Trade Deadline Blockbuster (Idea): Celtics/Pelicans

[PhoSita]

I appreciate the creative thinking, but I'm not sure this trade makes sense for either team involved.

Tyreke doesn't make sense on the same team with Isaiah Thomas and Marcus Smart, not to mention that his lack of shooting or defense on the wing wouldn't exactly help the Celts in areas in which they are weak.

Ryno's shooting would help the Celts with their weaknesses in that area, but he's not a playmaker at all and Stevens likes having guys at the 4 who can create for others.  Ryno is a pure 4, too, and Stevens doesn't seem to prefer guys who lack positional versatility. 

Not to mention, this trade would kill the Celts' cap space pretty badly, and Danny Ainge values flexibility too much to do it.

For the Pels, I just think this would set them back too far.  This may be a lost year for them already, but I don't think they'll be willing to punt on next year, as well.

[slamtheking]

The Pelicans are currently 4-15 on the season. More than likely they will miss playoffs and end up with a top 5 lottery pick.

I think Ainge should take advantage of their losing situation by helping them get slightly worse to max out their lottery chances.

DISCLAIMER: The following trade proposal is contingent on the value of the Dallas & Boston 2016 1st round picks at the deadline. This trade would ONLY be made IF the DAL & BOS picks ARE NOT lottery picks. IF either is a lottery pick, then the pick(s) would be considered too valuable and there's no way Ainge would make this trade.

Here's the breakdown:

TO BOS: Evans/Anderson/Douglas/Babbit/Perkins

TO NO: Lee/Jerebko/Turner/Olynyk/Young
           
            2016 DAL 1st
            2016 BOS 1st
           
            2017 CLE 2nd

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Douglas & Babbit would both have non guaranteed contracts for next season.
Perkins is on a one year deal. We'd likely end up waiving Douglas.


Depth Chart after trade:

Smart/IT4/Rozier
Evans/Bradley/Hunter
Crowder/Evans/Babbit
Sully/Anderson/Mickey
Amir/Zeller/Perkins
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THOUGHTS? Giving up too much, too little? 

What's the point of this deal?  getting Tyreke?  gross overpayment and not seeing the need right now where he makes us that much better

[Quetzalcoatl]

What kind of silly assertion is this? It's almost as if their record is largely due to the fact that literally half the team was out with injury to start the season. 31-year-old, 5'9" Nate Robinson coming off an ACL tear was their starting point guard for the first two games. Perkins was the starting center.

I've seen Tyreke play plenty of times and he's a stat chasing ball hog.  The Pelicans have the same record as the Nets right now, but they have Davis who has only missed 3 1/2 games and the Pelicans have had an easier schedule. 

My main point is this: their whole team except for Davis (and maybe Eric Gordon) are exactly why you don't make trades like this or sign free agents for too much money.  They have a bunch of players who will take up too much cap space relative to their two way production.  Evans puts up numbers so he'll get paid, but he plays SG/SF and he's not top 10 at either position. 

Evans right now is making $10 m a year, but also is causing a $10 million cap hit to the Pelicans.  He's costing them $20m a year right now.  He is the reason that they can't sign any more players and for what?  So he can try a bunch of iso plays?  They're like the Kings but sadder.

[Endless Paradise]

What kind of silly assertion is this? It's almost as if their record is largely due to the fact that literally half the team was out with injury to start the season. 31-year-old, 5'9" Nate Robinson coming off an ACL tear was their starting point guard for the first two games. Perkins was the starting center.

I've seen Tyreke play plenty of times and he's a stat chasing ball hog.

That's cool, but completely irrelevant as to why they're 4-15 this year given that Evans made his season debut a grand total of 3 games ago (when the team was 3-13 -- in other words, already terrible) and despite supposedly being a "stat chasing ball hog," they still made the playoffs last year with a winning record and with him playing a significant role.

The Pelicans have the same record as the Nets right now, but they have Davis who has only missed 3 1/2 games and the Pelicans have had an easier schedule. 

... and you think the fact that they're currently leading the league in man games lost at 88 has nothing to do with that?

[obnoxiousmime]

This trade only makes sense if you believe Evans is a star, which at this point almost nobody believes. Not to mention, he's remarkably brittle.

However, the Celtics do need to target someone LIKE Evans (only not him), in the respect that there are players out there who for whatever reason have fallen out of favor but still young enough so that they might improve from their mid-20s into their peak. Guys like Kyle Lowry or Trevor Ariza are examples that come to mind. Barring a miraculous star FA signing, those are the type of players the Celtics would find available to them, and players whose age would match the current average age on the roster.

They might have to wait until after the salary cap explosion to pass though, since every team will be able to keep their FAs this offseason. It's not a good time to be hoping for talent to trickle down from the good teams to the bad due to cap restrictions. Unless you think guys like David Lee are a great acquisition.