Celtics (27-21) at Magic (20-25) Game #49 1/31/16

[KeepRondo]

Whoever we draft with the Brooklyn pick, please God do not let him be a one-way player. I'm so tired of having one-way players on the Celtics who you have to keep in, even though they're a major liability on one end of the floor.

And by "one-way," I presume you mean "defense-only" players who can't shoot their way out of a paper bag? If so, I completely agree.

Yeah, the "defense-only" type that had 26 points and shot 5-9 on threes. Yes, that's exactly who I'm talking about. 

Smart can be an all star but let's see some consistency.

For now IT is our all star and has saved us in a ton of games.

So it's fine to criticize Smart's consistency but not to point out that IT is really only useful on one side of the floor? Got it. Sure, he's saved us offensively in many games, but how many games has he killed us defensively? There's a reason he can score 23 points and still end up a - 15 overall. During the run that won them the game, he gave up eight straight points to his man. That shouldn't be happening to an All-Star.

Kelly and Crowder, and Bradley to an extent, are just as much, if not more, to blame for tonight's loss. I just get tired of IT constantly losing his man or getting beat, which causes other to have to help off and lose their man.

you must be hungry cause you seem confused.

IT has been our most consistent player.

[KeepRondo]

Shows up every night hitting huge shots.

[Evantime34]

Whoever we draft with the Brooklyn pick, please God do not let him be a one-way player. I'm so tired of having one-way players on the Celtics who you have to keep in, even though they're a major liability on one end of the floor.

The problem is that most players have a slant toward one side of the ball when they come into the league.

I think Simmons, Ingram, and Bender could struggle defensively when they come into the league, but all will probably develop into two way players.

On the bright side Simmons, Ingram, Poeltl, Bender, Dunn and Brown all have the potential to be solid two way players.

For now we have to deal with Thomas ocassionally hurting us on defense because we don't have anyone who can do what he does on offense. With all our picks I think their development will lead to less and less reliance on IT.

[BDeCosta26]

Look, it's important to remember that were all of 2 and a half years into this rebuild. We have the 5th youngest team in the league and were capable of anywhere from 45-50 wins and a solid playoff spot. You can't win every game. The magic aren't the Sixers.

Since returning from injury, Smart has looked like he's taken significant steps on the offensive end. More recently, the shots have started falling a bit. In some of these tough losses, which are inevitable, it's more important to me to see some signs of good things for the future. Smart's development, a key part of that future, was on full display tonight. Scored a bunch of different ways, made some nice passes, standard elite defense and racked up 26 points in 28(?) minutes off the bench! He had put together a bunch of double-digit scoring performances of late and it was great to see him step up when we needed him.

Don't sell your Marcus Smart stock yet. He's making a step forward right now, and that will continue.

[TheFlex]

Yeah whatever, we lost, get over it (general comment not to anyone predicted). We're still on track to win 45-48 games, which is what I predicted, so I'll be very happy with that.

The story of the night, win or loss, was Marcus Smart. He has been one of the best of his draft class on the offensive end over these last couple weeks. 26 points again tonight, looking back on track to be a 3-5x All-Star and perennial All-Defense 1st teamer. I'm really getting giddy about all of our options heading into this offseason

IT/Rozier
Smart/AB
Crowder
??/Jordan Mickey
Kelly O

+ 2016 BKN 1

+ Sullinger, Hunter, Young, Zeller, Amir, Jerebko, 2016 BOS 1, 2016 DAL 1, all 2016 2nds (including 2016 PHI 2 and 2016 MIN 2), future 1st to trade

+ whatever is left over from above

+ tons of cap space

Let's saw we take Bender, trade as many 2nds as we can for cash/future 2nds and opt for draft and stash on all remaining 2nds, make this trade on draft day...

IT
Amir
James Young
2016 BOS 1
2016 DAL 1

for

Chris Paul

... then sign Horford in July and bring back Sullinger if his pricetag is reasonable (which I think it will be at this point) and Evan Turner.

CP3/Rozier
Smart/AB/RJ Hunter
Crowder/Evan Turner
Horford/Dragan Bender/Jordan Mickey
Sully/Kelly O

+ all future 1sts kept

Can someone say d-y-n-a-s-t-y? Barring injury, that team would be competing for a championship for a long time.

