I am definitely in the "full value or no trade" camp.
Worst case, we have an All-NBA level player on a three year contract. It's up to our savant of a coach to make that work.
The worst case if we trade him for poor value? We become a team not good enough to contend, and we've got no serious assets to use to reload.
What is ?full value? though? Value is relative to what someone will pay for him, and obviously our assessment of his value is not consistent with the market value. Given his contract, questionable advance stats, and his off court stuff - let alone what?s actually available right now - I think some Celtics fans overvalue JB and what he?s actually worth on the market.
There is market value, and there is team value. If what you receive on the market is less than the value he provides to the team, you do not make a trade. If it is equal, it is a push. And if it is more, then you make the trade. Right now presumably the Celtics are only receiving offers that are less than what they value him at, so hence no deal. If it remains that way, it just means he is more valuable to the Celtics.
Sure, but in addition to some fans I also think our own internal assessment of his value may be inflated, and maybe (hopefully?) we reassess after this reality check this summer, as the problem isn?t going to go away and only become more pressing the closer the extension/contract talks come. And we saw this year just how far away this team truly still is, with no foreseeable KP/Jrue moves on the horizon like we had in 2023.
I do think it ultimately comes down to Tatum. He?s been everything you want in a superstar throughout all the controversy with the Jays through the years, but at some point I think even he breaks and has enough of the constant controversy with his pairing with JB (that is also exacerbated by some of JB?s actions and statements). If he?s fine with JB coming back and making another go of it, then sure run it back and see if we can upgrade the margins while also rehabbing JB?s value (as much as we can). But I think we do ultimately have to consider that we may already be at that treadmill point - not good enough to truly compete as is but JB not having enough value on his own to change that course without further significant moves.