Enjoy the quick fix. Danny set this franchise back.

[Csfan1984]

I wanted to tank but seeing Miami get their pick back instead of Philly having is kind of satisfying.

[Donoghus]

Just remember, Michael Olowokandi was once the #1 pick overall.  Sam Bowie, Greg Oden....there are no guarantees.

Also, guess who got the #1 pick last year?  Hint:  It wasn't a team with one of the top three worst records. Or worst five.  Or worst 8.

[SHAQATTACK]

Disagree with OP

Celtics appear to be on the right track

Winning ways are better than losing ..

Losing is for cheats and losers.......thank goodness we have only had one really ruff year and the season was actually enjoyable this year. 

One year like last was enough

[KeepRondo]

Lets look at the situation objectively:
If we do not make playoffs we get ~10th pick.

Making playoffs leaves us with 15-16th pick, and higher trade value for our current players. If you are trying to trade a player on a bad team with gaudy stats some say he has good stats only because of a bad team. However, this argument no longer applies if one makes playoffs. Thus value of our current assets increase by making playoffs. There is also a clear benefit in developing coach and young players. Finally, by making playoffs Boston becomes more attractive to free agents.

Basically, the choice boils down to this: 5 slots pick improvement vs better valuation of your assets, experience, better free agent destination

I prefer playoffs, but I can see how one would want to go for the picks. It is a matter of choice.

I don't agree with this. I think teams will still value Bradley, Olynyk, Sullinger, Zeller and Turner exactly the same whether we make the playoffs or not. GMs may look at our team and point to IT4 and the improvement of Smart as reasons we improved. Both players are unlikely to be trade assets.

[Roy H.]

My prediction is that Philly doesn't reach the Conference Finals within the next ten years.

[rollie mass]

jabari parker and missing rookie eason and then  go up againstnba bigs in early recovery,how much has he been set back or aaron gordon or the lakers choice-stashing picks in europe while tanking-danny still has enough picks for the right guy ,cap space and everybody buzzing abou celts and brad-

[AngryAndIrritable]

Nonsense from the OP as usual.

At some point Philly are going to have to compete.

There is no developmental arc that goes tank, tank, win.

[mctyson]

My prediction is that Philly doesn't reach the Conference Finals within the next ten years.

[BDeCosta26]

The sky is falling.

So your solution Tank and more Tank and then lose Tim Duncan to the Spurs bc the ping pong balls do not fall for us?

Sorry, this team is on the road to being a playoff team every season. 

Nobody in this draft is Anthony Davis of Bron Bron so lets stop and be happy that Danny turned nothing into Tyler Zeller, Isiah Thomas, Jerebko and Jae Crowder.

Draft is a crap shoot at best and playoff experience is gold.

Danny set this franchise back, I mean I guess I respect you have your own opinion but explain to me how a team that was in the bottom 5 draft picks at the start of the season and now in the 7th spot in the playoffs is a set back?

I would normally agree with you that NBA drafts are crap shoots but last years and this one does not seem to be. And this one may possibly be deeper. Say what you want about playoff experience, but have some perspective on the actual draft classes instead of labeling them all as crap shoots.

Every draft is a crapshoot, just some drafts more so than others.

Are they're better classes and worse classes? Of course. Is their a level of predictability in those draft classes before they get drafted so you can have a reasonable expectation of the depth and quality of the players in that class? Sure. But in the greatest draft class in recent history, 2003, Darko Milicic was selected #2 overall.  Even in the best classes, at least one or two players in the top 8 bust, and a few guys from the 15-30 range become all-stars.

That's why when it comes to trading up, I'm sure Ainge won't make a deal unless he feels like the player(s) he's picking is worth more than the assets he's giving up. So I trust him to make a good deal. The only trade I've disliked in recent memory, the Rondo deal, ended up with us as huge victors. If we can move up, great. If we can't, well Ainge has done a pretty good job with mid-late 1st round picks. Maybe he even trades back if the deal is right. Got no reason to not trust him .

