Some thoughts about the chances of the Celtics making a mid-season trade

[LooseCannon]

The current situation could not have been predicted.

What couldn't have been predicted?  I was predicting the Celtics had enough talent to have a shot at making the playoffs and would probably be better than teams like Cleveland and Milwaukee.  Or are you talking about something else?

[Jailan34]

Nothing needs to happen other than that this team needs to go out and try to win some basketball games and develop into better basketball players.  That's what's been happening.  And, for me it's been fun to watch. 

Personally, I would much prefer it if nothing other than that happened for the time being.

Even the best of our young players have ceilings that will prevent this team from going from "fun mediocre squad" to "legit threat".   

If we continue on this path to mediocrity... we might want to cash in our assets sooner rather than later. 

This is my biggest fear for the team. Currently we're below 500 and not bad enough to secure a great pick. we also have no players on this team that will develop enough to turn us into contenders.

We need to make a move, and I don't think we have the proper assets for a big deal. This is an extremely important season for the future of our team.

[Celtics18]

Nothing needs to happen other than that this team needs to go out and try to win some basketball games and develop into better basketball players.  That's what's been happening.  And, for me it's been fun to watch. 

Personally, I would much prefer it if nothing other than that happened for the time being.

Even the best of our young players have ceilings that will prevent this team from going from "fun mediocre squad" to "legit threat".   

If we continue on this path to mediocrity... we might want to cash in our assets sooner rather than later.

I will repeat something I've been saying for a while.  We have Rajon Rondo, and we have ten--I repeat ten--first round picks coming up over the course of the next five years.

And, we have some nice young players with some good potential.  Granted, Kelly Olynyk, Jared Sullinger, and Avery Bradley will most likely never be perennial first team all NBAers, but we are not counting on them to be.  We are just counting on them to continue to grow and maximize their potential. 

And, we have some solid young veterans who are what they are, but know how to play the game.

And, we have a promising young coach who is looking like he knows how to team build and how to develop talented players to want to play the game for each other and to compete to win.

And, we have one of the smartest GMs in the league. 

Everything is working out perfectly right now.  My advice to everybody is to be patient and enjoy watching this team play. 

Better days are ahead.  Best of all, we won't need to tank to get there. 

[LarBrd33]

The current situation could not have been predicted.

What couldn't have been predicted?  I was predicting the Celtics had enough talent to have a shot at making the playoffs and would probably be better than teams like Cleveland and Milwaukee.  Or are you talking about something else?

I think Boston being well below .500 was something we could predict.

Having only 3 teams in the entire Eastern Conference with an above .500 record... not easily predicted.   There are 13 teams in the Western Conference with better records than Boston... but we might drunkenly stumble into the 4th seed in the East. 

I don't think anyone expected Brooklyn and New York to be a combined 5-25. 

[Celtics18]

The current situation could not have been predicted. I would assume Danny will keep all options open and take what he believes is the best one available.

As for Humphries I would not rule out a deal for someone like Bynum. We could offer him and Bogans, take another bad contract from them and get a pick out of it. Not saying we would get their first rounder this year, but add this, take that and you never know what will work.

Basically I'm saying we could take on other teams bad contracts and get picks, at the same time making us worse this year for a better chance at a good pick.

But, some people did predict the current situation.  Just because it wasn't predicted by you doesn't mean it couldn't have been predicted.

[LooseCannon]

The current situation could not have been predicted.

What couldn't have been predicted?  I was predicting the Celtics had enough talent to have a shot at making the playoffs and would probably be better than teams like Cleveland and Milwaukee.  Or are you talking about something else?

I think Boston being well below .500 was something we could predict.

Having only 3 teams in the entire Eastern Conference with an above .500 record... not easily predicted.   There are 13 teams in the Western Conference with better records than Boston... but we might drunkenly stumble into the 4th seed in the East. 

I don't think anyone expected Brooklyn and New York to be a combined 5-25.

There were some people who predicted one or both teams to be under .500 and missing the playoffs.  If I'd known that Tyson Chandler was going to miss this many games, I probably would have predicted a decent chance that the Knicks would be this bad.  As it is, I thought they were one of the teams that had maybe a 30% chance of finishing worse than the Celtics.

[gpap]

The current situation could not have been predicted. I would assume Danny will keep all options open and take what he believes is the best one available.

As for Humphries I would not rule out a deal for someone like Bynum. We could offer him and Bogans, take another bad contract from them and get a pick out of it. Not saying we would get their first rounder this year, but add this, take that and you never know what will work.

Basically I'm saying we could take on other teams bad contracts and get picks, at the same time making us worse this year for a better chance at a good pick.

