Potential Devalued/Wasted Assets - Cause for Alarm? create roster spots?

[mef730]

I heard Brooklyn doesn't have their draft pick. Has anyone started a thread about the Celtics trading Brooklyn their pick back in exchange for Brook Lopez?



Mike

[Csfan1984]

Pretty much what others have said between guys leaving and draft stash players team is still okay

[crimson_stallion]

Hello Celtic Nation, i am beyond thrilled at our stash of draft picks, our young talent already on the roster, our future, however i am very concerned about the state of our assets for this year specifically.

If a perfect scenario unfolds where we end up with the Nets/Mavs/Wolves draft picks along with ours and all of the second round picks we are owed, that is like 6 or 7 roster spots.
We already had to cut Perry Jones because we were at our absolute limit space wise.
Can someone please extrapolate how we can go from our existing 15 players while adding 6 or 7 more drafted players without having to burn or waste assets in the form of either draft picks or valuable players we currently have on the team? the only expiring contract on the books I believe is David Lee. We would need to potentially create at a minimum 3 or 4 additional spots.

My concern is other teams know that the Celtics Absolutely have to consolidate this year and essentially are going to make those transactions as expensive as possible.
Are we going to find ourselves in a situation where Danny has to overpay on every deal JUST to be able to consolidate his assets? We all saw how attempting to consolidate and trade up didn't work in last year's draft.

I would love to hear people's thoughts on this potentially gloomy issue.

Nothing gloomy as I see it.

Lee ($15M), Turner ($3.4M), Sully ($2.6M) and Zeller ($2.6M) all expire after this season. 

Amir Johnson I believe has his second year on-guaranteed.  If so, then Boston could waive his $12M after this year, should they need the cap/roster space.

Olynyk will only have one year (at around $2.2m) left after this season, so he could be traded (as an expiring contact) or waived easily enough.

Young is only on $1.8M a year, and would only have two years left after this season. If he continues to suck royal butt, then the Celtics could buy out his $3.5m or so and just let him walk...or trade him to another team for a non-guaranteed contact (that can be waived) or a protected second round pick.

If they really wanted to, Boston could pretty easily free up 4 roster spaces after this season, and with tad more effort as much as 6.

That's of course not including things like potential 2-for-1 trades.

i doubt Boston would keep more than three of the drafted players on the actual roster - i'd say the Nets one of course, and maybe the Dallas one.  High chance Boston tries to package their pick, the Timberwolves and the Mavericks pick to to move up a coupe of spots.
 

[trickybilly]

Zhou Qi, Timothe Luwawu, my boy from last year: Aleksandar Vezenkov, Alpha Kaba, George de Paula....we're good! 

If we draft Furkan Korkmaz though, I want to play him right away.

Love the way he handled that first question:

http://www.draftexpress.com/article/Furkan-Korkmaz-2015-FIBA-U19-World-Championship-Interview-5147/

[chambers]

I think you're overvaluing guys like Amir and Jerebko if you're calling them wasted assets if we let them walk next year.
They are not here to be re-signed, they are here because they fill a current need and also have potential trade value...both as role players on contenders and as larger salary fillers if we do make a large trade for a star with large salary.

Eg if the devine basketball gods bless us and the Kings want to trade us DeMarcus Cousins, we need that salary to accommodate. Odds are it won't happen, but we need to be ready in case the opportunity arises.

Ainge is still kicking himself for letting Darryl Morey pry Harden away from OKC.
Ainge tried to get Harden instead of Jeff Green. He saw the potential split between Harden and OKC coming and gambled that OKC would pay Harden rather than let him walk- after all Sam Presti would never let Harden walk given his talent and per minute production..but even the great ones screw up every now and then.

You can't expect every player that's expiring or has a team option to be a guaranteed asset, a lot of them are contingency assets that may or may not net us a return- but having them can help obviously.
Who are our contingency assets?
-Evan Turner
-Jerebko
-Johnson
-Lee
-Zeller.

None of these guys are long term keepers for whatever reason- but they fill generic needs for our team and potentially for other teams around the league.

Ainge's idea is that the more of these cheap+undervalued guys he can collect,  the more chance we have of gaining a few picks from the collective group when other teams require a cheap+quick solution.

Personally I don't love this strategy and would rather try and develop our young guys into serious value assets, than rely on a few 2nd rounders for Evan Turner.
Ainge has already thought about this though and I'm assuming he's going to cull a lot of this roster in the offseason and turn to a serious youth movement based on player development.

Now that I've finished rambling about the value of Amir and Jerebko, to answer your OP concern- Danny has a multitude of expiring contracts and non guaranteed deals. And if he really needs to, he can draft and stash some players in Europe.

Yes, other GM's know that Danny has an overflow of picks, but if he wants to draft all 6 picks next year he can easily do it. That probably won't happen and he'll consolidate them if needed- but he's not hamstrung by any means.
He understands, similarly to Rob Hennigan of the Magic, how important flexibility is in these early rebuilding stages.
Good post though and I understand your concerns.  TP.

[positivitize]

I think this problem is a lot like a game of poker where you have pocket aces and two other players each have an ace (all in situation so all players know what everyone has). While there's a minor drawback (no chance for improvement in the poker game / Ainge being strong-armed into a deal to make roster space work), you still have to feel pretty happy about the pocket aces.

[bergerac33]

Thanks for the kind words Chambers.

I do think there is a tendency to undervalue an asset if they were acquired in free agency as opposed to drafted/traded.  Perhaps this is human nature, but in my opinion that explains why we didn't have to give up a whole lot to acquire Isiah Thomas. Isiah was signed as a free agent in Phoenix, therefore getting a first round draft pick for a free agent signing i'm sure seemed like a good return from Phoenix's perspective.

With regards to our roster, although both Amir and Jerebko were signed as free agents, i view them as assets for 2 reasons. Their contracts at least through the 2nd year Option are good values especially considering the rising cap. Secondly, I give Danny Ainge full credit for the high level analysis in identifying a solid role player rotting on a bench (Jonas) and an advanced stat darling who helps his team win games but does nothing flashy. Both of these players were specifically targeted and letting them go after 1 season in green would be a mistake.

I understand that if Demarcus was on the table, everything and the kitchen sink would be in play. Assuming that is not the case and additional building blocks are needed, then losing some of these still young veterans to make room for draft picks in my opinion would just be spinning our wheels.