It might be worth it to us to really overpay in a deadline trade for a star.

[obnoxiousmime]

I would be very hesitant to overpay for someone like Melo or Howard. The only Free Agent really moving the needle next offseason will be Durant and acquiring a guy like Melo, Howard or even DMC will give you an outside shot at him at best. If you don´t land Durant, you have blown future assets to become better now but without any chance at contending. Seems like a move to mediocrity to me. Teams like the Spurs, Cavs and Warriors are so far ahead of the Celtics at the moment, trading or signing disgruntled or aging tier2 stars will not change that. I would prefer to stay patient.

I guess it comes down to if you think adding DMC, Melo or Howard for Lee and picks would make us contending right now or not. You seem to think it wouldn't, I think it would. With DMC for example we would probably have a 20 percent shot at a title this year. That is contending. We'd probably also have a 50 percent shot of adding a rich chaser buy out that would give us an extra few percent shot at a title.

20%!!? Wow, that is unbelievable. The thing about the NBA is, if one team is better then they will win a 7-game series over you 9 times out of 10. This is assuming there aren't any serious injuries, of course. You're basically saying we'd be more or less equal to 2 of the 3 teams SAS, CLE, and GSW, because we'd need to beat two of them. 1/2 odds of winning over 2 series is 1/2 x 1/2 which equals 1/4 = 25%. You're basically saying the team would improve to a point where they are a slight underdog against those teams.

Cousins is an all-world talent, but he also brings risk in terms of his attitude and ability to lead a team deep into the playoffs, much less a title. I'd be excited to bring him in but I think he'd need to be surrounded by at least one other veteran star for the team to have realistic title hopes. I also think as he gets older he'll mature, but this year may be too soon to expect him to suddenly morph into a leader.

[CelticSince83]

I would be very hesitant to overpay for someone like Melo or Howard. The only Free Agent really moving the needle next offseason will be Durant and acquiring a guy like Melo, Howard or even DMC will give you an outside shot at him at best. If you don´t land Durant, you have blown future assets to become better now but without any chance at contending. Seems like a move to mediocrity to me. Teams like the Spurs, Cavs and Warriors are so far ahead of the Celtics at the moment, trading or signing disgruntled or aging tier2 stars will not change that. I would prefer to stay patient.

I guess it comes down to if you think adding DMC, Melo or Howard for Lee and picks would make us contending right now or not. You seem to think it wouldn't, I think it would. With DMC for example we would probably have a 20 percent shot at a title this year. That is contending. We'd probably also have a 50 percent shot of adding a rich chaser buy out that would give us an extra few percent shot at a title.

20%!!? Wow, that is unbelievable. The thing about the NBA is, if one team is better then they will win a 7-game series over you 9 times out of 10. This is assuming there aren't any serious injuries, of course. You're basically saying we'd be more or less equal to 2 of the 3 teams SAS, CLE, and GSW, because we'd need to beat two of them. 1/2 odds of winning over 2 series is 1/2 x 1/2 which equals 1/4 = 25%. You're basically saying the team would improve to a point where they are a slight underdog against those teams.

Cousins is an all-world talent, but he also brings risk in terms of his attitude and ability to lead a team deep into the playoffs, much less a title. I'd be excited to bring him in but I think he'd need to be surrounded by at least one other veteran star for the team to have realistic title hopes. I also think as he gets older he'll mature, but this year may be too soon to expect him to suddenly morph into a leader.

Seriously.  Adding Cousins quadruples this team's title hopes from 1.5% to 6%.  I could be a tad off but it's nowhere in the vicinity of 20%. 

[CroCorvus]

I would be very hesitant to overpay for someone like Melo or Howard. The only Free Agent really moving the needle next offseason will be Durant and acquiring a guy like Melo, Howard or even DMC will give you an outside shot at him at best. If you don´t land Durant, you have blown future assets to become better now but without any chance at contending. Seems like a move to mediocrity to me. Teams like the Spurs, Cavs and Warriors are so far ahead of the Celtics at the moment, trading or signing disgruntled or aging tier2 stars will not change that. I would prefer to stay patient.

I guess it comes down to if you think adding DMC, Melo or Howard for Lee and picks would make us contending right now or not. You seem to think it wouldn't, I think it would. With DMC for example we would probably have a 20 percent shot at a title this year. That is contending. We'd probably also have a 50 percent shot of adding a rich chaser buy out that would give us an extra few percent shot at a title.

