Portland trade idea.

[Denis998]

I feel that you are undervaluing IT, he is like the second best player on our team. He is a mastermind in the pick and roll, and our only consistent option at the 3 pointer. He is also like top 5 in 4th quarter points. The value he brings to our team is beyond belief, and is to be credited for the run we made once he got here.

And what happened in the playoffs? IT is a good six man but you need spacing and good bigs. Sully, KO and Zeller aren't good enough bigs. AB, Turner, Crowder and Smart not good enough shooters. Off the bench in Portland he is a better fit especially when Lillard is struggling. For this team IT helps, stuck in no man's land a bottom 7-10 team in the East, yuck

Picture this. What was Lebron's efficiency when he was playing Golden State? How many shots did he miss? That is what happens when a top tier defense locks on you. The same thing happened to IT when Blatt focused his defense on stopping IT.

[emajic1]

IT is the best player on the team and he has one of, if not the best contracts out there; aside from rookie contracts.

This.  3 more years of one of the best contracts in the NBA, and for someone who seems like he loves playing for the Celtics.  I wouldn't trade him for anything less than as part of a superstar package.  No to any potential draft picks trade(s) as well.

[Csfan1984]

I feel that you are undervaluing IT, he is like the second best player on our team. He is a mastermind in the pick and roll, and our only consistent option at the 3 pointer. He is also like top 5 in 4th quarter points. The value he brings to our team is beyond belief, and is to be credited for the run we made once he got here.

And what happened in the playoffs? IT is a good six man but you need spacing and good bigs. Sully, KO and Zeller aren't good enough bigs. AB, Turner, Crowder and Smart not good enough shooters. Off the bench in Portland he is a better fit especially when Lillard is struggling. For this team IT helps, stuck in no man's land a bottom 7-10 team in the East, yuck

Except your proposal does nothing - NOTHING - to help the Celtics get better. You want spacing and good bigs. Well, how do the players you propose to acquire help with that? Batum certainly isn't a big and certainly doesn't help with shooting, connecting on only 32% of 3 point attempts last year. McCollum is a bench player and nothing more. You trade away good players who contributed to the Cs getting to the playoffs for an overpriced stiff whose contract is expiring next year (don't we have one of those in Gerald Wallace?), a bench player and yet another mid-round 1st.

No one disagrees that the Cs need more help to be a top squad in the East. It's just that your proposal does absolutely zilch to accomplish it. Where's the shooting you want? Where's the spacing you want? Where's the big man you want? Nowhere to be found! So how does that help? Oh, maybe it's designed to throw assets out the door for pennies to get worse so *maybe* the Celtics can win a good spot in the lottery next year. If the Cs were going to do that, they would have not acquired IT and they would have done it this past year. That ship sailed about 5 months ago. See it on the horizon? Wave bye bye to it.

How about let's not panic by sending good players away for nothing. Instead, let's continue to acquire assets - Sully and IT both qualify as good assets - so that when there's an opportunity to get shooting, a big man or whatever else the Cs actually have the firepower to pull off a deal. Doesn't that sound so much better?

Batum had a down year and he is better than Turner. It may not solve problems but McCollum may develop and it offers cap space.

[Denis998]

I feel that you are undervaluing IT, he is like the second best player on our team. He is a mastermind in the pick and roll, and our only consistent option at the 3 pointer. He is also like top 5 in 4th quarter points. The value he brings to our team is beyond belief, and is to be credited for the run we made once he got here.

And what happened in the playoffs? IT is a good six man but you need spacing and good bigs. Sully, KO and Zeller aren't good enough bigs. AB, Turner, Crowder and Smart not good enough shooters. Off the bench in Portland he is a better fit especially when Lillard is struggling. For this team IT helps, stuck in no man's land a bottom 7-10 team in the East, yuck

Except your proposal does nothing - NOTHING - to help the Celtics get better. You want spacing and good bigs. Well, how do the players you propose to acquire help with that? Batum certainly isn't a big and certainly doesn't help with shooting, connecting on only 32% of 3 point attempts last year. McCollum is a bench player and nothing more. You trade away good players who contributed to the Cs getting to the playoffs for an overpriced stiff whose contract is expiring next year (don't we have one of those in Gerald Wallace?), a bench player and yet another mid-round 1st.

