Sherrod Blakely- C's to put a package deal for Aldridge and Matthews

[byennie]

If we sign Aldridge, it should be because we have a deal for Cousins in place.

Sully, Wallace (expiring), Young and 5x 1st rounders could put us here:

Smart / Bradley / Crowder ($5M/yr) / Aldridge / Cousins
Bench: Thomas, Turner, KO, Zeller, #28, #33

We'd have the best offensive frontcourt in the NBA, excellent defense, a deep bench, and money to spend again each of the next 2 offseasons.

[crimson_stallion]

Does anyone know if we could potentially get 3 'max' level players via trade and free agency?

ie:

-get L Aldridge ($16 million) via trade (send out Wallace $10 million+ Bradley $8 million +Sullinger+picks)

-sign D Jordan as free agent ($20.1 million)

-sign and trade with Milwaukee to bring Khris Middleton here so his salary doesn't take us into the luxury tax? (send IT $7 million+Turner $3.3 million+ resigned Bass at $5 million)

Does something like the above have a *possibility* of working even if highly unlikely?

Saltlover?

You really want to send out Thomas, Turrner and Bass (who combine for about 39 PPG, or about 50% of our offense) in return for Khris Middleton (currently averaging someting like 14 PPG)?
 
That's a big risk to take, especially after already sending out Bradley (which makes Smart, Middleton and Pressey essentially the only ball handlers on out team). 

[greece66]

It clearly is unlikely, but we have discussed considerably less likely things on this forum before.

However, in the unlikely event that Aldridge talked with the C's and informed them he would sign here if we gave Matthews the ~16MM max deal he wants then I would do it in a heart beat.  I don't really see a better outcome to this summer than adding two players who immediately become our two best players, without giving up a single asset besides cap space.

Argumentum ad passiones and red herring. I rest my case.

Lawyer-ed.

On to the next one

Either way, Ainge will sell LMA on the thought of joining Boston, and keep his fingers crossed.

And who knows? Anything is possible.

Exactly my point. Aldridge in Minny is possible too.

Seriously now, I agree that Aldridge is an obvious target for the C's. What I am less sure about is the 'let's give a max to his injured buddy because why not?' part.

[Otsje P]

To be precise, he says there is a 35.4% chance of this happening. Which means 64.6% this is not happening, therefore it is not happening.

Euhhh right. There's a 35% chance that Isaiah Thomas scores on a three point attempt. And believe me, i've seen him make a few.

[Celtics4ever]

It's Blakely, I would not get my hopes up, for an insider, he seems left outside the loop a lot.

[CFAN38]

I believe Blakely in that this package deal is the type of added layer DA and others will be willing to use to land a star.

Looking past the fact that this is a long shot in order to get some enjoyment out of the speculations here is how I could see this happen.

DRAFT: If the Cs are committed to clearing cap space and moving Sully and/or KO to improve the talent on the roster then try to trade Wallace, #16 and #28 to a team in the #20-#25 range for their pick and a salary dump. The only team that may fit this is Toronto.
EX. Wallace, #16, #28 to Raptors for #20 and a future 2nd, draft Harrell at #20, D Wright or Andrew Harrison at #33, draft and stash at #45

FA:

Sign Crowder's qualifying offer

Signing Matthews to a risky 3-4 year deal @ 9-10 mill per to facilitate LMA coming to Boston (dont make official till LMA trade).

Do a S&T with Portland. Sully + Turner for LMA. This way LMA gets his max money.

Look into signing R Jefferson, C Copeland, W Johnson, C Budinger, K Singler, J Richardson or start the Paul Pierce retirement tour as Matthews insurance.

Match any offer under 8mill that Crowder receives. If he goes over look into Aminu, Mbah a Moute or D Williams

Resign Jerebko (cheaper and more versitale then Bass

Sign Withey, Joel Anthony, Udoh, C Aldrich, O'Quinn, or another journey man center' , give the Cs a cheap big body at the end of the bench

Sign Babb, give 3-D guy



2015-2016 roster

PG   Smart
SG   AB
SF   Matthews
PF   LMA
C    Zeller
6th IT4
7th Crowder
8th KO
9th R Jefferson
10th Jerebko
11th Withey
12th J Young
13th Harrell
14th Babb
15th Wright/Harrison

This roster would give LMA great spacing on offense as every player with the exception of the backup center can shoot from at least mid-range. On defense while they still lack elite rim protection in the top of the rotation LMA gives great size at the 4 and Withey and Harrell are both long and athletic off the bench. 4 of the top 8 players in the rotation (Smart, AB, Matthew and Crowder) are all-nba level defenders so the rim protection need is some what minimized. While I would plan on Zeller starting I view this as a 20-25mpg starting center not the typical 30+mpg with LMA getting half of his minutes at the center position.

