Taking Stock of the Roster Heading into FA

[PhoSita]

Whew.  Quite a draft night huh?  I'm still trying to find my socks, they were blown off so forcefully.



OK, not really.

Well, anyway, the draft is over now and picks have turned into players.  My purpose here is not to lament what was or debate the merits of what might have been. 

Where does the roster stand post-draft and pre-free agency?

Roster:

Guards - Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier, Demetrius Jackson

Wings - Jae Crowder, Jaylen Brown, R.J. Hunter, James Young

Swings - Jonas Jerebko, Ben Bentil

Bigs - Amir Johnson, Kelly Olynyk, Jordan Mickey


Not currently on the roster:

Overseas - Marcus Thornton, Colton Iverson, Guerschon Yabusele, Ante Zizic

Free agents - Evan Turner, Jared Sullinger, Tyler Zeller



Thoughts:

- The Celts are all set for guards.  A trade may not be strictly necessary, especially since Smart and Bradley have a tendency to get banged up and miss games.  On the other hand, without a trade it's hard to imagine either Rozier or Jackson getting an extended run anytime soon.

- While the Celts have four wings and two swings already on the roster, only two of those players have any track record of success at the NBA level.  Among the unproven, Brown is probably the most talented, but figures to come on slowly in the NBA given how raw he is. 

- My guess is that Hunter, Young, and Bentil will be duking it out in summer league and training camp for one, maybe two roster spots.  The Celts will need to make an addition here, ideally a proven shooter, in order to avoid having a major weakness on the wing.

- Drafting Brown, and to a much lesser extent Jackson and Bentil, should signal that Evan Turner's time in Boston is over.  Brown's most obvious role in the NBA, at least early on, is creating his own offense against bench players.  That, and getting dunks in transition.  On top of that, Smart and Rozier will be another year older and probably should get a chance to carve out a larger role in the offense, at least on units with mostly bench players.

- The frontcourt is still a glaring hole.  Modern NBA teams don't necessarily need more than three traditional big men (I'm assuming Zizic stays overseas for a year or two), especially if the swing spot is well-stocked.  Thing is, the Celts are not well-stocked at the swing position, and none of their three traditional bigs on the roster played more than 24 minutes a game last season.

- That does not mean Sullinger or Zeller should be re-signed.  Neither of those guys is the answer.  Jordan Mickey should probably get more run this year, and maybe Olynyk finally breaks through and starts, though his recent shoulder surgery will make that difficult out of the gate.  The Celts need to find somebody who can plug into the frontcourt for 24+ mpg, ideally somebody who brings it on both ends.

- As it stands, there are 14 players on the roster if none of the free agents are re-signed and the overseas guys stay overseas.  That probably means that there will need to be a trade to avoid cutting more than one of the end of roster young'ns.


The challenge facing Danny Ainge heading into free agency is that the roster is already pretty full, but there are glaring holes.  The roster today is probably worse on balance than it was on the last day of the regular season.  Unfortunately, there are no obvious solutions to that problem that don't involve handing a long term max contract to a flawed player out of sync with the timeline of the majority of the roster.