What Is The Plan?

[Jiri Welsch]

Here is my over-analysis after one game:

--There will definitely be nights where they shoot teams out of the building and win going away.
--But they don't have good guard defense (except DWhite) and they don't have much of anything from their bigs at this point.
--JB also needs to lose his "shot out of a cannon to start the game" strategy if he's going to be their 1A, because he can't disappear in the second half as a rebounder and facilitator against good teams.
--In short: they don't have much room for error if they're going to have a winning record.

[slamtheking]

That is what I was trying to get across, that this season is going to be a complete waste. A weakened Philly, missing Paul George and a hobbled Embiid still won over the Celtics.

Unless the Celtics get insanely lucky like Dallas, they will not be getting a high lottery pick. Washington, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Chicago, Utah, Sacramento, Portland, Phoenix & New Orleans all have weaker rosters than the Celtics.

Do not forget that Tatum wants to be back by the second half of this season too.

Mazzulla is too competitive to blood the youngsters. There were no minutes tonight for Hugo Gonzales, Scheierman, Walsh, Shulga or Williams.

that remains to be seen.  the C's front court is the worst in the league.  don't be surprised to see the C's in the lottery

Tatum is dead set on coming back as soon as possible, that will add wins.

Other teams that under perform early in the season will tank, the Celtics front office and Mazzulla will not.

Tatum may be dead set on it but that doesn't mean he'll be healthy enough to do it nor does it mean the team will think it's in their best interests to risk his health at the tail end of the season for a meaningless play-in spot

[keevsnick]

Why I'm relatively optimistic after last night:

-Only lost by 1 despite some bad three-point luck, -15 from three.
-Played the floor game pretty well. Won the TO battle 11 vs 14. Tied in ORebs 10-10.
-Jaylen looked good as an initiator. Only 4 assists, but that was largely because nobody could hit a shot off his passes.
-Queta looked like he could be a fine enough starting big.

If they play generally like that and three-point shooting equalizes, they'll win 42-44 games, and there's still some stuff they could clean up.

More on Jaylen's passing: NBA.com has him for 15 potential assists last night. In a normal NBA game that would translate to something like 7-9 assists depending on shooting luck since players typically hit better than 50% of assisted shots. But he only had 4, that's how bad teammates shot off his passes. By way of comparison Cunningham, Harden, Doncic, SGA and Tre Jones all had 17 potential assists in their first game and recorded 10, 11, 9, 5 and 8 assists. 

The one real negative is quick guards could be a problem. White is a great defender, but more so as a team defender than a one on one guy. Pritchard is stouter then he is quick. Simons is below average one on one. They don't have a good matchup for quicker guards, and they don't have the rim protection behind those guys to cover up that issue. guards with speed will be an issue.

[slightly biased bias fan]

Right now, I think the Celtics could fleece Houston for Derrick White, as they are an elite guard away from a title.

Celtics: VanVleet, Sheppard, Tate, 2027 Suns 1st round draft pick, 2027 Nets 1st round draft pick

Rockets: White, Hauser

* Trade only made after restriction expires in December

[Roy H.]

Right now, I think the Celtics could fleece Houston for Derrick White, as they are an elite guard away from a title.

Celtics: VanVleet, Sheppard, Tate, 2027 Suns 1st round draft pick, 2027 Nets 1st round draft pick

Rockets: White, Hauser

* Trade only made after restriction expires in December

I'm not a fan of blowing it up, but the value there would be too good to pass up.

[slightly biased bias fan]

Right now, I think the Celtics could fleece Houston for Derrick White, as they are an elite guard away from a title.

Celtics: VanVleet, Sheppard, Tate, 2027 Suns 1st round draft pick, 2027 Nets 1st round draft pick

Rockets: White, Hauser

* Trade only made after restriction expires in December

I'm not a fan of blowing it up, but the value there would be too good to pass up.

Yeah I think it is a great trade for both teams.

Houston would still have multiple first round picks they could move & this rotation matches up well with OKCs.

White
Thompson
Durant
Smith Jr
Sengun

Adams, Eason, Hauser, Okogie, Holiday

[flybono]

Fire the Coach!

Zero defense

Allowing 40 plus points in a quarter is unacceptable

[Phantom255x]

[Moranis]

Right now, I think the Celtics could fleece Houston for Derrick White, as they are an elite guard away from a title.

Celtics: VanVleet, Sheppard, Tate, 2027 Suns 1st round draft pick, 2027 Nets 1st round draft pick

Rockets: White, Hauser

* Trade only made after restriction expires in December

I think Houston could find better value than White for that package. 

[KungPoweChicken]

I think the best plan would be to trade White to Orlando for Black and Bitadze. Bottom out for a top 5 pick in the draft.

2026 - 2027

Black
Brown
Dybantsa
Tatum
Bitadze

That is a team that has potential to compete for 4+ years.

[slightly biased bias fan]

This is what I have tried to get across, this team is going no where fast. The only player missing is Tatum. This is not a title winning roster.

Gone are the days of free agency pick ups like prime Horford & Hayward. Players of that calibre do not reach free agency anymore. The Celtics do not have a war chest of draft picks either.

The Celtics front office should have pivoted to a rebuild last offseason.

The only way I can see the Celtics winning another title with this core is getting extremely lucky in the next draft lottery, then flipping the pick and Brown for Giannis.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

It's going to be a long season, but I think we have to remain patient for the right opportunities. We don't have to do anything. Tax isn't an issue anymore, and we totally can wait until next off-season to try to improve our front court.

[slightly biased bias fan]

If I could choose the best player in the 2026 draft for the Celtics, I would probably go with Peterson. He has the ability to be a distributor as well as an elite scorer. Peterson seems to be a team first type of guy too.

But in saying all that Dybantsa physical tools are insane. The way he moves on the court as a 6-9 wing reminds me of a young LeBron, he almost floats across the court. He has a beautiful jumper too. The only concern I have with Dybantsa, is he seems a little selfish. I remember listening to a podcast where a college scout said he was worried that Dybantsa was not 100% focused on basketball, suggesting he was either buying into his own hype or perhaps partying too much.