Sporting News: C's targeting Griffin, will make major deal soon

[WolfofCausewayStreet]

Any of you guys feel not so excited about the Griffin rumors? Sure, its Blake. But this likely means undermining our core and giving away part of our future.

Honestly, isn't all we need for now a Khris Middleton or a Nerlens Noel (if he stays and is not too expensive). Someone we can get by just undermining a piece of our core and keeping our future picks?

If we have

IT
AB
Middleton
Amir
Horford

or

IT
AB
Crowder
Horford
Noel

and 4 years down the road we have:

Smart (Gary Payton)
AB
Brown (Kawhi)
Harry Giles (Chris Webber)
Deandre Ayton (David Robinson)

Lets assume that one reaches higher than expected potential, one at expected potential, one two somewhat below potential


We'd be atleast top 3 in the east for a few years, and then possibly favorites as title contenders in the future.

I'd think getting Griffin now means getting Banner 18 now or not in a long time,

while getting moderate pieces now means perhaps but not really now, but definitely later.

[walker834]

Marcus Smart is going to be one of the best guards in the league.   His shot just has to catch up. 

[kozlodoev]

Marcus Smart is going to be one of the best guards in the league.   His shot just has to catch up.

So will James Young, once he dusts off that Gary Payton impersonation he's been keeping in his back pocket.

[walker834]

Marcus Smart is going to be one of the best guards in the league.   His shot just has to catch up.

So will James Young, once he dusts off that Gary Payton impersonation he's been keeping in his back pocket.

The difference is Marcus is already great.  His shot just hasn't been falling.

[saltlover]

Isn't Smitty just a fan who claims he bought tickets to watch some Summer League games?

He seems extremely well respected on RealGM. He knows all about the cap and writes frequently for RealGM. I wouldn't be surprised if he knows a few people.

Guys, it's OK if people work to get their sources. I'm a lurker on RealGM and Smitty does great work there. His work has paid off and he now can say he's somewhat of an insider. Not all insiders are Woj and Aldridge and Shams. Heck, Shams started off on RealGM, believe it or not! Point is, information can be attained from people besides the main guys sometimes.

It's fine to be well-respected on the Internet.  But what has he ever scooped?  I don't go to realGM much, so I don't know.  But has he ever scooped anything ever? If not, there's zero reason to believe him now, other than wanting it to be true.

I will say it now.  I guarantee you Blake isn't traded to the Celtics in the next month.  It's just not happening.  It may have been talked about, but there's not a small-sticking point or anything.  If so, they'd be calling other teams to ease that sticking point.  There'd be enough chatter that someone else with something resembling credibility would have reported it.  That many people in Vegas talking to each other, there would be no secret.  Think Doc going to the Clippers -- for five days it was the worst-kept secret.  So much so that the NBA nearly quashed it in advance.  Here, it's been out for a similar amount of time, and we have no idea who the Celtics would be trading.  We don't know if there's a third team.  We don't know if the Celtics are even talking to Griffin about an extension.

So that means the deal isn't close.  Maybe it was discussed, but they can't come close to making it work.  We're not talking disagreeing about a draft pick or something.  We're talking about the Clippers not liking the players the Celtics are offering.  It's not happening.  No chance.

[kozlodoev]

Marcus Smart is going to be one of the best guards in the league.   His shot just has to catch up.

So will James Young, once he dusts off that Gary Payton impersonation he's been keeping in his back pocket.

The difference is Marcus is already great.  His shot just hasn't been falling.

The other name for this is "he can't shoot".

[Beat LA]

Marcus Smart is going to be one of the best guards in the league.   His shot just has to catch up.

So will James Young, once he dusts off that Gary Payton impersonation he's been keeping in his back pocket.

The difference is Marcus is already great.  His shot just hasn't been falling.

Wat.

[86MaxwellSmart]

Ainge is in Calif---just posted a pic on his twitter---it's what Smitty had said.

[86MaxwellSmart]

https://twitter.com/danielrainge

[WolfofCausewayStreet]

Soon we'll create our own dynasty, but not from girls like KD and Curry who do it artificially through Free Agency...but through the draft.

Smart is Gary Payton
AB
Jaylen Brown is Kawhi
Harry Giles is Chris Webber
Deyonta Davis is David Robinson

[Kane3387]

I'm curious to see how ppl really feel about Griffin anyway. Throw out the rumors. Just from a player standpoint.

How much does he move the needle?
How much do you feel he impacts winning?
He's made a name for himself because he's a highlight reel from a dunking standpoint but how much longer will his athleticism be above average? He's turning 28 soon. What's Lebron? 31? It's evident he's starting to slip athletically (tho clearly he has his moments like the block in game 7) and he has a much higher bball IQ than Blake. James can do stuff outside of his athleticism to impact a game that Blake can't.
How durable is he? His thigh injury seems weird. He missed all that time last year even with the stuff with the hand and it still didn't heal for the playoffs. Sounds like it's not healed yet. He's had a fair amount of lower body injuries which is bad for hoopers. Reminds me of Amare.
His defense isn't great. It's not like we're getting KG who was basketballs version of Ray Lewis.

I don't know. The more I think about it we might be better off just being patient and seeing what we can do with top five picks the next two years. Even with an extension Blake probably isn't the difference to beating Lebron James and that's what really matters.

[hwangjini_1]

Marcus Smart is going to be one of the best guards in the league.   His shot just has to catch up.

So will James Young, once he dusts off that Gary Payton impersonation he's been keeping in his back pocket.

Just for fun, just for giggles, just for the hell of it....make a post that is not negative, but positive.

[Dino Pitino]

Ainge is in Calif---just posted a pic on his twitter---it's what Smitty had said.

Looks like Smitty is for real, eh?

(So are at least two other insiders over there. Not that I feel like rehashing that argument with LarBrd33.)

[kozlodoev]

I'm curious to see how ppl really feel about Griffin anyway. Throw out the rumors. Just from a player standpoint.

Depends on what the state of his knee is.

[crownontherocks]

Ainge is in Calif---just posted a pic on his twitter---it's what Smitty had said.

iT is also in san deigo