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

[Evantime34]

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.

Ok I looked that up so I could disagree lol.

I'm not sure how I am appealing to emotion and what the red herring was. We were discussing if it would make sense to do such a deal, not if it was likely (since I already stated it was unlikely and that we discuss unlikely things all the time). I didn't use emotion or try to mislead, I simply stated that signing LMA and Matthews would be a great move.

Argumentum ad antiquitatem!
I'm nitpicking 

Appeal to emotion: where are your facts, Sir? All I see here is excitement and dedication to your team, but this can easily lead to wishful thinking.

Red herring: 'adding two players who immediately become our best players' introduces a new element to the conversation that is not relevant to whether these are the two best players to sign or more generally speaking this would be our best possible move for the summer.

But again we are arguing backwards, we are going from what would be best for the team to what is likely to happen. Even if this were the best of all possible moves for this summer, this makes it only marginally more likely to happen since it can influence decision making only on the Celtics side. Aldridge et al could care less about what is best for us.

Personally, I think the conversation is more fruitful if we discuss better substantiated rumours (eg from journalists who are likely to have inside information) and the options of the player. It does look like Aldridge is considering leaving Portland what other likely destinations are out there?
There are a lot of articles on Aldridge moving to Dallas and SAS. Then some journalists mention LAL and Knicks. The C's could be a dark horse in this race and it is too early to dismiss entirely the possibility of him coming to Boston, but for the time being we are just an outsider and nothing more than that.

First off thanks for the lesson, it's cool to learn stuff I wouldn't otherwise know.

Secondly, this is a message board. If I was writing an article on why this would be a great move for the C's I would look up numbers and figures that would indicate why those two players would be a great addition for the Celtics. I'm not writing an article so I won't be taking the time out to look up stats to prove my point.

I guess the argument to be made for Matthews and Aldridge is that Matthews would improve our 3 point shooting and wing defense, while Aldridge would improve our rebounding and give us a player who can create his own shot when the defense gets tight. The reason these players are the two best players the C's could sign is because Aldridge is the best name that has been associated with the Celtics this summer, while Matthews would be a conduit which would give the C's an improved chance of signing Aldridge.

I'm someone who loves player rumors as an avenue to discuss who would be the best players for the Celtics to add. If we only discussed rumors from credible sources that were substantiated then we wouldn't be discussing many rumors at all.

Others like Bill Simmons have mentioned Aldridge to Boston. The difference with this article is that it throws out the idea that he is a more obtainable target due to the notion that signing Matthews would increase the likelihood Aldridge signs here. I personally think of Love as a more likely target, but that won't prevent me from discussing whether I would sign Matthews even though he's coming back from a bad injury in an effort to attract Aldridge.

[Snakehead]

If you guys don't know better than to take Blakely seriously, I don't know what to say.

He's some insider.  Like his head is inside something.

[GzUP617]

If you guys don't know better than to take Blakely seriously, I don't know what to say.

He's some insider.  Like his head is inside something.

 TP,  My understanding is that you're correct on this one.

[Beat LA]

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?

Sigh.  I'm not using hindsight for Deandre Jordan or Wesley Matthews at all, and I've explained my stance on this topic too many times that I honestly don't care anymore, lol .

[chambers]

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.

Amazing that something like this is possible.
3 max free agents and retain IT and Crowder in a perfect world?
Your expertise is much appreciated.
 TP, TP, TP

[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?

Sigh.  I'm not using hindsight for Deandre Jordan or Wesley Matthews at all, and I've explained my stance on this topic too many times that I honestly don't care anymore, lol .

So who should Ainge draft this year? This way it's on record and years later you don't have a post saying "Ainge should've drafted this guy" riddled with emoticons, lol's, facepalms, sighs, etc.

[gpap]

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 ?

I don't understand this thinking! I really don't! Why would you want to wait to build through the draft, when you can possibly put together a contending team right now??

And who cares if Aldridge or Matthews are 30 years old. They are 10 times better than anything we have right now and make us instant contenders.

Finally, building through the draft could take years and guarantees you nothing

[gpap]

I love Wes Matthews, but I wouldn't make a substantial offer to him in free agency.  The injury he suffered is historically one of the worst kinds of injuries a player can suffer in terms of recovery and affect on the player's career long term.

If it helps you get LMA, then you make the move 10 times out of 10 without thinking about it.

Also, who's to say Matthews won't be fully recovered?

[gpap]

Am I the only one in this thread who finds ludicrous the idea that Ainge will offer a max to a player recovering from injury on the basis that he is good friends with a player we want to get on the basis of something Blakely said had 34% chances of happening after thinking for like half a second and even his two journalist friends on the panel could not control their laughter?

