Sell At The Deadline

[TheReaLPuba]

IT, Bradley, and Crowder are our core now. They are the players that have separated themselves from our mountain of role guys. Dumping them for picks would represent starting over from scratch and that's not something I can support.

Just dump the guys who are aggravating the roster logjam without contributing and give their minutes to the three rookies and see what happens. Don't tank, develop.

First, Thomas Bradley and crowder as your core is a problem. That's not a playoff contender core.

Second, I'm not saying you just dump these guys for picks. I'm saying you look for teams that are in the playoff hunt who might give up a promising young player or two in order to give their team a better shot of making some hay in the playoffs. Indiana, Orlando, Utah, OKC, Houston, Chicago, Toronto... Those are some examples.

Yes those 3 guys are very good complimentary players but not your "core".

Thomas should be a 6th man.

Crowder can be the energetic scrappy glue guy that every championship caliver team has. But he's also talented so he can score and defend also.

On the right team Bradley could be a terrific starting 2 guard....we just need a bigger PG.

[makaveli]

get rid of:
1. Turner, his best season in a green uniform, but please, i can't stand his bonehead turnovers
2. Lee, to state the obvious, we have to many guys at his position and he is cooked
3. Young, right now R.J. Hunter has done more in his first 20 games than Young has done in two years, so sell him if it is still possible

we are not going anywhere this year, so let our guys develop a little bit, it would be great to get to the playoffs.
but what could we get in return for these three guys?

[PhoSita]

get rid of:
1. Turner, his best season in a green uniform, but please, i can't stand his bonehead turnovers
2. Lee, to state the obvious, we have to many guys at his position and he is cooked
3. Young, right now R.J. Hunter has done more in his first 20 games than Young has done in two years, so sell him if it is still possible

we are not going anywhere this year, so let our guys develop a little bit, it would be great to get to the playoffs.
but what could we get in return for these three guys?

I don't think you could get much of anything for those guys alone.  Include them in deals with Thomas / Bradley / Crowder / Amir / Sullinger / Jerebko, however, and you might get somewhere.

[kozlodoev]

This is not NBA 2k16.

[konkmv]

Sell high buy low... if someone offers somethibg crazy sell... everyone... thomas bradley crowder only for a lottery pick...

[kozlodoev]

Sell high buy low... if someone offers somethibg crazy sell... everyone... thomas bradley crowder only for a lottery pick...

If you think that a lottery pick is likely to pan out better than Thomas, Bradley, or Crowder, you're delusional.

[YoungOne87]

I think we should go for Lopez and gallinari when they will be eligible to trade.
We have enough bodies, contracts and picks to match without giving up our brooklyn pics.

Both Denver and brooklyn have to look for their future, so getting young talent and picks is always a good start.

[kozlodoev]

I think we should go for Lopez and gallinari when they will be eligible to trade.

And that's why? Because we think defense, rebounding and staying healthy is overrated?

[GreenWarrior]

I think we should cease and desist the acquisition of mid-level talent, role players, & players that are undersized for their position.

 

[Rosco917]

Pho, I've said this before but basically the only reason I was ok with our run (despite the fact that the final two weeks of the season cost us Winslow or perhaps Porzingus) was that it theoretically kept Stevens content.  There was growing buzz last season that Stevens would jump ship for a big time College program ... and I wanted to keep Stevens here.  He's obviously a great coach. 

I said this in another thread, but I'll say it here, too.

If Stevens is gonna jump ship because Danny Ainge trades away journeyman role players in order to continue to position the team to make moves to secure legitimate core talent, then I don't want him here.

Brad has shown himself to be a very good coach, it's true, and I like the positive buzz surrounding the team because of him.  At the same time, he tinkers with rotations to an extreme and I have some concerns long term about the coach being the biggest star on the team, getting much of the credit when they succeed and taking little of the blame when they don't.  That's a problematic dynamic at the professional level (see: Chip Kelly).

If Brad is really here to take the team deep in the playoffs, then he'll be able to appreciate the big picture.  He'll give Danny Ainge a reasonable window of time to build the team up.

 The Celts have only been rebuilding for a couple years now.  Brad couldn't possibly have been under the impression that the team would have a set group in place, with a win-now mentality from management, within two seasons.  It was obvious from the start this process would take longer than that.

If Brad couldn't see that, he's either a fool, or a hypocrite for signing on for this job ostensibly with the purpose of being a part of the process of rebuilding the Celtics into a contender even though his patience for losing was limited to a season or two.  Doc Rivers comes to mind.

alright you sold me.  Sell!!