No one disagrees that the Cs need more help to be a top squad in the East. It's just that your proposal does absolutely zilch to accomplish it. Where's the shooting you want? Where's the spacing you want? Where's the big man you want? Nowhere to be found! So how does that help? Oh, maybe it's designed to throw assets out the door for pennies to get worse so *maybe* the Celtics can win a good spot in the lottery next year. If the Cs were going to do that, they would have not acquired IT and they would have done it this past year. That ship sailed about 5 months ago. See it on the horizon? Wave bye bye to it.

How about let's not panic by sending good players away for nothing. Instead, let's continue to acquire assets - Sully and IT both qualify as good assets - so that when there's an opportunity to get shooting, a big man or whatever else the Cs actually have the firepower to pull off a deal. Doesn't that sound so much better?

Batum had a down year and he is better than Turner. It may not solve problems but McCollum may develop and it offers cap space.

when you look at the advanced stats Batum is nearly the same player as Turner, and Turner has a slight advantage in the stats. For the argument that Batum has had a off year, his stats are only marginally worse than last year.

[Csfan1984]

I feel that you are undervaluing IT, he is like the second best player on our team. He is a mastermind in the pick and roll, and our only consistent option at the 3 pointer. He is also like top 5 in 4th quarter points. The value he brings to our team is beyond belief, and is to be credited for the run we made once he got here.

And what happened in the playoffs? IT is a good six man but you need spacing and good bigs. Sully, KO and Zeller aren't good enough bigs. AB, Turner, Crowder and Smart not good enough shooters. Off the bench in Portland he is a better fit especially when Lillard is struggling. For this team IT helps, stuck in no man's land a bottom 7-10 team in the East, yuck

Except your proposal does nothing - NOTHING - to help the Celtics get better. You want spacing and good bigs. Well, how do the players you propose to acquire help with that? Batum certainly isn't a big and certainly doesn't help with shooting, connecting on only 32% of 3 point attempts last year. McCollum is a bench player and nothing more. You trade away good players who contributed to the Cs getting to the playoffs for an overpriced stiff whose contract is expiring next year (don't we have one of those in Gerald Wallace?), a bench player and yet another mid-round 1st.

No one disagrees that the Cs need more help to be a top squad in the East. It's just that your proposal does absolutely zilch to accomplish it. Where's the shooting you want? Where's the spacing you want? Where's the big man you want? Nowhere to be found! So how does that help? Oh, maybe it's designed to throw assets out the door for pennies to get worse so *maybe* the Celtics can win a good spot in the lottery next year. If the Cs were going to do that, they would have not acquired IT and they would have done it this past year. That ship sailed about 5 months ago. See it on the horizon? Wave bye bye to it.

How about let's not panic by sending good players away for nothing. Instead, let's continue to acquire assets - Sully and IT both qualify as good assets - so that when there's an opportunity to get shooting, a big man or whatever else the Cs actually have the firepower to pull off a deal. Doesn't that sound so much better?

Batum had a down year and he is better than Turner. It may not solve problems but McCollum may develop and it offers cap space.

when you look at the advanced stats Batum is nearly the same player as Turner, and Turner has a slight advantage in the stats. For the argument that Batum has had a off year, his stats are only marginally worse than last year.

Any one watching the game knows these two aren't even close. Turner needs the ball to be a factor Batum does not and can make the most out of what the defense gives him.

[Granath]

I feel that you are undervaluing IT, he is like the second best player on our team. He is a mastermind in the pick and roll, and our only consistent option at the 3 pointer. He is also like top 5 in 4th quarter points. The value he brings to our team is beyond belief, and is to be credited for the run we made once he got here.