It's about taking risks.  If the Celts are ever going to become good again then they need to think outside the box instead of playing the same ol' status quo and acquiring subpar players like Zeller, Jerebko, Bass, etc.

If Matthews helps you get Aldridge, then you do it. Not to mention, who's to say Matthews won't be 100 percent by opening night and be even better than he was before.

The only REAL question to ask here is how realistic is this idea and is Blakely pulling our leg like he has in the past?

As for the idea itself, it's something Ainge should do any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

[JBcat]

I have an interesting question.  I think Aldridge is a better player than Love right now, but would you rather sign a 5 year deal for Aldridge from age 30 to 34, or Love age 27 through 31?  I can't decide.

[BDeCosta26]

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?

Sigh.  I'm not using hindsight for Deandre Jordan or Wesley Matthews at all, and I've explained my stance on this topic too many times that I honestly don't care anymore, lol .

I hope you didn't take offense to that, I see a lot of your posts around here and I respect your opinions. It just seems to me that whenever someone drafted late and/or near the spot we drafted at (regardless of how late in the draft it was), does something meaningful in the league, your the first one to say "Wow, Ainge is a horrible drafter, he didn't draft Player X when he had the chance, now look at what he's doing, we should've had him! Ugh!". That's 100% hindsight.

Ainge has drafted in the top 10 once in the past nine or ten years, last year, and Smart already looks much better than some of the guys drafted around him. He's picked a few guys who haven't panned out (JJJ, Fab Melo, Marcus Banks, Pruitt) but considering he's been in the league for over ten years and has only had one top-ten pick we actually kept he's had a lot more hits for where we've picked than misses. He's not the best drafter their is, but he's a pretty dang good one and considering everything else he does well we are lucky to have him.

I guess what I'm saying is, drafting after the top-10 is a true crapshoot. You can find valuable players later in the draft, and some guys are clearly better at it than others, but it's still much more likely the guy you pick washes out, and even the guys who are considered the best drafters have multiple misses in those areas of the draft. Like I said, when a baseball player bats .400, he still failed 60% of the time he batted, but we all consider that an amazing average because even for the best hitters it's still much more likely that you fail when you step up to the plate. Drafting in the NBA, especially later than the top 10 or so, should be viewed in much the same way. I just feel like your holding Ainge up to this impossible standard where he should be able to pick the guy who's going to have the greatest career of all the guys left on the board at every position in which he drafts. And that's just not fair, or realistic.

[Ilikesports17]

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?

Sigh.  I'm not using hindsight for Deandre Jordan or Wesley Matthews at all, and I've explained my stance on this topic too many times that I honestly don't care anymore, lol .

I hope you didn't take offense to that, I see a lot of your posts around here and I respect your opinions. It just seems to me that whenever someone drafted late and/or near the spot we drafted at (regardless of how late in the draft it was), does something meaningful in the league, your the first one to say "Wow, Ainge is a horrible drafter, he didn't draft Player X when he had the chance, now look at what he's doing, we should've had him! Ugh!". That's 100% hindsight.

Ainge has drafted in the top 10 once in the past nine or ten years, last year, and Smart already looks much better than some of the guys drafted around him. He's picked a few guys who haven't panned out (JJJ, Fab Melo, Marcus Banks, Pruitt) but considering he's been in the league for over ten years and has only had one top-ten pick we actually kept he's had a lot more hits for where we've picked than misses. He's not the best drafter their is, but he's a pretty dang good one and considering everything else he does well we are lucky to have him.

I guess what I'm saying is, drafting after the top-10 is a true crapshoot. You can find valuable players later in the draft, and some guys are clearly better at it than others, but it's still much more likely the guy you pick washes out, and even the guys who are considered the best drafters have multiple misses in those areas of the draft. Like I said, when a baseball player bats .400, he still failed 60% of the time he batted, but we all consider that an amazing average because even for the best hitters it's still much more likely that you fail when you step up to the plate. Drafting in the NBA, especially later than the top 10 or so, should be viewed in much the same way. I just feel like your holding Ainge up to this impossible standard where he should be able to pick the guy who's going to have the greatest career of all the guys left on the board at every position in which he drafts. And that's just not fair, or realistic.

TP for BDeCosta26 and to Beat LA, who should we draft this year? Honest question no sarcasm.

[Beat LA]

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?

Sigh.  I'm not using hindsight for Deandre Jordan or Wesley Matthews at all, and I've explained my stance on this topic too many times that I honestly don't care anymore, lol .