[BudweiserCeltic]

WE ARE GOING TO WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks.

[KeepRondo]

Flex,

Chris Paul? Seriously? 31 year old point guard next year. No thanks.

[TheFlex]

Flex,

Chris Paul? Seriously? 31 year old point guard next year. No thanks.

Meh, just illustrating that we can easily pick up multiple stars, stick with the youth movement, and keep a ton of our future assets all at the same time. CP3 and Horford aren't great examples because their age likely forces us to move whoever we choose with the Brooklyn one. Perhaps signing & trading for Harrison Barnes and signing DeMar DeRozan is a more appealing example, but the point of the example remains the same.

[KeepRondo]

Flex,

Chris Paul? Seriously? 31 year old point guard next year. No thanks.

Meh, just illustrating that we can easily pick up multiple stars, stick with the youth movement, and keep a ton of our future assets all at the same time. CP3 and Horford aren't great examples because their age likely forces us to move whoever we choose with the Brooklyn one. Perhaps signing & trading for Harrison Barnes and signing DeMar DeRozan is a more appealing example, but the point of the example remains the same.

In that case I agree with your sentiment.

I do think that the best move is to let things progress unless a Westbrook type player becomes available.

The amount of team friendly contracts that Ainge set up and acquired was masterful. The best thing is to hold them and go after free agents.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Whoever we draft with the Brooklyn pick, please God do not let him be a one-way player. I'm so tired of having one-way players on the Celtics who you have to keep in, even though they're a major liability on one end of the floor.

And by "one-way," I presume you mean "defense-only" players who can't shoot their way out of a paper bag? If so, I completely agree.

Yeah, the "defense-only" type that had 26 points and shot 5-9 on threes. Yes, that's exactly who I'm talking about. 

He had a good game on offense, I'll give you that, but he hasn't had many like tonight. A great team is going to have a good balance of offense and defense, and right now this team has far more of the "defense-first" types who aren't so good at scoring.

[KeepRondo]

Whoever we draft with the Brooklyn pick, please God do not let him be a one-way player. I'm so tired of having one-way players on the Celtics who you have to keep in, even though they're a major liability on one end of the floor.

And by "one-way," I presume you mean "defense-only" players who can't shoot their way out of a paper bag? If so, I completely agree.

Yeah, the "defense-only" type that had 26 points and shot 5-9 on threes. Yes, that's exactly who I'm talking about. 

He had a good game on offense, I'll give you that, but he hasn't had many like tonight. A great team is going to have a good balance of offense and defense, and right now this team has far more of the "defense-first" types who aren't so good at scoring.

Yeah I'm afraid that this board may had built Crowder up a bit. He was definitely MIA tonight.

[TheFlex]

Flex,

Chris Paul? Seriously? 31 year old point guard next year. No thanks.

Meh, just illustrating that we can easily pick up multiple stars, stick with the youth movement, and keep a ton of our future assets all at the same time. CP3 and Horford aren't great examples because their age likely forces us to move whoever we choose with the Brooklyn one. Perhaps signing & trading for Harrison Barnes and signing DeMar DeRozan is a more appealing example, but the point of the example remains the same.

In that case I agree with your sentiment.

I do think that the best move is to let things progress unless a Westbrook type player becomes available.

The amount of team friendly contracts that Ainge set up and acquired was masterful. The best thing is to hold them and go after free agents.

You're probably right that we should and will stay the course if nothing huge falls in our lap. Ainge will offer guys like Durant, DeRozan, Horford max contracts, though, and it's not as much of a guarantee as it was last summer that they'll say no (well, except Durant). If Ainge gets one of those guys, we'll have two All-Stars + at least a couple of guys that could make another leap next season in Smart, Crowder, Olynyk, etc. -- Smart being the main one -- + the BKN 1. That team would just be too talented to sit on. Ainge seems like a patient man, but he's not so patient that he'd let a team cakewalk to the Eastern Conference Finals only to lose to Cleveland while he has too many 1sts to even use in his pocket.  I think in that case -- landing a DeRozan or Horford in the offseason -- he'd look to convert some excess assets (2016 BOS and DAL 1s, 2nds, etc.) into more proven players and start competing for championships now, while holding Smart + the BKN 1 to compete for championships later.