And what happened in the playoffs? IT is a good six man but you need spacing and good bigs. Sully, KO and Zeller aren't good enough bigs. AB, Turner, Crowder and Smart not good enough shooters. Off the bench in Portland he is a better fit especially when Lillard is struggling. For this team IT helps, stuck in no man's land a bottom 7-10 team in the East, yuck

Except your proposal does nothing - NOTHING - to help the Celtics get better. You want spacing and good bigs. Well, how do the players you propose to acquire help with that? Batum certainly isn't a big and certainly doesn't help with shooting, connecting on only 32% of 3 point attempts last year. McCollum is a bench player and nothing more. You trade away good players who contributed to the Cs getting to the playoffs for an overpriced stiff whose contract is expiring next year (don't we have one of those in Gerald Wallace?), a bench player and yet another mid-round 1st.

No one disagrees that the Cs need more help to be a top squad in the East. It's just that your proposal does absolutely zilch to accomplish it. Where's the shooting you want? Where's the spacing you want? Where's the big man you want? Nowhere to be found! So how does that help? Oh, maybe it's designed to throw assets out the door for pennies to get worse so *maybe* the Celtics can win a good spot in the lottery next year. If the Cs were going to do that, they would have not acquired IT and they would have done it this past year. That ship sailed about 5 months ago. See it on the horizon? Wave bye bye to it.

How about let's not panic by sending good players away for nothing. Instead, let's continue to acquire assets - Sully and IT both qualify as good assets - so that when there's an opportunity to get shooting, a big man or whatever else the Cs actually have the firepower to pull off a deal. Doesn't that sound so much better?

Batum had a down year and he is better than Turner. It may not solve problems but McCollum may develop and it offers cap space.

when you look at the advanced stats Batum is nearly the same player as Turner, and Turner has a slight advantage in the stats. For the argument that Batum has had a off year, his stats are only marginally worse than last year.

Any one watching the game knows these two aren't even close. Turner needs the ball to be a factor Batum does not and can make the most out of what the defense gives him.

And neither does Crowder, who is a much (much, much) better defender.

And again, what do you plan to do with all of this cap space? We already have quite a bit and it doesn't do any good to have it sitting there unused.

[Celtics4ever]

OP is a Portland fan perhaps?   Mad about potentially losing Aldridge?

[Csfan1984]

What to do with all the cap? Well C's have enough for one max guy right now and other than Monroe no upper tier FAs seem to have us on their list. They probably understand our players are not ready for a deep playoff run because they are young and there is no star. But after this year there will be more development in their abilities, you have $ for two max guys as well as more high picks. You can pitch a better overall team with a bright future and the pairing of two stars. Not regular nice players, Stars. That is because you didn't blow $ on Crowder, Gigi, Bass and the weak lower FAs this year. C's can say to any star, we can sign any max guy you want to pair with if you come here and we have the ammo to trade for any top 15-25 player as well as the third big piece. Again if we get a big free agent this year things are different of course you have no need for this trade because you don't need the cap space to be $40 million +. You can stick to regular guys expiring that on roster already. But you can not sit idle if you have no star. If you miss in this FA then you have come with a new plan of pairing two guys as an attractive idea and you need to at least go for another high draft pick.

[Granath]

What to do with all the cap? Well C's have enough for one max guy right now and other than Monroe no upper tier FAs seem to have us on their list. They probably understand our players are not ready for a deep playoff run because they are young and there is no star. But after this year there will be more development in their abilities, you have $ for two max guys as well as more high picks. You can pitch a better overall team with a bright future and the pairing of two stars. Not regular nice players, Stars. That is because you didn't blow $ on Crowder, Gigi, Bass and the weak lower FAs this year. C's can say to any star, we can sign any max guy you want to pair with if you come here and we have the ammo to trade for any top 15-25 player as well as the third big piece. Again if we get a big free agent this year things are different of course you have no need for this trade because you don't need the cap space to be $40 million +. You can stick to regular guys expiring that on roster already. But you can not sit idle if you have no star. If you miss in this FA then you have come with a new plan of pairing two guys as an attractive idea and you need to at least go for another high draft pick.

So to summarize this...you have no plan except to outright tank, hope for a good draft pick and/or hope for a top FA to sign with the Celtics. Yeah, uh...as I said two pages ago, that ship has long past sailed.

