David Aldridge: Cs poised to be major player in Draft/FA/trade

[TheFlex]

http://www.nba.com/2014/news/features/david_aldridge/12/22/morning-tip-rajon-rondo-to-dallas-carmelo-anthony-possible-trade-destinations-qa-wtih-isaiah-thomas/index.html

GMs hate other teams who waste their time with phone calls that start like, "I want LeBron. I'll give you Zoran (not Goran) Dragic, Toure Murry, Kyle O'Quinn and a 2031 first. What? I'm giving you a first!"

In other words: don't offer bench players for my stars.

But what Dallas gave Boston -- center Brandan Wright, swingman Jae Crowder, guard Jameer Nelson, a 2015 first-rounder and a 2016 second-rounder -- is about what most teams would offer now for Rondo.

His skills always are at odds with the numbers, and he's still less than two years removed from tearing his ACL in 2012. Any number of teams would have made a free agent offer for him next July, when he becomes an unrestricted free agent. Very few teams would give up front-line players for him in a trade.

And that's why winning matters.

Ainge is now in the second significant rebuild of his franchise since he became president/general manager. Most GMs only get one shot. But Ainge has been in charge in Boston since 2003, and he's under no more pressure to win now than he was in 2006-07. Back then, Boston was 24-58 and most everyone thought then-coach Doc Rivers would be fired and All-Star Paul Pierce was going to be traded.

But because of the winning the Celtics soon did under Ainge and Rivers, including the 2008 NBA title, and because of the 16 other titles the franchise has won, Ainge has complete carte blanche now to fix Boston. He can give coach Brad Stevens a six-year deal, and he can dismantle the Big Four (Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Kendrick Perkins), piece by piece, with Rondo's departure the last real vestige of the 2008 championship team. He can patiently draft and trade, and push his cap space to another season, and owner Wyc Grousbeck won't bat an eye.

In short, Ainge gets time.

The Celtics, for all of Ainge's posturing after the Draft, knew full well that Marcus Smart -- as about a million people noted -- would be Rondo's heir apparent once they took him with the sixth pick overall last June. There was no chance Rondo was going to re-up with Boston, with Ainge -- correctly -- having blown up the rest of the Big Four in order to start rebuilding in earnest.

And because of his and their respective statuses, the likelihood of offers getting better before the trade deadline in February was slim. Who would sweeten the pot for Rondo in February when they could just wait a few months and get him for nothing?

Indeed, the Lakers sitting out there with bags of money spooked the Celtics. Los Angeles made perfunctory offers, but really preferred keeping its powder dry until July.

The Celtics now will give the ball to Smart, and play him and Bradley together in an athletic backcourt with great defensive potential -- while Ainge still has more than $20 million in expiring contracts (Brandon Bass, Marcus Thornton, Wright and Will Bynum [did Aldridge make a mistake or is Bynum's contract still tradeable?] he could still deal before the trade deadline.

Boston tried to make a mega-deal last summer, but couldn't find any takers. It is unlikely Ainge will be a bystander again next summer. The Celtics are poised to be a major player in all aspects of player acquisition -- Draft, trades, free agency -- going forward.

After all that losing in Boston, it's time.

TOP O' THE WORLD, MA!

[BigAlTheFuture]

This was the same thing being thrown around last off season.

[Roy H.]

This was the same thing being thrown around last off season.

[TheFlex]

This was the same thing being thrown around last off season.

Although the difference is probably negligible, we do have more assets to trade this year.

It's undeniable that we have more cap space.

Lastly, I don't know how much this matters, but there seems to be a stronger feeling emanating from the organization that it's time to cash in on some of our assets, for a variety of reasons. I think Ainge will be a little looser with our not-as-important assets to get a deal done. If for some reason the Bulls shop Butler this summer in a S&T (just an example), I wouldn't be surprised to see Ainge offer one more first or take on one more bad contract than he normally would to get a deal done.

[Celtics4ever]

We should have some cap space, I'm skeptical about us being a free agent mecca though.

[puskas54_10]

This summer were a lot of fire works too...

