Here's the thing. Say for instance the following scenario occurs. Draft night comes around and the Celtics are staring down the barrel of making the #6 pick and rebuilding on the fly. Then the following happens.
With the 6th pick the Celtics select Marcus Smart. Smart comes off the board and is looked at as the two guard of the future. An ultra competitive player who could have went #2 last year. Can defend at the one or two. Has a developing jumper etc...
With the 17th pick the Celtics select Saric. Saric falls because no one believes he's going to come over. The alternate plan in this scenario is Anderson.
Now here is where the scenario gets fun.
The Celtics now have a lineup of
PG-Rondo
SG-Smart
SF-Green
PF-Sullinger
C- Open
The Celtics trade Jeff Green to Washington for a future draft pick and an expiring.
Celtics sign Pau Gasol to a MLE deal.
Celtics allow Avery Bradley to leave when he is offered 4/32 by some desperate team.
Celtics sign Paul Pierce to Bi Annual exception
This would be the lineup after that
PG-Rondo
SG-Smart
SF-Pierce
PF-Sullinger
C-Gasol
Main guys off the bench Olynyk,Wallace, Bass, 17th pick.
What do you think? It's feasible to rebuild on the fly and make this deal to compete. Ties up no money for the future and allows Boston to still go after 2 max free agents in 2015. Maybe Rondo won't even cost the max. But this team would certainly look better than Brooklyn this year. This wouldn't be your typical treadmill team. Not in the east.
What is your scenario if the C's keep both picks?
I get where you're coming from on this but I don't think a lot of it is realistic.
Smart: I don't see him as developing into a SG. At best he becomes a swing guard coming off the bench behind Rondo and AB (or if we're fortunate, a better starting SG). This is not a bad type of player to have but personally I'd like to do better than picking a 6th man with the 6th pick in this draft.
AB is most likely resigned for something like 3 years for 12-13 mill total. no team is going to look at his injury history, lack of ballhandling, mediocre shooting, ineptitude in passing and his decline on D this past year and offer $8 mill per year. I would only resign him on reasonable money and would not be heartbroken if he left because someone overpaid for him.
Pau is worth more than the MLE. Some team (contender) will sign him for a good 8-9 mill per year for 2-3 years.
Similar with PP -- worth more than the Bi-annual exception. could still get the MLE from the Clips or more $ to resign with the Nets for 2 years.
Sending out Green for just a pick and expiring doesn't accomplish anything. I really like PP and all he did for the C's but he's best served coming off the bench than playing as a starter. Green, for all his warts, is still good enough to be a starter.
Hypothetically, if you kept AB and Green, added Pau and Paul, added Smart (would prefer Gordon to go with what you have) and BPA at #17 (most likely a swing man that's a better shooter than Smart) that team would win the Atlantic and quite probably be a 2 or 3 seed in the East. Might even give Miami a run for their money in the playoffs since they have no answer for Pau or Rondo and they have the defenders to throw at Lebron and Wade and make Bosh beat you.
Rondo, AB, Green, Sully, Pau
Bench: Smart, PP, Bass, KO, Fav, Wallace, #17 (SG shooter), Iverson, Johnson, Pressey.
the big weakness is backcourt shooting.
Topic: What if...the Celtics keep the pick? (Read 7571 times)