Dismantling a young playoff team on a wing and a prayer is not generally thought of as a great stroke of a master plan.

[HomerSapien]

If Ainge makes a trade this bad I'll be calling for his head. It makes the Celtics markedly worse and hurts our ability to acquire better players in the future. It also makes us about a 30 - 35 win team next season unless Marcus Smart turns into Dwayne Wade this offseason because you are trading away the 3 players the Celtics can go to to create offense.

I happen to like Batum, but he's not what the Celtics need. Batum is best playing off other players offensively, and occasionally initiating offense as a change of pace. And if CJ McCollum reaches his ceiling he might be able to be a less good version of IT4.

I'd suggest going back to the drawing board.

[Denis998]

This is what trade machine says:
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ocx58yc
I don't even see this so called gain in cap space. The only contract I see getting cut is IT, He is on one of the best contracts in the NBA.

[Rida]

Was thinking about Blazers situation. Injuries, bench scoring and big man depth hurt them these last playoffs. If they really want to keep LA and make a deep run they need a roster change up. Of course C's could use a good young player asset and a guy that provides cap space in 2016 to pair with Wallace coming off books.

C's trade: IT, Turner and Sully
Blazers trade: Batum, McCollum and future first.

For C's Batum is banged up (often) but has one year left. He is also a decent SF when healthy. McCollum is a promising SG prospect to backup AB. 2015 draft may end up with Payne as bpa at 16. Payne can be backup PG for C's but I prefer C's take Andrew Harrison or Rozi at 33 to play backup PG. This means C's take Portis or Lyles at 16 to replace Sully. This also allows Smart to get his true shot at running the team.

Lineup: Smart, AB, Batum, KO, Zeller
Bench: Harrison (33), McCollum, Young,  Wallace, Portis (16), Christmas (45),

Blazers over haul their bench to provide some real fire power. They are also in prime draft spot to get Anderson, RHJ, or Hunter to play SF off bench.

Lineup: Lillard, Affalo, Turner, LA, Lopez
Bench: IT, Mathews, Anderson (24), Sully, Leonard, Kaman

Thats a horrible trade for us, did you not see Batum's numbers this year?

[Csfan1984]

What to do with all the cap? Well C's have enough for one max guy right now and other than Monroe no upper tier FAs seem to have us on their list. They probably understand our players are not ready for a deep playoff run because they are young and there is no star. But after this year there will be more development in their abilities, you have $ for two max guys as well as more high picks. You can pitch a better overall team with a bright future and the pairing of two stars. Not regular nice players, Stars. That is because you didn't blow $ on Crowder, Gigi, Bass and the weak lower FAs this year. C's can say to any star, we can sign any max guy you want to pair with if you come here and we have the ammo to trade for any top 15-25 player as well as the third big piece. Again if we get a big free agent this year things are different of course you have no need for this trade because you don't need the cap space to be $40 million +. You can stick to regular guys expiring that on roster already. But you can not sit idle if you have no star. If you miss in this FA then you have come with a new plan of pairing two guys as an attractive idea and you need to at least go for another high draft pick.

So to summarize this...you have no plan except to outright tank, hope for a good draft pick and/or hope for a top FA to sign with the Celtics. Yeah, uh...as I said two pages ago, that ship has long past sailed.

Dismantling a young playoff team on a wing and a prayer is not generally thought of as a great stroke of a master plan.

Its almost the same plan DA put in when he dismantled a young playoff team that had no shot. What would be your plan if C's lose out on marquee FAs this season? Blow your $ on Danny Green, Crowder and Thompson? C's may need to take a step back allow guys to really develop and try to have as much cash and assets to make moves when the time comes. I don't want another first round sweep.

[Csfan1984]

This is what trade machine says:
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ocx58yc
I don't even see this so called gain in cap space. The only contract I see getting cut is IT, He is on one of the best contracts in the NBA.

But what other contract would you move to still have over 40 million in space for two FAs in 2016? I'm not about to dump a two way player like AB who starts. Also Smart plays starting PG. You move your six-man.