3 Game Eval & Building Forward

[rutzan]

i know everyone is going to scream small sample size...but...here is my take...

rondo, green, bradley and smart are keepers with sully on the fence...

i would do whatever it takes with the rest of the roster (incl possibly sully depending on the deal) and draft picks to get a rim protector...

without a rim-protector...we'll never get to the next level and make the playoffs and go deep in the playoffs...

[KeepRondo]

i know everyone is going to scream small sample size...but...here is my take...

rondo, green, bradley and smart are keepers with sully on the fence...

i would do whatever it takes with the rest of the roster (incl possibly sully depending on the deal) and draft picks to get a rim protector...

without a rim-protector...we'll never get to the next level and make the playoffs and go deep in the playoffs...

Sully competes at a pretty high level. You don't find many players who play as hard as he does. He's also still developing and has improved each year.

Here's my no trade list -

1. Rondo
2. Sully
3. Smart
4. Bradley

Bradley is more of a maybe. But again here's another guy who competes hard and who has really improved on his pull up.

[jambr380]

We really are desperate for an athletic rim protector. I like Zeller, but he seems best suited as a nice back-up at the C position. Sully or KO, Green, filler, and picks should be able to net us something pretty decent.

If we trade one of KO or Sully, then I am actually for keeping Bass as our backup PF. Zeller and Bass would make a formidable duo off the bench. I think our guard rotation is more than enough to compete and Green is currently showing why he is an above average SF or above average trade asset.

Honestly, with a very good rim protector, we could be very competitive with the ability to continue to improve.

[chambers]

i know everyone is going to scream small sample size...but...here is my take...

rondo, green, bradley and smart are keepers with sully on the fence...

i would do whatever it takes with the rest of the roster (incl possibly sully depending on the deal) and draft picks to get a rim protector...

without a rim-protector...we'll never get to the next level and make the playoffs and go deep in the playoffs...

Sully competes at a pretty high level. You don't find many players who play as hard as he does. He's also still developing and has improved each year.

Here's my no trade list -

1. Rondo
2. Sully
3. Smart
4. Bradley

Bradley is more of a maybe. But again here's another guy who competes hard and who has really improved on his pull up.

Bradley played well vs Dallas, but I need one more season of 40% or 39% from three to convince me he's not just a solid role player.

My hope is that Bradley does improve and becomes a valuable trade asset. Ultimately I don't think we keep all three of those guards because spending $8 million on a 6th man is too much, regardless of whether the cap goes up or not.

I would hope we could flip Bradley in a trade for someone like Hibbert or a big that can run the pick and roll with Rondo + adequately protect the paint.

[LarBrd33]

I think we definitely could have gotten Asik this summer and he definitely would have made an improvement. I think Danny passed on the opportunity, because he wanted to make sure he explored every conceivable way this team could trade for Kevin love.

I think by definition it was a "blown opportunuty" but does anyone feel like it was a mistake ?  Did Ainge make the right move in holding all his chips for a Kevin Love attempt ?

[Texstyles]

Here is where I am at.  We need an upgrade at Center ( defensively).

As for Nets - good performance against a team on the downslope

Houston - discouraging. ..that being said,  shooting 1for 25 from 3 will be hard to duplucate.  40 free throws to 18 is bad officiating, IMO.  It should never be that far apart.  Positive: we shot 98 shots to there 76, I like that.

Dallas - 1st half discouraging.  2nd half is simple.  This is the blueprint on how this team should play night in and night out to win.

We will see how they come out tonight.

[bleedGREENdon]

I see sully being a starting Forward on a championship team.

I can see green being a contributer on a championship team

I can see smart in the future being a starter on a championship team

Rondo has already proven he can play on a championship

There's two variables there though, smart in the future and one I didn't mention but coincides with one of those players. That's rondo. Rondo cannot win a championship being the player. He cannot score at will being the number one option. I was his biggest supporter and did not want to see him go past years ( for Chris Paul and Westbrook yes I did but that's diff).

With that being said , I think either rondo needs to go and we draft our next 1 2 punch being Smart and whomever we draft. Or we keep rondo, and get a center who can take over games, whether it be defensively offensively or All the above.

Marc Gasol would be perfect on this team because the team he's played for in Memphis is built exactly like ours just on steroids.

Gay and Green are comparable
Rondo and Conley are sort of comparable
Sully and Randolph are comparable
Tony Allen and Bradley/Smart are comparable.

Now with that said, I don't believe we are then still championship contenders.

What I believe needs to happen is somehow. SOMEHOW.

We draft Karl Towns who is going to be offensive force, Sign Marc Gasol Max and sign rondo. Have Jeff Green either traded or off the bench once Towns develops.

Lineup of

Rondo
Bradley
Green
Sully
Gasol

Bench

Smart
Young
Towns
Kelly
Center

That is a deep team that will compete with anyone in the east.

