Worst Celtics offseason?

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I was just reflecting on what a disaster the Pitino / Wallace years were.  Some highlights:

1998:  Traded Chauncey Billups for Kenny Anderson

1999:  Trade a lottery pick (Andre Miller, Shawn Marion) for Vitaly Potapenko

1999:  Trade Ron Mercer for Danny Fortson and a #1; subsequently squander the #1

2001:  Decline to "roll over" Denver #1 to 2002 draft (with another rollover available after that)

* 2001: Kedrick Brown over Troy Murphy, Richard Jefferson or Zach Randolph

* 2001:  Joe Forte over Tony Parker, Jamaal Tinsley or Gilbert Arenas

* 2002 deadline: trade Joe Johnson + #1 for Tony Delk + Rodney Rogers

* 2002 off-season:  Decline to resign Rogers over $1 million.  Trade Kenny Anderson for alcoholic Vin Baker to save money

Yeah,  I was gonna put summer '97 there. Obviously, you had the '97 lottery/draft but you also had the renouncing of both Fox & Wesley, the ridiculous Travis Knight overpay, the Eric Williams & Chris Mills trades, the Dino Radja debacle, locking up Tony Massenberg and Andrew DeClerq.  Just one disaster after another and that spilled into the '97-98 season with even more ridiculousness (Billups/Dee Brown trade).

Forgive my ignorance, as I was only a casual fan at the time, but what was the Dino Radja debacle? I remember him, but I don't know what occurred with him.

[Donoghus]

I was just reflecting on what a disaster the Pitino / Wallace years were.  Some highlights:

1998:  Traded Chauncey Billups for Kenny Anderson

1999:  Trade a lottery pick (Andre Miller, Shawn Marion) for Vitaly Potapenko

1999:  Trade Ron Mercer for Danny Fortson and a #1; subsequently squander the #1

2001:  Decline to "roll over" Denver #1 to 2002 draft (with another rollover available after that)

* 2001: Kedrick Brown over Troy Murphy, Richard Jefferson or Zach Randolph

* 2001:  Joe Forte over Tony Parker, Jamaal Tinsley or Gilbert Arenas

* 2002 deadline: trade Joe Johnson + #1 for Tony Delk + Rodney Rogers

* 2002 off-season:  Decline to resign Rogers over $1 million.  Trade Kenny Anderson for alcoholic Vin Baker to save money

Yeah,  I was gonna put summer '97 there. Obviously, you had the '97 lottery/draft but you also had the renouncing of both Fox & Wesley, the ridiculous Travis Knight overpay, the Eric Williams & Chris Mills trades, the Dino Radja debacle, locking up Tony Massenberg and Andrew DeClerq.  Just one disaster after another and that spilled into the '97-98 season with even more ridiculousness (Billups/Dee Brown trade).

Forgive my ignorance, as I was only a casual fan at the time, but what was the Dino Radja debacle? I remember him, but I don't know what occurred with him.

Celtics had a trade in place with Philly with Dino going to the Sixers for Clarence Witherspoon and Michael Cage.  Radja subsequently failed the physical so the trade was nixed.  The Celtics ending up having to waive Radja and eating a good deal of his multi year contract.

[Celtics4ever]

I was just reflecting on what a disaster the Pitino / Wallace years were.  Some highlights:

1998:  Traded Chauncey Billups for Kenny Anderson

1999:  Trade a lottery pick (Andre Miller, Shawn Marion) for Vitaly Potapenko

1999:  Trade Ron Mercer for Danny Fortson and a #1; subsequently squander the #1

2001:  Decline to "roll over" Denver #1 to 2002 draft (with another rollover available after that)

* 2001: Kedrick Brown over Troy Murphy, Richard Jefferson or Zach Randolph

* 2001:  Joe Forte over Tony Parker, Jamaal Tinsley or Gilbert Arenas

* 2002 deadline: trade Joe Johnson + #1 for Tony Delk + Rodney Rogers

* 2002 off-season:  Decline to resign Rogers over $1 million.  Trade Kenny Anderson for alcoholic Vin Baker to save money

Pitino was a horrible GM.  Never could adjust to the loss of power of a college coach coaching grown men in the NBA.  I really disliked Potapenko as our C.

