Celtics (19-13) at Cavaliers (23-7) Game #33 12/29/16

[hpantazo]

Give us ONE serious BIG MAN .....just one guy who is young , tuff and willing to battle and give Horford some help .

Trade the whole pile of picks for Cousins .

It will take more than the whole pile of picks, but I figure thats what Ainge is waiting on.

All the picks plus future ......just so the result is. Horford , Smart , Crowder , and Boogie on the same team.

It might take including Brown along with our pick stash.

[manl_lui]

with all this talk about sending IT back to the bench, I wanted to ask if people are fine with benching AB instead. IT is our only superstar on this team (ok maybe a bit of a stretch but he's our only guy capable of scoring at will), while I love AB, I think IT does force his way a little bit too much sometimes.

With Smart starting, on offense, Smart would be primary ball handler and I think that benefits us in the long run.

I've said this for a long time. It'd also help the bench scoring, too, along with giving us more size in the backcourt.

But it doesn't matter if Brad doesn't play Smart like he needs to. It took him until the 4th quarter tonight to put him in pick-and-rolls, and he didn't even post him tonight, even when he had Kyrie on him. I just don't understand that. He just wants this free-flowing offense where IT can just iso and penetrate and get everyone else involved, which simply won't work all game long.

fair enough, do you think this is a fair assessment, if we send IT back to the bench, should we look to trade him soon then? I am just assuming he won't be happy with being off the bench when he arguably, helped got Horford here, helped us reach the playoffs, got his first all-star nod, etc, etc?

[jpotter33]

Such a disappointing loss.

But you simply can't give up +17 rebounds against a team as talented as the Cavs and expect to win. I'm so sick of watching these games where we get completely outrebounded and outsized due to personnel issues of players that are simply too small to effectively defend or rebound at the position they're being played at.

It says a lot that Smart was our best option on Lebron all night.

[Ogaju]

IT will come off the bench, you just have to pay him.

NBA teams have a host of players, I don't know why it should be a slam to come off the bench/

[walker834]

We were close to pulling this out.  Horford yeah had a bad game.  Thought he was on the hawks still. No need to make hasty moves though.  We aren't trading Brown or Marcus.

[Somebody]

Man I want to trade for Noel or just bring zizic in.

[cltc5]

with all this talk about sending IT back to the bench, I wanted to ask if people are fine with benching AB instead. IT is our only superstar on this team (ok maybe a bit of a stretch but he's our only guy capable of scoring at will), while I love AB, I think IT does force his way a little bit too much sometimes.

With Smart starting, on offense, Smart would be primary ball handler and I think that benefits us in the long run.

I've said this for a long time. It'd also help the bench scoring, too, along with giving us more size in the backcourt.

But it doesn't matter if Brad doesn't play Smart like he needs to. It took him until the 4th quarter tonight to put him in pick-and-rolls, and he didn't even post him tonight, even when he had Kyrie on him. I just don't understand that. He just wants this free-flowing offense where IT can just iso and penetrate and get everyone else involved, which simply won't work all game long.

Yep.  Brad is doing a p--- poor job managing this team.  And ainge even worse putting a team together.He gave into IT Whims and now we've got a pg in smart that hasn't developed and a team reliant on a 5'9 pg to drop 40 a nite to sniff a win.  Smart was brought in to replace rondo and all ainge has done is go after freaking pg after pg or some [dang] projects.  Go get some studs and make your coach play them already!!!

[SHAQATTACK]

So now Kelly will step up and play great against the worse smaller teams .....with no contact Patsye players like himself .

Kelly is scard to mix it up with the centers .....he is worthless......chicken to shoot ...TRAsH

[walker834]

Having Marcus and Brown as weapons like we do sets our team apart.  We can add a PF and big man some other way.  We have loads and loads of picks for days.  Bradley isn't moving either.  Neither should IT or Horford or most of these guys.

[cltc5]

Man I want to trade for Noel or just bring zizic in.

Why when he can develop better over there and then we can maybe trade him for another draft pick

[Fireworks_Boom!]

Brown is a no go on any trade. He, IMO, is the only untouchable. Smart is very close to untouchable (depending on package).

I don't get why people go crazy over Crowder. I mean he is an 8th person on a championship team. Use him to lure big return!

[Somebody]

Such a disappointing loss.

But you simply can't give up +17 rebounds against a team as talented as the Cavs and expect to win. I'm so sick of watching these games where we get completely outrebounded and outsized due to personnel issues of players that are simply too small to effectively defend or rebound at the position they're being played at.

It says a lot that Smart was our best option on Lebron all night.

Meh Smart on LeBron is fine, he is so good on D that he can manage that for stretches, and we also have Crowder to guard LeBron, so well our wing defense is not really a problem, it's our bigs that are soft, Horford is a natural PF and Amir is now a vase from the Ming dynasty. Our bench bigs being soft, tall, white guys who are best utilized as stretch bigs don't help our frontcourt issues much either.

[SHAQATTACK]

Man I want to trade for Noel or just bring zizic in.

Zizic does not seem afraid to fight for rebounds ........we need this sooooooo bad .

Kelly is useless against men his size ........he is so sorry pile of poop

[Fireworks_Boom!]

I despise Olynyk. There isn't a single thing I like about him as a player.

[jpotter33]

with all this talk about sending IT back to the bench, I wanted to ask if people are fine with benching AB instead. IT is our only superstar on this team (ok maybe a bit of a stretch but he's our only guy capable of scoring at will), while I love AB, I think IT does force his way a little bit too much sometimes.

With Smart starting, on offense, Smart would be primary ball handler and I think that benefits us in the long run.

I've said this for a long time. It'd also help the bench scoring, too, along with giving us more size in the backcourt.

But it doesn't matter if Brad doesn't play Smart like he needs to. It took him until the 4th quarter tonight to put him in pick-and-rolls, and he didn't even post him tonight, even when he had Kyrie on him. I just don't understand that. He just wants this free-flowing offense where IT can just iso and penetrate and get everyone else involved, which simply won't work all game long.

fair enough, do you think this is a fair assessment, if we send IT back to the bench, should we look to trade him soon then? I am just assuming he won't be happy with being off the bench when he arguably, helped got Horford here, helped us reach the playoffs, got his first all-star nod, etc, etc?

Yeah, you can't send IT to the bench. I'm not always a fan of his playmaking and style, but our offense would be lost without him.

That being said, I'm not opposed to trading IT in a package for another star. For example, if a Boogie, George, or Butler trade required IT to be sent back, would people really complain about it?

I love IT's offense, but he's certainly far from untradeable with his defensive deficiencies and questionable offensive decision-making at times.