[get_banners]

To be fair re: this summer, if the Cavs don't miraculously get the #1 pick, then I wonder if LeBron goes back and I definitely suspect we'd be the front-runner for Love. Fireworks were probably in line this summer, but, you know, the lottery screwed us in multiple ways, mainly the Cavs winning.

[the coreys]

Unless the celts make draft day trade, expect this summer to be like last.

After the draft we have no assets to bring anyone in. No impending free agent will sign here with this roster.

[Evantime34]

We should have some cap space, I'm skeptical about us being a free agent mecca though.

I think we will need to use our picks to trade for a restricted free agent. They will sign with us because we are signing him to a max contract.

[gpap]

Yeah after last summer, I am not getting my hopes up for "fireworks."

I have no doubt Ainge will try to do something (I hope.)

I just hope he doesn't give up after trying to acquire the top guy on his list.

This summer (and obviously I have no clue what the front office discusses or tried) it seemed to me like it was either get Kevin Love or bust.

I'd like to hope next summer Ainge has a plan A, B, C, and D to helping the team acquire talent.

It looked like we just went from trying to get Kevin Love to our two best offseason acquistions being Tyler Zeller and Marcus Thornton.

[obnoxiousmime]

This was the same thing being thrown around last off season.

The signing of Evan Turner should a least qualify as a sparkler.

Seriously, this summer will be the first time they actually have cap space in a long while. I think they will chase some of the better young free agents even though the chances are unlikely they want to sign in Boston. The more likely option is that they can absorb one of the salaries from a team wanting to shed a contract to sign their own budding star. For example, David Lee or Taj Gibson might be available due to their respective teams needing to re-sign Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler. They could also target guys who are good but-not-great like Tobias Harris (Orlando has to re-sign Vucevic, O'Quinn, and Harris, they may not want to spend on all three) or Amir Johnson, though they'd likely have to outbid other teams that are closer to contending.

Yes, these names are not that exciting but it'll be hard for Ainge to attract the top names this summer. The stars around the league are in good situations already and most will probably re-sign, especially since the cap increase will make it easier for contending teams to keep their guys paid. Phoenix might want to clear up its guard logjam but the Celtics don't really need another guard (unless Bradley is somehow moved), they need wing scoring and interior defense. Those types of players just aren't available so often.

[Beat LA]

Here's what I want to know - since GM's are privy to information that the rest of us can only speculate on, at best, did he know that Josh Smith was going to be waived, because if he did, couldn't we have just kept Rondo, claimed Smith off waivers, and still had plenty of cap space next year?  With the way Smoove was playing, we probably still would have sucked, lol, so adding a lottery pick and another first rounder to our roster in the draft would have been a good place to start, perhaps.  Who knows?  I'm just thinking out loud.

[TheFlex]

Seems like the conclusion most on this thread are reaching is that if fireworks didn't happen last summer, they're unlikely to happen this summer.

The conclusion I'm reaching is that because they didn't happen last summer, the more likely they are to happen this summer. Stars come and go on the trade and free agent market, and Danny is equipped with assets to fish for any one of them. If he can't land a stud prospect in the 2015 Draft, I expect a blockbuster to occur within a year from June.

[GzUP617]

 The question becomes does Kevin Durant become this upcoming summers Kevin love.

 

[Roy H.]

Seems like the conclusion most on this thread are reaching is that if fireworks didn't happen last summer, they're unlikely to happen this summer.

The conclusion I'm reaching is that because they didn't happen last summer, the more likely they are to happen this summer. Stars come and go on the trade and free agent market, and Danny is equipped with assets to fish for any one of them. If he can't land a stud prospect in the 2015 Draft, I expect a blockbuster to occur within a year from June.

I hope that last year doesn't make a blockbuster any more or less likely.  Danny shouldn't rush to make a big move just because he struck out last year.  Doing so appeals more to marketing than it does to team-building.  In fairness to Danny, though, I think he's only ever made one such trade (trading a #1 for Antoine Walker, which seemed like a short-term fix).

I am skeptical, though, when I see media reports about how we'll be major movers and shakers.  We might, or we might not be.  I'm not getting my expectations up.