Long story short, I have a very exciting feeling that we're going to be a rare team next season, in that we'll have a couple of ready-to-go studs that will put us in contention now, as well as a couple of developing studs that will make us a dynasty later.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Whoever we draft with the Brooklyn pick, please God do not let him be a one-way player. I'm so tired of having one-way players on the Celtics who you have to keep in, even though they're a major liability on one end of the floor.

And by "one-way," I presume you mean "defense-only" players who can't shoot their way out of a paper bag? If so, I completely agree.

Yeah, the "defense-only" type that had 26 points and shot 5-9 on threes. Yes, that's exactly who I'm talking about. 

He had a good game on offense, I'll give you that, but he hasn't had many like tonight. A great team is going to have a good balance of offense and defense, and right now this team has far more of the "defense-first" types who aren't so good at scoring.

Yeah I'm afraid that this board may had built Crowder up a bit. He was definitely MIA tonight.

Crowder's a good player, and still developing, but he's nowhere close to what I'd call a scorer. IT is still the only legitimate, consistent scoring threat on this team, and that's going to have to change for this team to go to the next level.

[KeepRondo]

Flex,

Chris Paul? Seriously? 31 year old point guard next year. No thanks.

Meh, just illustrating that we can easily pick up multiple stars, stick with the youth movement, and keep a ton of our future assets all at the same time. CP3 and Horford aren't great examples because their age likely forces us to move whoever we choose with the Brooklyn one. Perhaps signing & trading for Harrison Barnes and signing DeMar DeRozan is a more appealing example, but the point of the example remains the same.

In that case I agree with your sentiment.

I do think that the best move is to let things progress unless a Westbrook type player becomes available.

The amount of team friendly contracts that Ainge set up and acquired was masterful. The best thing is to hold them and go after free agents.

You're probably right that we should and will stay the course if nothing huge falls in our lap. Ainge will offer guys like Durant, DeRozan, Horford max contracts, though, and it's not as much of a guarantee as it was last summer that they'll say no (well, except Durant). If Ainge gets one of those guys, we'll have two All-Stars + at least a couple of guys that could make another leap next season in Smart, Crowder, Olynyk, etc. -- Smart being the main one -- + the BKN 1. That team would just be too talented to sit on. Ainge seems like a patient man, but he's not so patient that he'd let a team cakewalk to the Eastern Conference Finals only to lose to Cleveland while he has too many 1sts to even use in his pocket.  I think in that case -- landing a DeRozan or Horford in the offseason -- he'd look to convert some excess assets (2016 BOS and DAL 1s, 2nds, etc.) into more proven players and start competing for championships now, while holding Smart + the BKN 1 to compete for championships later.

Long story short, I have a very exciting feeling that we're going to be a rare team next season, in that we'll have a couple of ready-to-go studs that will put us in contention now, as well as a couple of developing studs that will make us a dynasty later.

Same here.

And I actually can see KD signing here. Especially if we keep winning and then take a series or two in the playoffs. And if we miss out on KD, Westbrook might be the next domino to fall for OKC. We would be in a nice spot to make a run at him also.

Ainge has done an amazing job. Just hope he doesn't make any short sighted mistakes.

[KeepRondo]

Whoever we draft with the Brooklyn pick, please God do not let him be a one-way player. I'm so tired of having one-way players on the Celtics who you have to keep in, even though they're a major liability on one end of the floor.

And by "one-way," I presume you mean "defense-only" players who can't shoot their way out of a paper bag? If so, I completely agree.

Yeah, the "defense-only" type that had 26 points and shot 5-9 on threes. Yes, that's exactly who I'm talking about. 

He had a good game on offense, I'll give you that, but he hasn't had many like tonight. A great team is going to have a good balance of offense and defense, and right now this team has far more of the "defense-first" types who aren't so good at scoring.

Yeah I'm afraid that this board may had built Crowder up a bit. He was definitely MIA tonight.

Crowder's a good player, and still developing, but he's nowhere close to what I'd call a scorer. IT is still the only legitimate, consistent scoring threat on this team, and that's going to have to change for this team to go to the next level.

I agree. We would have Toronto's record and not ours if we had a second scorer.