20%!!? Wow, that is unbelievable. The thing about the NBA is, if one team is better then they will win a 7-game series over you 9 times out of 10. This is assuming there aren't any serious injuries, of course. You're basically saying we'd be more or less equal to 2 of the 3 teams SAS, CLE, and GSW, because we'd need to beat two of them. 1/2 odds of winning over 2 series is 1/2 x 1/2 which equals 1/4 = 25%. You're basically saying the team would improve to a point where they are a slight underdog against those teams.

Cousins is an all-world talent, but he also brings risk in terms of his attitude and ability to lead a team deep into the playoffs, much less a title. I'd be excited to bring him in but I think he'd need to be surrounded by at least one other veteran star for the team to have realistic title hopes. I also think as he gets older he'll mature, but this year may be too soon to expect him to suddenly morph into a leader.

Seriously.  Adding Cousins quadruples this team's title hopes from 1.5% to 6%.  I could be a tad off but it's nowhere in the vicinity of 20%.

If you add Cousins to this team (imagine we don't give up anyone) you got your self a TOP 3 team in east, probably second best in the conference.
For me there's only three teams who are significantly better then the others and they are gsw, sas and cle. Other are just here to watch.

[CelticSince83]

I would be very hesitant to overpay for someone like Melo or Howard. The only Free Agent really moving the needle next offseason will be Durant and acquiring a guy like Melo, Howard or even DMC will give you an outside shot at him at best. If you don´t land Durant, you have blown future assets to become better now but without any chance at contending. Seems like a move to mediocrity to me. Teams like the Spurs, Cavs and Warriors are so far ahead of the Celtics at the moment, trading or signing disgruntled or aging tier2 stars will not change that. I would prefer to stay patient.

I guess it comes down to if you think adding DMC, Melo or Howard for Lee and picks would make us contending right now or not. You seem to think it wouldn't, I think it would. With DMC for example we would probably have a 20 percent shot at a title this year. That is contending. We'd probably also have a 50 percent shot of adding a rich chaser buy out that would give us an extra few percent shot at a title.

20%!!? Wow, that is unbelievable. The thing about the NBA is, if one team is better then they will win a 7-game series over you 9 times out of 10. This is assuming there aren't any serious injuries, of course. You're basically saying we'd be more or less equal to 2 of the 3 teams SAS, CLE, and GSW, because we'd need to beat two of them. 1/2 odds of winning over 2 series is 1/2 x 1/2 which equals 1/4 = 25%. You're basically saying the team would improve to a point where they are a slight underdog against those teams.

Cousins is an all-world talent, but he also brings risk in terms of his attitude and ability to lead a team deep into the playoffs, much less a title. I'd be excited to bring him in but I think he'd need to be surrounded by at least one other veteran star for the team to have realistic title hopes. I also think as he gets older he'll mature, but this year may be too soon to expect him to suddenly morph into a leader.

Seriously.  Adding Cousins quadruples this team's title hopes from 1.5% to 6%.  I could be a tad off but it's nowhere in the vicinity of 20%.

If you add Cousins to this team (imagine we don't give up anyone) you got your self a TOP 3 team in east, probably second best in the conference.
For me there's only three teams who are significantly better then the others and they are gsw, sas and cle. Other are just here to watch.

Right.  Golden St is better than even money.  Then add the chance of CLE or SAS winning.  There is nowhere near 20% remaining for the Celts, even if you were to put OKC and LAC at 0% which would be equally ludacris. 

[obnoxiousmime]

I would be very hesitant to overpay for someone like Melo or Howard. The only Free Agent really moving the needle next offseason will be Durant and acquiring a guy like Melo, Howard or even DMC will give you an outside shot at him at best. If you don´t land Durant, you have blown future assets to become better now but without any chance at contending. Seems like a move to mediocrity to me. Teams like the Spurs, Cavs and Warriors are so far ahead of the Celtics at the moment, trading or signing disgruntled or aging tier2 stars will not change that. I would prefer to stay patient.

I guess it comes down to if you think adding DMC, Melo or Howard for Lee and picks would make us contending right now or not. You seem to think it wouldn't, I think it would. With DMC for example we would probably have a 20 percent shot at a title this year. That is contending. We'd probably also have a 50 percent shot of adding a rich chaser buy out that would give us an extra few percent shot at a title.

20%!!? Wow, that is unbelievable. The thing about the NBA is, if one team is better then they will win a 7-game series over you 9 times out of 10. This is assuming there aren't any serious injuries, of course. You're basically saying we'd be more or less equal to 2 of the 3 teams SAS, CLE, and GSW, because we'd need to beat two of them. 1/2 odds of winning over 2 series is 1/2 x 1/2 which equals 1/4 = 25%. You're basically saying the team would improve to a point where they are a slight underdog against those teams.