But, some people did predict the current situation.  Just because it wasn't predicted by you doesn't mean it couldn't have been predicted.

Let's keep our fingers crossed. I would be one of the happiest people on earth if the Celts make the playoffs because no one thought they could do it....except for you and a few other posters here on CB.

[Celtics18]

The current situation could not have been predicted.

What couldn't have been predicted?  I was predicting the Celtics had enough talent to have a shot at making the playoffs and would probably be better than teams like Cleveland and Milwaukee.  Or are you talking about something else?

I think Boston being well below .500 was something we could predict.

Having only 3 teams in the entire Eastern Conference with an above .500 record... not easily predicted.   There are 13 teams in the Western Conference with better records than Boston... but we might drunkenly stumble into the 4th seed in the East. 

I don't think anyone expected Brooklyn and New York to be a combined 5-25.

True.  I don't think any of us would have predicted that both Brooklyn and New York would have looked as awful as they have looked.  Also, I don't think anyone was predicting that Derrick Rose would suffer another season ending knee injury.

However, I know that I was predicting that outside of five teams (and yes, I had Brooklyn, New York, and Chicago among those five), the rest of the East would range from mediocre to crappy.  Based on that, I thought the Celtics had a good shot of being a playoff team. 

I got screamed at: "But, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Toronto, Cleveland, Washington, Detroit, Orlando are all going to be way, way better than the Celtics!!!!  If you can't see that you are just a blind homer!!!!"

I couldn't see it, then.  And, I still can't see it.  I actually tried to back up my opinions by looking at the rosters of those teams and giving honest evaluations, but nobody wanted to hear it.  Everybody just wanted to be in Wiggins or Bust dream land.

I was never claiming that we'd be a great team, simply that there were too many other bad teams for us to make a run at the very bottom.  For me, making a run at a seventh or eighth seed has always made more sense--as well as being much more fun--than racing to the bottom.

I'm not proclaiming myself a prognosticator just yet.  We are still only eighteen games into this season.  And, there is still some chance that the bottom could completely fall out, and we could end up as horrible as many of you were predicting. 

My prediction stands, though.  We are solidly mediocre, considering the state of the East right now, and I expect us to get better as the season continues and once our best player returns from injury.

I think, as I've always thought, that the 2013-14 Celtics can be a playoff team.  As someone who has been making this prediction since the off-season, it's a tad bit insulting to all of a sudden hear, "it couldn't have been predicted."

[celticmania]

I think they trade Rondo and Green

[Jailan34]

The current situation could not have been predicted. I would assume Danny will keep all options open and take what he believes is the best one available.

As for Humphries I would not rule out a deal for someone like Bynum. We could offer him and Bogans, take another bad contract from them and get a pick out of it. Not saying we would get their first rounder this year, but add this, take that and you never know what will work.

Basically I'm saying we could take on other teams bad contracts and get picks, at the same time making us worse this year for a better chance at a good pick.

But, some people did predict the current situation.  Just because it wasn't predicted by you doesn't mean it couldn't have been predicted.

Let's keep our fingers crossed. I would be one of the happiest people on earth if the Celts make the playoffs because no one thought they could do it....except for you and a few other posters here on CB.

What happens next though? After we lose in the first round we're stuck with a bad pick and a average team and no serious talent to push us into title contention.

[Celtics18]

The current situation could not have been predicted. I would assume Danny will keep all options open and take what he believes is the best one available.

As for Humphries I would not rule out a deal for someone like Bynum. We could offer him and Bogans, take another bad contract from them and get a pick out of it. Not saying we would get their first rounder this year, but add this, take that and you never know what will work.

Basically I'm saying we could take on other teams bad contracts and get picks, at the same time making us worse this year for a better chance at a good pick.

But, some people did predict the current situation.  Just because it wasn't predicted by you doesn't mean it couldn't have been predicted.

Let's keep our fingers crossed. I would be one of the happiest people on earth if the Celts make the playoffs because no one thought they could do it....except for you and a few other posters here on CB.

What happens next though? After we lose in the first round we're stuck with a bad pick and a average team and no serious talent to push us into title contention.

Never mind what's already on our roster.  I simply don't feel like arguing about our players' worth right now, but ten first round picks over the next five years.  Ten!!  I don't even know how to look this up, but that must be approaching some kind of record for most first round draft picks over a five year span.

Maybe none of them end up being in the lottery (although, I think the chances are fairly good that a couple of those Brooklyn picks down the line might be--heck, maybe even this year's), but I fully expect Danny to make something out of that bonanza, whether he trades up, trades out, trades over, finds gems, packages picks with assets, expirings, whatever.  I don't know what he's going to do with them.  But, I trust that he'll make them pay off.  He's too smart a GM not to.