Joe-

[KeepRondo]

i know everyone is going to scream small sample size...but...here is my take...

rondo, green, bradley and smart are keepers with sully on the fence...

i would do whatever it takes with the rest of the roster (incl possibly sully depending on the deal) and draft picks to get a rim protector...

without a rim-protector...we'll never get to the next level and make the playoffs and go deep in the playoffs...

Sully competes at a pretty high level. You don't find many players who play as hard as he does. He's also still developing and has improved each year.

Here's my no trade list -

1. Rondo
2. Sully
3. Smart
4. Bradley

Bradley is more of a maybe. But again here's another guy who competes hard and who has really improved on his pull up.

Bradley played well vs Dallas, but I need one more season of 40% or 39% from three to convince me he's not just a solid role player.

My hope is that Bradley does improve and becomes a valuable trade asset. Ultimately I don't think we keep all three of those guards because spending $8 million on a 6th man is too much, regardless of whether the cap goes up or not.

I would hope we could flip Bradley in a trade for someone like Hibbert or a big that can run the pick and roll with Rondo + adequately protect the paint.

I hear ya. I think whether he's a starter or 6th man, I can see him playing 30 mins a game on a contender.

[KeepRondo]

I think we definitely could have gotten Asik this summer and he definitely would have made an improvement. I think Danny passed on the opportunity, because he wanted to make sure he explored every conceivable way this team could trade for Kevin love.

I think by definition it was a "blown opportunuty" but does anyone feel like it was a mistake ?  Did Ainge make the right move in holding all his chips for a Kevin Love attempt ?

Can we still get Asik next year in free agency?

[mmmmm]

I think we definitely could have gotten Asik this summer and he definitely would have made an improvement. I think Danny passed on the opportunity, because he wanted to make sure he explored every conceivable way this team could trade for Kevin love.

I think by definition it was a "blown opportunuty" but does anyone feel like it was a mistake ?  Did Ainge make the right move in holding all his chips for a Kevin Love attempt ?

I think Danny saw the Kevin Love deal as pretty tenuous the moment Cleveland jumped everybody to get the #1 pick and probably considered them vaporized the moment Lebron decided to take his talents back to Cleveland.   With Love and Lebron exchanging love-tweets that writing was on the wall.

It's hard to figure exactly why Danny couldn't or wouldn't get into the Asik deal that ended up going down.   Technically he had the same means (the TPE in order to take on salary) available to get Asik that NO had.   But maybe he thought that he could still leverage that to greater advantage as middle-man to the inevitable Love-to-CLE transaction.  Obviously he did get in on that, but 'hard to see how Thornton + Zeller + low picks is better than Asik other than in future salary commitment.   'Maybe at the time that Houston was dealing he projected a bigger return for the middleman transaction?  Who knows?  There are a lot of reasons why deals sometimes happen or don't happen that are hard to fathom from the outside.

I really wish that the Bass+Lee+picks-for-Asik deal that almost happened last December had gone through.  Oh well.

[LooseCannon]

I think we definitely could have gotten Asik this summer and he definitely would have made an improvement. I think Danny passed on the opportunity, because he wanted to make sure he explored every conceivable way this team could trade for Kevin love.

I think by definition it was a "blown opportunuty" but does anyone feel like it was a mistake ?  Did Ainge make the right move in holding all his chips for a Kevin Love attempt ?

I don't think Ainge would have been willing to agree to the sort of protection that Houston got New Orleans to agree to, where the pick has a shot of being as high as #4.

[mmmmm]

I think we definitely could have gotten Asik this summer and he definitely would have made an improvement. I think Danny passed on the opportunity, because he wanted to make sure he explored every conceivable way this team could trade for Kevin love.

I think by definition it was a "blown opportunuty" but does anyone feel like it was a mistake ?  Did Ainge make the right move in holding all his chips for a Kevin Love attempt ?

I don't think Ainge would have been willing to agree to the sort of protection that Houston got New Orleans to agree to, where the pick has a shot of being as high as #4.

Interesting point.

Combining Asik with Davis and the rest of the NO roster would tend to (assuming health) make that protection void moot for them.

'Not sure Danny could afford to feel as confident at that point with the then state of the Celtics roster.

[LooseCannon]

I think we definitely could have gotten Asik this summer and he definitely would have made an improvement. I think Danny passed on the opportunity, because he wanted to make sure he explored every conceivable way this team could trade for Kevin love.

I think by definition it was a "blown opportunuty" but does anyone feel like it was a mistake ?  Did Ainge make the right move in holding all his chips for a Kevin Love attempt ?

I don't think Ainge would have been willing to agree to the sort of protection that Houston got New Orleans to agree to, where the pick has a shot of being as high as #4.

Interesting point.

Combining Asik with Davis and the rest of the NO roster would tend to (assuming health) make that protection void moot for them.

'Not sure Danny could afford to feel as confident at that point with the then state of the Celtics roster.

I never assume health, even if you don't have any injury-prone players.  The only way I would agree to that lack of protection (if I were in NO's shoes) is if I thought I was a shoe-in to make the playoffs even if Davis missed half the season.