[Eddie20]

It clearly is unlikely, but we have discussed considerably less likely things on this forum before.

However, in the unlikely event that Aldridge talked with the C's and informed them he would sign here if we gave Matthews the ~16MM max deal he wants then I would do it in a heart beat.  I don't really see a better outcome to this summer than adding two players who immediately become our two best players, without giving up a single asset besides cap space.

Argumentum ad passiones and red herring. I rest my case.

Lawyer-ed.

On to the next one

Either way, Ainge will sell LMA on the thought of joining Boston, and keep his fingers crossed.

And who knows? Anything is possible.

Exactly my point. Aldridge in Minny is possible too.

Seriously now, I agree that Aldridge is an obvious target for the C's. What I am less sure about is the 'let's give a max to his injured buddy because why not?' part.

Who suggested giving Matthews the max? All we need to do is beat whatever the best offer is during free agency. I doubt that would be near max money considering the Achilles injury. In other words, the higher side of fair market value.

[Eddie20]

So let me get this straight - just like 2013, when he tried to trade KG for Deandre Jordan, Ainge is attempting to trade some of our current players to get a guy who should have been a Celtic 6 years ago? *facepalm* Why, it's, it's, brilliant (sarcasm)! Ugh.

Btw, I love Wesley Matthews, but he's already to going to be 30 next year in addition to suffering that injury which certainly won't help his career going forward, and Aldridge isn't coming here, and he'll be 30 in July, so no thanks.  I'd say that Danny should just continue to build our team through the draft as opposed to gathering 'chips' and trading them for another rent-a-team with a 2-3 year window, but he's not good at that, so forget it.  Where can I put my head through a wall, lol ?

Captain Hindsight strikes again!

For real man, you can't point to every single player Ainge passed on who did something in the league and say "UGH! Ainge is horrible! How could he possibly miss DeAndre Jordan/Jimmy Butler etc. in the 2nd round!". Every GM in the league passed on those guys. Your holding him to some kind of impossible, made up standard where he's supposed to hit on every pick we have.

You look at it the wrong way. If you don't have a top 10-15 pick, the chances are MUCH greater that your pick washes out of the league in a few years than it is he becomes a real NBA caliber rotation player. Much like a baseball player at bat, there are ways to hit a higher percentage of those kinda of picks than your contemporaries but it will always be much more likely you fail than you getting a hit. Ainge has proven himself a very capable drafter. Probably top 10 in the league at it. And he's certainly a top 5 GM overall.

Do you not remember what it was like before Ainge? There's only a couple teams in league that wouldn't trade their GM for Ainge, and even the few that wouldn't would seriously consider it. What's the point of getting hung up on every player we didn't pick that turned into someone?

TP for a good response to an equally bad post.

[slamtheking]

If we sign Aldridge, it should be because we have a deal for Cousins in place.

Sully, Wallace (expiring), Young and 5x 1st rounders could put us here:

Smart / Bradley / Crowder ($5M/yr) / Aldridge / Cousins
Bench: Thomas, Turner, KO, Zeller, #28, #33

We'd have the best offensive frontcourt in the NBA, excellent defense, a deep bench, and money to spend again each of the next 2 offseasons.

not a bad idea.  Personally, I'd keep Sully over KO so that we have some rebounding off the bench and I'd be hesitant to give up 5 first rounders without knowing which ones.  If it's 2 of the Nets picks, I'm not giving up 5 total firsts.   I'd consider 2015 C's, 2016 Dallas Pick (likely lottery), 2016 C's pick (likely in the 20's if we get LMA and Cousins), 2016 Nets' pick (highly likely in lottery and very high).   If they want more, I'd have to consider quality vs volume of picks. 

[slamtheking]

DRAFT: If the Cs are committed to clearing cap space and moving Sully and/or KO to improve the talent on the roster then try to trade Wallace, #16 and #28 to a team in the #20-#25 range for their pick and a salary dump. The only team that may fit this is Toronto.
EX. Wallace, #16, #28 to Raptors for #20 and a future 2nd, draft Harrell at #20, D Wright or Andrew Harrison at #33, draft and stash at #45

Horrible, horrible, horrible!!!

AT WORST, to unload Wallace, C's would use the #28 pick.  no need to give away #16 on top of that for essentially dropping back 4 spots to pick up yet another future second round pick.  just awful. 

Wallace is an expiring deal that is not a backbreaking amount.  in fact, his contract would fit into a trade for a well-paid player nicely either for the C's or the team taking on his contract. 