[Kuberski33]

Pitino was just awful as a GM. The guy had no patience and no clue about the financial part of running a team.  But for the old timers I'll submit the summer of 1976 when Paul Silas wanted more money and Red didn't want to pay him. Silas wound up in Denver as part of a 3 team deal - and we wound up with Curtis Rowe. Then Red signed Sidney Wicks and ushered in one of the worst 2 year periods in Celtics history.

Red fired Tommy as coach about 6 months after winning a title (early January) because the club was 11-23 and the players had tuned him out.

On the way out of town, Silas said 'Celtics Pride' (big catch phrase at the time) was a myth.

[Who]

I was just reflecting on what a disaster the Pitino / Wallace years were.  Some highlights:

1998:  Traded Chauncey Billups for Kenny Anderson

1999:  Trade a lottery pick (Andre Miller, Shawn Marion) for Vitaly Potapenko

1999:  Trade Ron Mercer for Danny Fortson and a #1; subsequently squander the #1

2001:  Decline to "roll over" Denver #1 to 2002 draft (with another rollover available after that)

* 2001: Kedrick Brown over Troy Murphy, Richard Jefferson or Zach Randolph

* 2001:  Joe Forte over Tony Parker, Jamaal Tinsley or Gilbert Arenas

* 2002 deadline: trade Joe Johnson + #1 for Tony Delk + Rodney Rogers

* 2002 off-season:  Decline to resign Rogers over $1 million.  Trade Kenny Anderson for alcoholic Vin Baker to save money

Pitino was a horrible GM.  Never could adjust to the loss of power of a college coach coaching grown men in the NBA.  I really disliked Potapenko as our C.

And Pitino was a very good coach. Just a horrible GM. I loved him with the Knicks in the late 80s with Patrick Ewing & Mark Jackson.

GM Pitino wrecked the chance for coach Pitino to succeed. A shame. He could have succeeded here as a coach if he had a proper GM doing the job instead of himself.

[liam]

Trading for Kyrie Irving was the worst off season... Turned out getting Gordon Hayward was also awful! 2017...

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I was just reflecting on what a disaster the Pitino / Wallace years were.  Some highlights:

1998:  Traded Chauncey Billups for Kenny Anderson

1999:  Trade a lottery pick (Andre Miller, Shawn Marion) for Vitaly Potapenko

1999:  Trade Ron Mercer for Danny Fortson and a #1; subsequently squander the #1

2001:  Decline to "roll over" Denver #1 to 2002 draft (with another rollover available after that)

* 2001: Kedrick Brown over Troy Murphy, Richard Jefferson or Zach Randolph

* 2001:  Joe Forte over Tony Parker, Jamaal Tinsley or Gilbert Arenas

* 2002 deadline: trade Joe Johnson + #1 for Tony Delk + Rodney Rogers

* 2002 off-season:  Decline to resign Rogers over $1 million.  Trade Kenny Anderson for alcoholic Vin Baker to save money

Yeah,  I was gonna put summer '97 there. Obviously, you had the '97 lottery/draft but you also had the renouncing of both Fox & Wesley, the ridiculous Travis Knight overpay, the Eric Williams & Chris Mills trades, the Dino Radja debacle, locking up Tony Massenberg and Andrew DeClerq.  Just one disaster after another and that spilled into the '97-98 season with even more ridiculousness (Billups/Dee Brown trade).

Forgive my ignorance, as I was only a casual fan at the time, but what was the Dino Radja debacle? I remember him, but I don't know what occurred with him.

Celtics had a trade in place with Philly with Dino going to the Sixers for Clarence Witherspoon and Michael Cage.  Radja subsequently failed the physical so the trade was nixed.  The Celtics ending up having to waive Radja and eating a good deal of his multi year contract.

Thanks! TP

[KeepBigAl]

While obviously a good coach - and made his players work harder than maybe any Cs coach in history (for good or bad)- Pitino was a terribly impatient GM who put far too much pressure on himself to win right away.