Cousins is an all-world talent, but he also brings risk in terms of his attitude and ability to lead a team deep into the playoffs, much less a title. I'd be excited to bring him in but I think he'd need to be surrounded by at least one other veteran star for the team to have realistic title hopes. I also think as he gets older he'll mature, but this year may be too soon to expect him to suddenly morph into a leader.

Seriously.  Adding Cousins quadruples this team's title hopes from 1.5% to 6%.  I could be a tad off but it's nowhere in the vicinity of 20%.

If you add Cousins to this team (imagine we don't give up anyone) you got your self a TOP 3 team in east, probably second best in the conference.
For me there's only three teams who are significantly better then the others and they are gsw, sas and cle. Other are just here to watch.

Right, but like you said those teams are significantly better. When we played the Nets in 02 (I think that was the year) we were the technically the 2nd best team in the East. It didn't mean we had a 25% shot at winning a title just because we made the ECF.

[Quetzalcoatl]

These are all Billy King moves.  Let's say we added Cousins to our team.  What free agent are we going to add after that that will make us title contenders?  Cousins is drawing players like Rondo and Gay who are not winning you anything.  If anything, Gay is a net negative to your team's win loss record.  Durant isn't coming here if we draw in Cousins.  Trading all our assets for past their prime all-stars is exactly what the Nets did and look where it got them. 

This is just draft picks burning a whole in your pocket.  You don't have to panic trade them, I promise you.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I just don't see Ainge overpaying on a big scale, it's not in his nature. Ainge seems to search for value at every turn and then to all of a sudden 'overpay' seems self defeating. I can see him paying a lot for a young, healthy player who is a star or is projected to be but not for a guy like Howard or Melo.

I really think DA is trying to build a dynasty with the C's. He was a part of one and feels he can do the same. If he 'hits' on just one of the Nets picks and manages to do the same on just one of the next threee Celts picks then swings a multi player trade of our current roster for a much better player then he has a shot. Can't see him sacrificing the future for one 'star' player, at least not right now. I guess if that player were along the line of a young, healthy and not often injured Durant then maybe but not sure that player is even in the league right now.

You may be right. It's obvious that Danny has been in asset-collection mode for a while, with the goal of being prepared should a superstar become available, but that's not guaranteed to happen (I think it's highly unlikely), and I'm not sure Danny expects it to happen—could be he's just covering his bases in case that opportunity occurs, but that his real goal is to build something deeper and longer lasting. The KG deal was great, but he wasn't exactly young when Danny got him, and the team got only a year and a half of prime, healthy KG—which was much better than nothing, got us a title and several other years of legit title contention, but his knee injury proved to be the death knell of a would-be dynasty. Maybe Danny's primary goal is to get Boston's next KG/Ray/Pierce-like player in the draft, surround him with some other good draftees and free agents (like Bradley and Crowder), and be able to ride that for a good 8 or 10 years.

[Future Celtics Owner]

This thread is so funny. After trading RR and Green it was about drafting in the top 10. Then we started winning against a horrid east and ppl legitimately thought we had a future with those players, so we kept many just to inflate our wins and get swept.....causing us to fall from #9-16 on draft night. Now we are so ready to get a SINGLE STAR that many are willing to overpay.

I told you in order to get a star that fits our system they're at least 8 variables....to get a top draft pick they're are only a few.

[spikelovetheCelts]

Obviously, you don't want to get in a habit of overpaying in trades. Also, obvious is that we are playing better than ok and the sky is not falling. That said...

The future as far at it pertains to getting a star looks very bleak. a few months out from the deadline and there are no real rumors of a disgruntled star. There do not look to be a lot of star FAs to get in the summer and for the next 2 summers everyone will have max money to spend. Maybe we can get some draft luck for a change, but any rookie we get will probably not help us tremendously right away. So for all these reasons, it may be time to make offers we wouldn't otherwise make.

I've said it before, but I really like what we have in AB, Smart, IT and Crowder. The preference would be to trade even the nets picks before trading them. So if we can keep them, we don't really need help at the 1 and 2. If we can get a really good 3, we can move Crowder to the 4.

So guys that fit the bill for our need, guys that haven't been rumored to be on the block but seem like they could be traded are guys like DMC, Melo, Howard, Durrant exc. It might make sense to over pay to get one of them. Think of the opportunity cost. If we can make ourselves a top 5 or 6 team this year, we can probably get a FA this summer that we otherwise could not. The same is probably true for next summer.

