Celtics trade for David Lee

[LGC88]

Wouldn't be surprised if Ainge just swapped one expiring contract for a larger one with the thought that maybe Lee can earn a starting spot, put up nice numbers, and convince a playoff team desperate for productive big men to trade for him mid-season.

This. Lots of this.

He's another asset. A better one than Wallace.
Huge expiring contract and a very good player that might be in trade talk at the deadline. Meanwhile I think he will be huge for us to motivate our young bigs and teach them few things. If Sully & KO are still with us during the season, They will have to improve their game to take minutes out of Lee.
Well done Danny (again). No brainer.

[gpap]

dumb move in my opinion.
As i stated in the blog both players are well past their prime, I don't see Lee contributing to any additional wins.
Wallace was turning into a great mentor/coach to the young guys.. It was clear they listened to what he had to say. That alone makes me feel that Wallace is worth more than Lee to this team at this point.

ARE YOU SERIOUS?

MY GOD!

Wallace was a corpse who was playing garbage minutes

Wow…I feel like I am going to get into some serious disagreements with a lot of people on this thread, and rightfully so.

[aingeforthree]

I'm with D.o.s. on this one -- if you think David Lee is suddenly the best player on the Celtics, I'm not sure how great a handle you have on how NBA basketball works.

I don't think David Lee is a terrible basketball player -- D.o.s. and I diverge on that one -- but I think his value is situational and limited (see: the Finals).

That said, like Kris Humphries before him he'll earn major minutes because that's where this roster is at right now.

No, he'll earn minutes because he's darn good and a great fit for this team.  Provides upgrades in everything they struggled at last year.  Of course Ainge was after him.

[aingeforthree]

Sounds like Ainge has been after him for awhile....

David Lee's agent, Mark Bartlestein, says he and his client are happy with the trade to Boston and that Lee does not want to be re-routed elsewhere. Bartlestein: "They really like him. They pursued him for a long time. Bob Myers worked very hard with me to try and get David to a place he wanted to be. Boston is a great basketball town, great history with that franchise. It's an up and coming team. Everywhere David has been--Golden State, New York and now Boston--there has been a great basketball tradition. Every player wants to go where they can have a huge impact on a team's success."

[gpap]

brb finding a golden gate bridge to jump off of.

What, aren't you excited for our starting duo of 6'9'' 28-30 year old veterans in the frontcourt?

This is how you rebuild.


In all seriousness, I can't complain about the deal because at least Ainge is trying to acquire future assets.  This makes a lot more sense than signing Amir, even if it will solidify the Celts as a playoff also-ran with no shot at a top 10 pick.

A couple days ago you were applauding the Sixers for acquiring Stauskas, Thompson and Landry for nothing.

We acquired David Lee for nothing and Lee is a much better player

So applaud the Sixers and criticize this move?

[PhoSita]

brb finding a golden gate bridge to jump off of.

What, aren't you excited for our starting duo of 6'9'' 28-30 year old veterans in the frontcourt?

This is how you rebuild.


In all seriousness, I can't complain about the deal because at least Ainge is trying to acquire future assets.  This makes a lot more sense than signing Amir, even if it will solidify the Celts as a playoff also-ran with no shot at a top 10 pick.

A couple days ago you were applauding the Sixers for acquiring Stauskas, Thompson and Landry for nothing. *and future picks*

We acquired David Lee for nothing and Lee is a much better player

So applaud the Sixers and criticize this move?

See above

[gpap]

dumb move in my opinion.
As i stated in the blog both players are well past their prime, I don't see Lee contributing to any additional wins.
Wallace was turning into a great mentor/coach to the young guys.. It was clear they listened to what he had to say. That alone makes me feel that Wallace is worth more than Lee to this team at this point.

Yeah I am actually upset we're losing Wallace.  We have a ton of young guys and he's the perfect mentor.  I hope GS just buys him out and we hire him as an assistant coach.

So you're more upset about losing a crappy player who was getting NO minutes to be a mentor to subpar young players than being happy about acquiring a good player to help us win games.

Okay???

 

[Scintan]

dumb move in my opinion.
As i stated in the blog both players are well past their prime, I don't see Lee contributing to any additional wins.
Wallace was turning into a great mentor/coach to the young guys.. It was clear they listened to what he had to say. That alone makes me feel that Wallace is worth more than Lee to this team at this point.

Yeah I am actually upset we're losing Wallace.  We have a ton of young guys and he's the perfect mentor.  I hope GS just buys him out and we hire him as an assistant coach.

So you're more upset about losing a crappy player who was getting NO minutes to be a mentor to subpar young players than being happy about acquiring a good player to help us win games.

Okay???

 

If someone doesn't want the team making the playoffs, because they want the team in the lottery, they'd likely prefer Wallace over Lee.

[gpap]

What? No. Danny why

Because Lee is a good player.

[feckless]

For those who don't think David Lee will be the best big on the C's I need to know who on the C's has the skill set of Draymond Green to knock Lee out of the lineup?   

Also look at the tweets from David Lee's teammates and what he meant to Steph, Klay and Draymond in the locker room.  This is a nice upgrade, even if it is only for a 6 month or one year experiment!

[gpap]

Ken Berger ?@KBergCBS  4m4 minutes ago
No other components involved in David Lee-Gerald Wallace trade between Golden State and Boston, source says. Straight-up deal.

this I don't get.  we're helping them clear over $5 mill in salary next year.  should be worth a future second or a pick swap of one of our seconds to their first rounder.