I hope you didn't take offense to that, I see a lot of your posts around here and I respect your opinions. It just seems to me that whenever someone drafted late and/or near the spot we drafted at (regardless of how late in the draft it was), does something meaningful in the league, your the first one to say "Wow, Ainge is a horrible drafter, he didn't draft Player X when he had the chance, now look at what he's doing, we should've had him! Ugh!". That's 100% hindsight.

Ainge has drafted in the top 10 once in the past nine or ten years, last year, and Smart already looks much better than some of the guys drafted around him. He's picked a few guys who haven't panned out (JJJ, Fab Melo, Marcus Banks, Pruitt) but considering he's been in the league for over ten years and has only had one top-ten pick we actually kept he's had a lot more hits for where we've picked than misses. He's not the best drafter their is, but he's a pretty dang good one and considering everything else he does well we are lucky to have him.

I guess what I'm saying is, drafting after the top-10 is a true crapshoot. You can find valuable players later in the draft, and some guys are clearly better at it than others, but it's still much more likely the guy you pick washes out, and even the guys who are considered the best drafters have multiple misses in those areas of the draft. Like I said, when a baseball player bats .400, he still failed 60% of the time he batted, but we all consider that an amazing average because even for the best hitters it's still much more likely that you fail when you step up to the plate. Drafting in the NBA, especially later than the top 10 or so, should be viewed in much the same way. I just feel like your holding Ainge up to this impossible standard where he should be able to pick the guy who's going to have the greatest career of all the guys left on the board at every position in which he drafts. And that's just not fair, or realistic.

It's not hindsight if the guy I wanted at the time, who also happened to be available when we picked, winds up being the much better player, whether that's immediately or a couple of years down the line.  I also don't agree with your baseball analogy at all, because hitting a baseball, even with scouting reports, is the hardest thing to do in sports, while drafting is not.  The two aren't even on the same level, imo. 

As for Ainge, yes, I do hate the guy, as you've obviously noticed, lol , and what really ticks me off is how everyone seems to laud him as this draft wizard, when the reality is that he hasn't drafted well in a long time, even though I did agree with his picks last year, but I did have other opinions on guys that we should have traded for, like KJ McDaniels.  You forgot to add Giddens, Lester Hudson, Luke Harangody, and Kris Joseph to your list of epic fails by Danny, btw, lol .

[Beat LA]

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?

Sigh.  I'm not using hindsight for Deandre Jordan or Wesley Matthews at all, and I've explained my stance on this topic too many times that I honestly don't care anymore, lol .

I hope you didn't take offense to that, I see a lot of your posts around here and I respect your opinions. It just seems to me that whenever someone drafted late and/or near the spot we drafted at (regardless of how late in the draft it was), does something meaningful in the league, your the first one to say "Wow, Ainge is a horrible drafter, he didn't draft Player X when he had the chance, now look at what he's doing, we should've had him! Ugh!". That's 100% hindsight.

Ainge has drafted in the top 10 once in the past nine or ten years, last year, and Smart already looks much better than some of the guys drafted around him. He's picked a few guys who haven't panned out (JJJ, Fab Melo, Marcus Banks, Pruitt) but considering he's been in the league for over ten years and has only had one top-ten pick we actually kept he's had a lot more hits for where we've picked than misses. He's not the best drafter their is, but he's a pretty dang good one and considering everything else he does well we are lucky to have him.

I guess what I'm saying is, drafting after the top-10 is a true crapshoot. You can find valuable players later in the draft, and some guys are clearly better at it than others, but it's still much more likely the guy you pick washes out, and even the guys who are considered the best drafters have multiple misses in those areas of the draft. Like I said, when a baseball player bats .400, he still failed 60% of the time he batted, but we all consider that an amazing average because even for the best hitters it's still much more likely that you fail when you step up to the plate. Drafting in the NBA, especially later than the top 10 or so, should be viewed in much the same way. I just feel like your holding Ainge up to this impossible standard where he should be able to pick the guy who's going to have the greatest career of all the guys left on the board at every position in which he drafts. And that's just not fair, or realistic.

TP for BDeCosta26 and to Beat LA, who should we draft this year? Honest question no sarcasm.

Well, I know that this is going to sound like a cop-out, but it'll depend on, as always, who's available, unless of course you're asking me to state who I'd realistically take in a perfect world scenario, lol .

[Beat LA]

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 ?

I don't understand this thinking! I really don't! Why would you want to wait to build through the draft, when you can possibly put together a contending team right now??

And who cares if Aldridge or Matthews are 30 years old. They are 10 times better than anything we have right now and make us instant contenders.

Finally, building through the draft could take years and guarantees you nothing

Those two guys would not make us instant contenders - not even in the eastern conference.  I just don't want to sell the farm for another rental team with a short-term window.