Courtney Lee signs 4 yr - 21.5 Million Dollar Deal (confirmed)

[goCeltics]

the 2 2nd rounders to portland were a little steep, but guess they can buy 2nds or just sign vets (Even young ones) to the end of their bench.

[Celts Fan 92]

lol still dont kno how we traded 3 end of da bench guys for a player of Courtney Lee's caliber but i'll take it great offseason foreal

[j804]

lol still dont kno how we traded 3 end of da bench guys for a player of Courtney Lee's caliber but i'll take it great offseason foreal

[crimson_stallion]

Why are people making such a deal about the picks? Who even cares about second rounders when every player on our team (bar Pierce, KG, Terry, Wilcox) is 26 or under?

Look at the history of second round picks.  One every few years turns out a surprise (Boozer for example).  The others are lucky to become end of rotation guys at the best of times.

An E'Twaun Moore level of talent is about the best we are likely to ever get from a second round pick - I like Moore as a player, but he's unlikely to ever be a regular starter for a good team.  

The important thing with the trade is that aside from Pavlovic (who I wasn't too fond of anyway) we didn't trade away any vets.  

That means we still have the opportunity to sign Dooling, Marquis and/or Pietrus for 'end of bench' roles if we want to - though I doubt Pietrus would be interested in playing a "third tier" role.  Still, either Dooling or Marquis (or even both) would be perfect for third string PG and SG roles.

We could do much worse then a third string lineup of:
C - Fab Melo
SF - Kris Joseph
SG - Marquis Daniels
PG - Keyon Dooling

Plus whatever other big we collect along the way.

[goCeltics]

i wasn't making a big out of it, just that portland getting 2 2nd rounders to just pick up a guy they can easily buyout, with boston dollars btw, must of been the best deal they could of made, i suppose

[crimson_stallion]

lol still dont kno how we traded 3 end of da bench guys for a player of Courtney Lee's caliber but i'll take it great offseason foreal

Indeed!

Aside from Moore, neither one of those end of bench guys would actually produce anything for us...giving JJ, Williams and Pavlovic up for nothing wouldn't even concern me, purely for the sake of freeing up roster spots.

Moore is a potentially productive player, but even though I like him he dosn't really give us what we need.  We already have undersized 2 guards in Bradley and Terry - we really needed a SG with size (6'5" - 6'7") that can play tough defense against larger guards.  Moore (at 6'4") is a reasonable defender, but he's going to be a liability trying to defend somebody like Paul George, James Harden, Ginobilli, Kobe or even Wade.

Basically if you look at our guard position right now we have our pure distributer (Rondo), our lock down defender (Bradley), our high volume scorer (Terry).  Lee gives us an extra scorer off the benc, a versatile insurance policy to cover (directly or indirectly) three positions on the court, and the size to defend bigger guards.

Not a huge pickup in terms of who he is, but when you can fill 2-3 holes on your team for the cost of $5M and a single roster space, that's great value.  Huge deal for us

[crimson_stallion]

i wasn't making a big out of it, just that portland getting 2 2nd rounders to just pick up a guy they can easily buyout, with boston dollars btw, must of been the best deal they could of made, i suppose

Yeah I know, all good!  But a lot of others have been downplaying the value of Lee and overplaying the value of those picks, so it was moreso a generalised statement - not necessarilly directed at yourself

[celticinorlando]

Not only has Danny given us a legit title team this year..he has ensured the Celtics will still be up there going forward...terry and lee??? Just great work

[davemonsterband]

This is a coup. No, the big names aren't there, who cares about names or what Ray Allen USED to do? To me this is as big of an overhaul from nothing to something as was Pau going to the Lakers. Whether or not the 2nd rounders pan out is irrelevant, what matters is the statistical probability of someone like Lee helping this squad get to a championship compared to Pietrus, and what his future potential will hold. A great, mature young guy who can grow with Rondo (MVP), not against him.

This is a fantastic move and as much as Celticsblog is a place made to encourage discussion the banter around here for the last month being so negative and focused on the wrong things has been deplorable. Blind faith in Danny should always be encouraged and those that thought a deal wasn't coming and guy like JJJ and Moore were the possible future haven't been paying much attention to recent history.

Danny knows what he's doing and all the layman 'experts' keep babbling about potential mistakes. Other than Jeff Green not panning out immediately Danny Ainge has been a pure G-O-D and Jeff Green will shut everyone up in 2013. Way to go Danny! My boy...

[WeMadeIt17]

When is the presser?

[gar]

Moore and Williams may well end up in Maine. Would be nice to keep them around.

[Atzar]

Not only has Danny given us a legit title team this year..he has ensured the Celtics will still be up there going forward...terry and lee??? Just great work

Agree.  Danny's had an excellent offseason thus far.  If he pulls one more rotation-caliber big from somewhere, then he gets an A for this summer in my book. 

[Adelaide Celt]

The final formality between the signing announcement and the introductory press conference:

Jersey number predictions

I'll guess #11

[j804]

Not only has Danny given us a legit title team this year..he has ensured the Celtics will still be up there going forward...terry and lee??? Just great work

Agree.  Danny's had an excellent offseason thus far.  If he pulls one more rotation-caliber big from somewhere, then he gets an A for this summer in my book.  

you know we are getting a big no matter what I give him an A already A++ depending on who the big is he's killed it already  

[arambone]

This roster is almost Stern proof. Almost.