losing a better player) outweighs the good (a trade for a player that probably doesn't exist).

Who could we get with an open roster spot that would be better than Walker?  We can?t sign any buyout guys after the deadline.

Edit, sorry you?re talking about Springer.  Even still, I like his potential