[fairweatherfan]

This is the worst thing since the last thing that went right!

[GratefulCs]

Ya!


Now we're going to be a treadmill team like the hawks!!



Oh wait...

[P stoff]

what is one draft pick like Winslow or some other 7-9 pick going to accomplish. His "potential" is about te same as about 25 guys already playing... shake a tree and a guy like that falls out. Danny is collecting assets (both picks and players) that can facilitate trades.

Adding a middleton or a scorer plus more length down low can be accomplished in multiple ways other than just the draft. Winning now improves the value of some of our players IMO because they are aiding a surprise success story with good contributions.

Remember the platter of effective role players/picks prior to the Allen trade... and go with that.

[jonaslopes]

My prediction is that Philly doesn't reach the Conference Finals within the next ten years.

Agreed. TP!

[SCeltic34]

What quick fix?  He's done nothing but make small, but very solid moves following the Rondo and Green trades, both of which appear to have been good moves in their own respect. 
We've been playing much better team basketball since their departure, in large part due to how well the new faces have been playing under Stevens.  It has nothing to do with a "quick fix".

- Danny hasn't made any unreasonable moves that could end up hamstringing the C's in the long term.  See: Brooklyn, Paul Pierce and KG trade for an extreme example.  He's patient and opportunistic.  No fireworks yet, but again he's made a lot of small, very solid moves.
- We traded away Brandan Wright - a mediocre player, but a player that fit a major need for us defensively - for a draft pick.
- We didn't surrender any major assets in any of our trades.  We still have the Brooklyn picks which have a good chance of being in the lottery.  We have a ton of other picks. 
- We don't have unreasonable contracts except for Gerald Wallace, an expiring contract that may actually end up being valuable.
- Our team is young.
- We will have cap space.  This, in addition to all of our other assets gives Danny great flexibility.

Not sure why I bothered to write all that since you basically just post ridiculous statements, mostly negative, that have no semblance to reality. 

Tanking guarantees absolutely nothing and is most definitely not a pre-requisite for building a championship team.

[Mencius]

I agree with your basic premise, OP, that the team would be much better served by missing the playoffs and getting the 10th or so pick vs making the playoffs, getting our aces handed to us in 4 more ultimately meaningless games and getting the 15th or 16th pick for our troubles.

It's a cute story that the little team that could actually made a playoff push and likely made it, but it's an obviously pyhrric victory all day long.  It's like offering a little kid a quarter today vs offering him a dollar tomorrow.  One is obviously the smarter move, but the kid just doesn't care.  He wants what he wants and he wants it now.

The thing is, I think Danny was completely on board with tanking this year, and something changed to make him make the IT trade.  I think the Rondo and Green moves were clearly with an eye toward the future that Danny expected to result in more losses.

This is pure speculation, but I think the thing that changed was Stevens, and whether he was willing to go along for another tanking year.  All the trades pre-trade deadline this year were with an eye toward accepting a lottery year this year.  None of them had to do with improving *this* year.  The IT trade was about improving this year and beyond, and it was a gamble.  I doubt Danny thought that the IT trade would result in as dramatic an improvement as it has.  I think he thought IT would be a good piece (consistent with a constantly upgrading your assets philosophy), but that he would not be good enough to actually get us out of the lottery this year.  He reckoned wrong.

But I'm with you about knowing that a better pick would have put us closer to our next championship more than four more meaningless games.  That's just plain obvious.  That's the quarter to the dollar analogy.  Short term, ultimately meaningless gratification vs having a better asset going forward.

As to Philly, there's no way to judge the success of their strategy right now.  One thing I do respect is that they had/have a strategy, and they went all in on it and didn't half ace it.  Whether their strategy is successful or not remains to be seen, but you need stars to be a real championship contender in this league, and the draft is one way to get them.  There are no guarantees with any given strategy.