Let's not forget Chris Wallace engineered and/or was in on these moves from 97 on, and all those 2001-2002 moves were his post Pitino.

I blame Rick for quickly tossing away talented role players like Fox, Wesley and Eric Williams (and Dino - but that was a move to offload his big contract).  On the smaller plus side, he drafted PP, kept AW in shape, found Bruce Bowen, Adrian Griffin and Mark Blount for nothing.  Realized Chris Mills was not worth the contract he signed him to and quickly moved him for (I Love) Walter....and gave us Marty Conlon!

[SparzWizard]

Trading for Kyrie Irving was the worst off season... Turned out getting Gordon Hayward was also awful! 2017...

That summer was full of hype and fireworks actually. I was actually refreshing the old Celtics blog and Twitter every time of when Hayward would sign with Boston...it was between Boston, Miami, or staying in Utah.

Was excited when Hayward signed. Then two months later, traded a broken down pieces IT4 for Kyrie. Which, at the time, made sense.

Then Game 1 of 82 happened and 3 mins into the game Hayward breaks his ankle. Then mid season Irving goes down with season ending injury. At least Tatum and Smart carried the team to an ECF.

What could've been if both were healthy. Might've had a shot upsetting GSW in the Finals.

[liam]

Trading for Kyrie Irving was the worst off season... Turned out getting Gordon Hayward was also awful! 2017...

That summer was full of hype and fireworks actually. I was actually refreshing the old Celtics blog and Twitter every time of when Hayward would sign with Boston...it was between Boston, Miami, or staying in Utah.

Was excited when Hayward signed. Then two months later, traded a broken down pieces IT4 for Kyrie. Which, at the time, made sense.

Then Game 1 of 82 happened and 3 mins into the game Hayward breaks his ankle. Then mid season Irving goes down with season ending injury. At least Tatum and Smart carried the team to an ECF.

What could've been if both were healthy. Might've had a shot upsetting GSW in the Finals.

Looked good at the time but turned into a waste of years. I was also posting that to illustrate that things don't always turn out like they look like they will...

[Vermont Green]

I am not sure how everyone is looking at this.  If it is in terms of how bleak it seems going into the season, it is not nearly the worst off season.  Trading Brown for Paul George, after thinking we might get Giannis for him, was a gut punch.  I will say that I feel less bad about it as time goes on, but still, going from thinking we might get Giannis to having to settle for Paul George is highly disappointing, but all is not lost.

In terms of going into the season, it is really not bleak at all.  Second best odds to win the East, and not really all that far behind the defending champs.  4th best odds to win the title, albeit well behind SAS and OKC.  I feel like we are one good solid starter away from having even better conference and title odds.  The problem is that it is really hard to acquire that one more good player.  Maybe Hauser + TPE + Picks can get something, but it will be tough.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

[No Nickname]

I am not sure how everyone is looking at this.  If it is in terms of how bleak it seems going into the season, it is not nearly the worst off season.  Trading Brown for Paul George, after thinking we might get Giannis for him, was a gut punch.  I will say that I feel less bad about it as time goes on, but still, going from thinking we might get Giannis to having to settle for Paul George is highly disappointing, but all is not lost.

In terms of going into the season, it is really not bleak at all.  Second best odds to win the East, and not really all that far behind the defending champs.  4th best odds to win the title, albeit well behind SAS and OKC.  I feel like we are one good solid starter away from having even better conference and title odds.  The problem is that it is really hard to acquire that one more good player.  Maybe Hauser + TPE + Picks can get something, but it will be tough.

My hope for this offseason was to get

• A quality starter at Center
  A quality starter at SG 

We got neither.

We got:

• a quality backup at Center
  a 3rd string point guard who's 47 years old

And we got an older, less turnover prone, more injury-prone, replacement at SF.

This offseason feels like a fail.

If we had pulled in someone like Simons for the backcourt I would have felt a little better. 

Maybe if we get a great deal for someone like Bradley Beal who drinks from the Fountain of Youth I might feel a tiny bit better.