[Celtics4ever]

Personally, I'd keep Sully over KO so that we have some rebounding off the bench

You'd lose defense, but he is the better rebounder.

[slamtheking]

Personally, I'd keep Sully over KO so that we have some rebounding off the bench

You'd lose defense, but he is the better rebounder.

When the comparison is KO, the difference on D isn't all that much from what I've seen this season

[saltlover]

Does anyone know if we could potentially get 3 'max' level players via trade and free agency?

ie:

-get L Aldridge ($16 million) via trade (send out Wallace $10 million+ Bradley $8 million +Sullinger+picks)

-sign D Jordan as free agent ($20.1 million)

-sign and trade with Milwaukee to bring Khris Middleton here so his salary doesn't take us into the luxury tax? (send IT $7 million+Turner $3.3 million+ resigned Bass at $5 million)

Does something like the above have a *possibility* of working even if highly unlikely?

Saltlover?

Sure, it can work if we allow that all the teams and players would do it, as long as you drop Bass from the equation.  He messes it all up.  But you don't need him, so let's remove him from the deal.  But a couple of minor points:

The max salary for Jordan and Aldridge should be right around $19 million.  They're both getting the max, so we should account for it properly.

Secondly, below I'll discuss how it could be done similar to your idea, but with the Celtics sending out as little salary as possible, so you see how much room there is to work with your idea.

The order of events is that first DeAndre Jordan is signed with cap room.  This means we renounce Bass, which is why we need to take him out of your deal with Milwaukee.

Secondly, you can match up to $19.2 million in salaries for Aldridge with Wallace, Sullinger (or Olynyk), Pressey, and Babb.  That should be right at the max.  This lets you keep Bradley (for now).  (Also, you're obviously sending picks).  It also lessens the salary obligations Portland needs to take on for 2015, since Pressey and Babb aren't guaranteed.

For Middleton, you'll need to send out about $11 million in salary.  The trick is that since we've had to eliminate Bass from the equation, Thomas and Turner don't quite get you there ($10.3 mil combined).  However, Bradley and Turner do, as they combine for $11.1 million.

After doing that, you're still about $7.8 million below the tax, and $11.8 million below the hard cap (which the Celtics are subject to due to two sign-and-trades).  They also have a roster of the following:

Smart
Thomas
Middleton
Aldridge
Jordan
Olynyk
Zeller
Young
16th overall
28th overall

(I've assumed that Portland is getting future picks like something unprotected from Brooklyn, as opposed to our picks from this year.)

This means the C's could do all of the following if they stayed below the hard cap:

Sign a free agent with the room exception of $2.8 million (after Jordan, before all the other trades).
Sign their second-round picks to deals for longer than 2 years
Re-sign Crowder for a deal of no more than $6.2 million in year 1.
Keep a million banked to fill the 15th roster roster slot for a minimum player later in the year, as depth needs dictate.

Accordingly, yes, you can pretty much do what you described, but for the Bass issue, and you actually have a lot of extra room to maneuver (I didn't trade Thomas, for instance, and I kept all of our picks for this year).  I don't think for a second it will happen, but as a thought exercise, it is indeed possible for the Celtics to get three max players this summer, while retaining several of their key players from this past season.

[TheTruthFot18]

Its not out of the question that 16 +TE gets you Gibson and 28 + Wallace + ET gets you Hibbert

Then you could package Sully AB and KO to get Stanley Johnson in the draft.

If that's all it takes to get Hibbert do that ASAP. Not huge on Hibbert but for the price I'd jump.

Also S. Johnson shouldn't go until 7-9 so I think Sully/KO + 16 for that pick and  bad contract would be even.

Smart, IT4
AB, Young,
Johnson, Crowder
KO, (2nd rounder)
Hibbert, Zeller.

Not a title contender but that roster sits at under 40 mil assuming Hibbert doesn't get any more than 10 mil a year.

[pearljammer10]

Its not out of the question that 16 +TE gets you Gibson and 28 + Wallace + ET gets you Hibbert

Then you could package Sully AB and KO to get Stanley Johnson in the draft.

If that's all it takes to get Hibbert do that ASAP. Not huge on Hibbert but for the price I'd jump.

Also S. Johnson shouldn't go until 7-9 so I think Sully/KO + 16 for that pick and  bad contract would be even.

Smart, IT4
AB, Young,
Johnson, Crowder
KO, (2nd rounder)
Hibbert, Zeller.

Not a title contender but that roster sits at under 40 mil assuming Hibbert doesn't get any more than 10 mil a year.

Which he absolutely will.

That package doesn't even get us close to a conversation about Hibbert.