[2short]

Nothing needs to happen other than that this team needs to go out and try to win some basketball games and develop into better basketball players.  That's what's been happening.  And, for me it's been fun to watch. 

Personally, I would much prefer it if nothing other than that happened for the time being.

Even the best of our young players have ceilings that will prevent this team from going from "fun mediocre squad" to "legit threat".   

If we continue on this path to mediocrity... we might want to cash in our assets sooner rather than later.

I will repeat something I've been saying for a while.  We have Rajon Rondo, and we have ten--I repeat ten--first round picks coming up over the course of the next five years.

And, we have some nice young players with some good potential.  Granted, Kelly Olynyk, Jared Sullinger, and Avery Bradley will most likely never be perennial first team all NBAers, but we are not counting on them to be.  We are just counting on them to continue to grow and maximize their potential. 

And, we have some solid young veterans who are what they are, but know how to play the game.

And, we have a promising young coach who is looking like he knows how to team build and how to develop talented players to want to play the game for each other and to compete to win.

And, we have one of the smartest GMs in the league. 

Everything is working out perfectly right now.  My advice to everybody is to be patient and enjoy watching this team play. 

Better days are ahead.  Best of all, we won't need to tank to get there.

AND mr Ainge is pretty much in the drivers seat as far as trades go.  Someone wants humphries play and expiring? Crawfords instant offense off the bench?  Bradley in a sign and trade? Bass' solid play for a contender?  Those teams will pay top dollar.  We don't need to win this year, we have picks galor coming and a young solid nucleus of green, rondo, sully and Bradley. 

[gpap]

I don't understand the point in buying out Humphries.  Why would we do that?  He's a free agent after this season.  What's so bad about just letting him expire and either re-signing him at a cheap price or letting him walk?

Yup. Not to mention, so far I like what I've seen with Humph in the limited minutes he's gotten.

Maybe the Brooklyn two of Crash and Humph that we got in the KG trade weren't so bad after all.

[gpap]

Boston is better than I thought they'd be.  I was wrong.  I didn't think we'd be finishing this month with 8 wins.  I also didn't expect the Eastern conference to be this disgustingly dreadful.  If things keep going like this, we might win the Atlantic.  I also saw a clip of Rondo earlier and he looks closer to returning than I imagined.   Landing a Top 5 pick this year probably isn't going to happen.   

I always assumed we'd make a trade to make us worse short-term.  At this point, I wouldn't be shocked to see us give up our 2014 pick in a trade to make us competitive sooner rather than later.  I don't know.  This season is nuts.  We're a below average team with mediocre talent, but this year you can finish below .500 and still end up with the 4th seed.  It's crazy. 

I mean, we'd still get killed by Indiana and Miami, but beyond those two teams the Eastern Conference is HORRIBLE right now.  The 13th best team in the West would be the 4th seed in the East. 

If the playoffs started today, we'd get swept by Indiana in the 1st round.  We'd get stuck with the #15 pick and #19 picks.   Pretty rough situation to be in.  You know... maybe something insane happens where we like... trade Jeff Green, Humph's expiring contract and all our 1st rounders for Carmelo Anthony.  Who knows.

Yeah, I'd hate to be Danny right now. He really is at a cross road and will be making a tough decision in Feb. If things keep going this way (who knows?) then the Celtics will likely make the playoffs and end up in the situation you described. Can't imagine that's what he wants.

Very surprising and unpredictable season indeed.

I'd like to hope that Danny has a plan for both scenarios. In other words, chances are he went into this season planning on being bad BUT if the Celtics pulled off a 2013 Red Sox and basically overachieved, that he would've been ready for that as well.

[dreamgreen]

The current situation could not have been predicted. I would assume Danny will keep all options open and take what he believes is the best one available.

As for Humphries I would not rule out a deal for someone like Bynum. We could offer him and Bogans, take another bad contract from them and get a pick out of it. Not saying we would get their first rounder this year, but add this, take that and you never know what will work.

Basically I'm saying we could take on other teams bad contracts and get picks, at the same time making us worse this year for a better chance at a good pick.

But, some people did predict the current situation.  Just because it wasn't predicted by you doesn't mean it couldn't have been predicted.

Just for the record I have been saying all along this is a 30-35 win team. I just did not predict that could win the division! I had the Celtics in the 7-10 spot in the draft, I hope I'm dead wrong and they get the top pick, just not seeing it that way right now.