If Ainge started calling around offering Lee and other players plus ALL the picks, would teams like Sac, NYK, Hou and OKC have any interest?

And who is such player and how do you define superstar?

[mef730]

Considering our treasure chest, other GM's are always going to be asking us to overpay in trades for studs.

Million dollar question is. ..

Where is this player coming from?

Didn't you know? It would be Sully, Bradley, Jerebko, the Dallas 1st, our 2018 first and the Memphis pick? See, we're giving up three players and three firsts. That's gotta be overpaying!



Mike

[TheSundanceKid]

This thread is so funny. After trading RR and Green it was about drafting in the top 10. Then we started winning against a horrid east and ppl legitimately thought we had a future with those players, so we kept many just to inflate our wins and get swept.....causing us to fall from #9-16 on draft night. Now we are so ready to get a SINGLE STAR that many are willing to overpay.

I told you in order to get a star that fits our system they're at least 8 variables....to get a top draft pick they're are only a few.

I was on the fence over whether making the playoffs last year was good or not. We missed out on either Winslow or Turner because of it, but I do believe that we gained experience that will be valuable.
I don't think Winslow or Turner are going to be game changers. I'm sure both will be starters in the league for a long time, but then I think the same of Hunter, Rozier and Mickey. Basically we didn't miss out on drafting a Lebron because we made the playoffs...

To succeed through the draft could take half a decade, just look at Philly, or Sac, or the T'wolves. And then another half a decade to hopefully develop the talent you drafted. That is very far from a fool proof plan. Personally I prefer the route Houston took, at least up to the point they got Harden. They developed talent internally, they got value for their players and they put the team in the best position to succeed. Ultimately they have fallen short so far but so do 29 teams each year.

[acieEarl]

Some of Ainge's best moves are the ones he didn't make. Think about if we traded for Josh Smith, Omer Asik, or some of the other bums that we all wanted to trade for.

If there's a "star" worth trading for I'm down for that, but it doesn't happen often and lets just not make lateral moves with our guys.

[gift]

I think this is more than a technicality, but how is it possible to "overpay" if it turns out to be "worth it"? Are people just using "overpay" as a substitute for "taking a risk"?

[Hemingway]

Obviously, you don't want to get in a habit of overpaying in trades. Also, obvious is that we are playing better than ok and the sky is not falling. That said...

The future as far at it pertains to getting a star looks very bleak. a few months out from the deadline and there are no real rumors of a disgruntled star. There do not look to be a lot of star FAs to get in the summer and for the next 2 summers everyone will have max money to spend. Maybe we can get some draft luck for a change, but any rookie we get will probably not help us tremendously right away. So for all these reasons, it may be time to make offers we wouldn't otherwise make.

I've said it before, but I really like what we have in AB, Smart, IT and Crowder. The preference would be to trade even the nets picks before trading them. So if we can keep them, we don't really need help at the 1 and 2. If we can get a really good 3, we can move Crowder to the 4.

So guys that fit the bill for our need, guys that haven't been rumored to be on the block but seem like they could be traded are guys like DMC, Melo, Howard, Durrant exc. It might make sense to over pay to get one of them. Think of the opportunity cost. If we can make ourselves a top 5 or 6 team this year, we can probably get a FA this summer that we otherwise could not. The same is probably true for next summer.

If Ainge started calling around offering Lee and other players plus ALL the picks, would teams like Sac, NYK, Hou and OKC have any interest?

And who is such player and how do you define superstar?

That's a great question. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in a meeting where Danny is talking about his views on the players that might be getable at the deadline. getable guys could include: DMC, KD, Melo, Howard, Lopez if Ainge sees a lot more in one of those guys than their teams do, he has the assets to make a really strong offer. I'm not saying we should cash in now no matter what, but it's hard to get really good.

About the 20% comment, I don't check the vegas line so I am evidently way off. What I meant to say is that we'd have a legitimate shot at a title. Not be favored to win or even get to the finals, but we would have the talent where if things really came together well we could win. The way only 6 or 7 teams a year can really say they could win. If we made a deal for DMC we would also possible be able to make another trade or get a vet that gets bought out. 

[alewilliam789]

We are a good team this year that has a top 5 pick even if we make the playoffs. I at least want us to make a trade for Gallo or Tyson Chandler that can improve our team because we still have a lot of pretty big holes that we need to fill. Or even to land some bench help in Crawford. Just any trade that would get us better.

With Chandler our team would even be that much better:
PG: Isaiah Thomas
SG: Avery Bradley
SF: Jae Crowder
PF: Kelly Olynyk
C: Tyson Chandler