The all-purpose "feel good" / pep rally / "optimism only" thread

[Goldstar88]

I will say, I still think the Jaylen Brown trade was idiotic, and I'm not a huge Paul George guy at this stage of his career considering also his injury history/durability issues (including the suspension last season).

BUT I've been pleasantly surprised. He's fit in nicely with the team and has great chemistry already. And he's been awesome on the defensive end, carrying over from late last season. He's putting up 20/6/5 now but even if he consistently is around the 16/5/5+ range that'd be nice.

Tatum has quietly looked MVP-caliber so far

He has been great, and not the problem.  My issue  I have with the trade is lack of draft capital or not getting another player like Edgecomb.

this is what I've been saying about the trade and mentioned Edgecomb specifically as another player asset that Brad should have gotten from Philly.  The pick situation is a joke.

Edgecombe was the 3rd overall pick in last years draft. He averaged 16pts/6rebs/4ast as a Rookie. There was no chance he was going to be a part of the trade. Brad should have been able to get Philon Jr, though.

and PG's contract was considered the worst in the NBA when this deal was made.  Edgecomb was very much an asset that should have been included especially with the ridiculously few picks included.

They were never going to get Edgecombe. There was not enough interest around the league for Brown. The value wasn?t there.

There was a lot of interest in Brown. 

The problem was that Brad started negotiations with wildly laughable asks, and everybody rejected him.  Thinking that he wasn't serious, all of the interested suitors quickly moved on, as they were facing the start of the new league year / free agency.  That left us with the options of no deal, or a bad deal.  Brad took a bad deal.

If Brad had asked for two firsts and a young player from the beginning, my guess is that he would have had multiple offers.

I just do not think we will ever know if there was a lot of interest in Brown for more value than we got. And if there was that is bad GMing on both sides to not come back and negotiate fair from both sides. I just do not believe that is the case but I am skeptical of all reporting around this stuff so that is why.

The salary matching is tough and no young not contending team would trade a lot for him so then we trade him to a contending team for two late firsts and a guy like who? Scott Henderson? I think we need to be realistic about the fact that Brown had less value than guys like Desmond Bane and Mikal Bridges in this current climate.

Now Brad should have realized that and gone all in on Giannis. My guess is he didn?t want to trade 3+ picks, Hugo, Baylor, etc. along with Brown but I think they probably should have especially since Brad should have had an idea on what his value was at the time if you missed out on Giannis and had to trade him. Giannis was our only way back to legit contention I believe.

From ESPN:

"The stats guys in every room don't see him close to that -- probably the widest gap in the league," the second general manager said. "They're certainly telling you they don't think he's the sixth-best player in the league. Then the contract is really f---ing big, and the expectation to [extend] that is really big."

Notably, the Celtics have had a better net rating with Brown off the floor than on it in each of the past four seasons and six of the past eight. Teams use different analytical models, but the consensus is that Brown's impact isn't as impressive as his media-voted accolades or the supermax contract that will pay him $183 million over the next three seasons.

"The credit goes to guys who score, but they're not always driving team success," a third general manager said. "There's guys like this all over the league -- Brandon Ingram, DeMar DeRozan, etc. The difference is he's not at $40 million [salary] -- he's at $60 million!

"It's really hard to tie up that much of your salary cap in one player unless they're truly generational. And he's not even close to that. If you supermax Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] or Joker, it makes sense. That's probably the list. The league is getting smarter now. And here's the thing: The dumb teams are also the cheap teams, so the Celtics couldn't take advantage of one of them."

Several scouts and executives said potential trade partners were also concerned about the reasons the Celtics might be so motivated to move Brown in the middle of his prime. The belief around the league is that the Celtics determined that Brown's partnership with Tatum, which generated tension that Boston managed for years before the duo helped hang the franchise's 18th championship banner, had run its course after nine seasons.

The common perception is that Brown's unapologetically strong personality, outspokenness and reluctance to adapt his style of play factored into the Celtics' front office's decision that he needed to be traded now. That prompted worries about how Brown would fit with other teams with established stars.

"If Jaylen isn't happy winning Finals MVP, All-NBA, winning with the Boston Celtics, how's it going to be with us?" a president of basketball operations said. "If he's not happy there, what is he looking for? It scares teams."