The problem with this team and organization is we're stuck between a team that should be rebuilding and developing players, and a team that wants to win now, while trying to satisfy it's fanbase, by slipping into the playoffs. This is to me, a daunting task.

I'm also taking for granted Stevens is here for the long run, and has explored what the possibilities are, when planning how he builds a winning team. If he and Danny think that playing/showcasing certain players in the hope of getting maximum return for them, all while trying to win games, and get into the playoffs, they're obviously finding out, easier said than done.

IMO it's time to keep the young core of Bradley, Crowder, IT, and yes...even Smart, it's too soon to give up on him. Throw in RJ, Mickey, Rozier. And eliminate players that seem to have hit ceilings, are dead weight, or don't fit in.

[PhoSita]

This is not NBA 2k16.

True, it's not.  If it were NBA 2K16 any fool could turn the Celts into a playoff contender by making 5 or 6 lopsided deals all at once.

Not exactly what's being proposed.

[Ilikesports17]

We are currently 4 games out of the 2 seed in the East

[PhoSita]

We are currently 4 games out of the 2 seed in the East

Sure.  Also 2 games out of the 12th seed, 5 games out of the 13th seed.

[JBcat]

I'm about there, especially given the context of the picks we have this year and the fact that we could still legitimately get down to a bottom-5 record.

I don't see that. I think the Celtics can get into the 7-10 range but not the bottom 5.

The team already has 19 wins. Philly has 4. Brooklyn 10. Lakers 8. Pelicans 11. Wolves 12. Suns 13 and falling fast. Then you have Denver, Portland and Sacramento with 14-16 wins.

I don't think it is worth dumping lots of quality players just to get in the 7-10 range.

Especially with the number of future picks & and quality of the Brooklyn picks that Boston already has to play with.

This for the most part.  Even "selling off" we need to count on other middling teams passing us like the Hornets and Knicks.   I don't want to bank on that unless if Ainge see's a too good of a deal to pass on.  We aren't the typical middling team as we have many good, maybe not great assets(not including the Nets pick).  As much I would love to see someone like Cousins, George, or another star on the block I don't see that happening soon.  Maybe on draft night but unlikely.  So I think we need to be patient as it could be a multi year process with incremental improvement in our assets. 

I do think players that might not be in our near future plans could be on the block though:
Johnson-age 28 next year's deal unguaranteed
Lee-32 expiring deal
Jerebko-28 next year's deal unguaranteed
Turner-27 expiring deal
Zeller-25 restricted status
Sullinger-25 restricted status

No need to rush though as we could trade Lee and Turner through draft night, and the rest through free agency.   I could see 2 or 3 of those guys listed above coming back with 3 or 4 roster spots open up.

Let's say we draft Simmons or Ingram (fingers crossed!), and sign a big with these guys entering free agency:
Horford, Jefferson, Noah, Mosgov, Pachulia, Howard, Hibbert, Whiteside, Anderson, Jordan Hill, Josh Smith, Nene and Biyombo (ha).  There will be a decent size pool to choose from and any of those guys should be better than Lee is next year at age 33.   

So let's say we sign of those players to replace Lee, have our top next Nets pick, 1 or 2 more rookies and only 2 or 3 out Johnson, Jerebko, Turner, Zeller, and Sullinger return.

No need to rush and trade either Crowder, Bradley, or Thomas as they have plenty of time left on their favorable deals if you wish to trade them later.  Maybe KO has more development left although I'm not counting on it at this point, and you still have Smart, Rozier, Young, Mickey, and Hunter to develop.

New team
C new free agent, Johnson or Zeller
PF KO, Sullinger, Mickey
Simmons or Ingram or another draft pick-Crowder, Young
SG Bradley, Hunter
PG Smart, Thomas, Rozier

That leaves room for 2 more players:  Maybe rookies (maybe our remaining first rounders and we stash the second rounders overseas), or some combination we get for trading Zeller and Jerebko, and our other picks. 

It's not fireworks but it should improve our asset base more going into next year while maintaining flexibility and being competitive.  You never know with Ainge too.  Maybe he pulls off other trades consolidating roster space but not necessarily for a star (at least not yet).  Someone like Parker for example. 

[Moranis]

We are currently 4 games out of the 2 seed in the East

Does Boston have a realistic shot at winning a championship at any time in the next 5 years with a basic core of players that are currently on the team?