Who cares about adding more worthless picks to our already worthless collection of picks?

We got the best player in the deal.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

Yes!
 
A player who's consistent and a scoring threat. Awesome sauce! Love to have David Lee. I understand we still have a log jam of PF's, but it doesn't hurt adding a very talented player to the squad.

So much better for the fan s , than paying all that money to Wallace to watch from the bench ......at least Lee should see the court ... Woo hoo !

Yes. David Lee is a very good player. Defense has holes, sure, but expect atlwat 18 and 8 every night, gives great attitude and and very unselfish with the ball, which fits our gunner guards. I'd take him over ANY PF we have right now. And he's expiring.

That's EXACLTY better than having Wallace sit on the bench. Lee will atleast command respect from defenses. He may not have the same efficiency numbers with us as he may be asked to carry a bit .ore of an offensive load, but expect consistent effort night in and night out.

I love this move.

[Lucky17]

What are the other options, though?

Commit to the youth movement and don't make moves unless they make sense in the context of improving the team over the next 4-5 years as opposed to the short term.

Don't depend on the stupidity or bad luck of other teams to make acquiring a star player possible.

Look to consolidate assets rather than continuing to proliferate lesser ones.


Hey, that's just my philosophy.  Clearly it's not Danny's.  We'll see how this all works out.  I'm gonna go ahead and doubt / naysay in the meantime.


This off-season so far feels like it's been driven at least in part by a desire to appease fans who got excited by the miracle run to the playoffs and would be crestfallen if the team fell back into the lottery pack.

I don't see it the same way. Ainge has improved the present roster without sacrificing much (any?) future flexibility. He's done little to jeopardize team chemistry, or gambled on bad eggs for the sake of talent.

There's still no franchise cornerstone, and that's a fair point. In the meantime, the roster stays competitive (if there's one thing we've learned this offseason, it's that free agents also care about winning as well as money), with plenty of assets to facilitate future improvement.

[Moranis]

dumb move in my opinion.
As i stated in the blog both players are well past their prime, I don't see Lee contributing to any additional wins.
Wallace was turning into a great mentor/coach to the young guys.. It was clear they listened to what he had to say. That alone makes me feel that Wallace is worth more than Lee to this team at this point.

Yeah I am actually upset we're losing Wallace.  We have a ton of young guys and he's the perfect mentor.  I hope GS just buys him out and we hire him as an assistant coach.

So you're more upset about losing a crappy player who was getting NO minutes to be a mentor to subpar young players than being happy about acquiring a good player to help us win games.

Okay???

 

If someone doesn't want the team making the playoffs, because they want the team in the lottery, they'd likely prefer Wallace over Lee.

I'd rather be in the lottery and I'd rather have Lee than Wallace.  Much better asset and better player.  Not sure he leads to all that many wins though, so I don't think he does much for the overall team. 

[BDeCosta26]

Don't know, but when an opportunity arises, then the Celtics gotta be ready.

For all our assets and flexibility we completely missed on the steal of this offseason (the 6ers-Kings trade.

The Harden trade was a complete fluke and we shouldn't be preparing for it to happen to us. We also definitely shouldn't be expecting to sign a FA as good as Dwight Howard.

We could've never gotten into that trade anyway. You really think Sacto agrees to that trade, centered around pick swaps and ONE top-ten protected pick? For one, we wouldn't have the cap space after the Johnson signing and the re-ups for Crowder and Jerebko to swallow the Thompson AND Landry contracts.

Two, if we took on those two guys and Stauskus (He's the centerpiece of that trade) in a salary dump for Sacto, we'd have a roster so log-jammed with players we would be forced to move them. We can't have an almost full roster, 4 new rookies, Stauskus and Thompson+Landry. You'd be in a position where your gonna have to try and consolidate assets and move guys, but when your being forced you make bad deals. Ainge is notorious for maintaining flexibility. Making that deal hurts that.

Three, Sacto wouldn't be willing to make a deal like that with us anyway. They centered the picks around swaps because in Sacramento's eyes, they're gonna build a competitive team around DMC. To them, the chances that Philly is better than them are really low. You gotta figure they're at least gonna be a late lottery team.

Unless they manage to win the lottery from that spot, which is highly unlikely, Philly probably won't even use those pick swaps. Even if the worst happens and Philly does use them, chances are Philly is still a high lottery team the next couple years, so the pick they get back in the swap won't be an awful pick. They couldn't do any of that with us. I know they have DMC, but we were a MUCH better team than they were, and most people expect that to continue. Even if they're optimistic enough to think they're team will fight for the 8th seed, there's a really good chance Boston is the 6th seed in the East with a better record than you. You get. #12, Boston gets #19 and bam, late lottery to late 1st round. That trade only goes through if the Sixers are involved.

I still like the trade for Philly though, they get a nice haul for taking on bad contracts with their but load of cap space . Doesn't effect what they're doing any. They probably will hardly play those guys save Stauskus. It's a great move for them, considering what they're doing over there (Which I just happen to despise.). But that move wasn't on the table for Ainge. It's not like he coulda just gone and swooped in on that deal. Sacto woulda never made that trade with anyone but Philly. The negativity around here is just flabbergasting.