Avery Bradley is being traded to the Pistons

[jpotter33]

http://bkref.com/tiny/gpSJf

After some googling I found out he also is an inch shorter than his brother (6'9 vs 6'10).

The Jeff Green comparison is a good one.

One thing I can guarantee: nobody is going to nickname Morris "Sleepy". He's got the exact opposite demeanor and attitude of Green.

True. While Markief might be a bit better overall, I think Marcus doesn't have the questionable character baggage that Markief does.

It'll be interesting to see how his stats change playing with the C's and next to Horford rather than Drummond.

[nickagneta]

I have been a Bradley supporter since day one, thinking he would eventually have his shot drop because his form was so good. He really proved to be a great Celtic and I will miss him. Best of luck Avery.

That said, someone in the group of IT, Smart and Avery had to go for clearing cap this year and because we couldn't sign all of them next year. The other day I was running through various teams trying to find a trade that worked and came across Morris' name I was intrigued as he plays PF and like Crowder is on one of the better contracts in the league.

Morris will be a good addition. He will be the type of player that will easily go to the bench if Tatum turns out to be as NBA ready as I think he is. I really think Tatum could start early in the year and be a ROY type player.

By year's end I could see a rotation of:

IT/Rozier
Brown/Smart
Hayward/Crowder
Tatum/Morris
Horford/yet to be signed vet center

With a deep bench of

Allen
Bird
Nader
Ojeleye/Theis
Zizic

Thats a team that can fight for a Finals appearnce and grow into a beast of a team in the 2020's, especially if we draft 2 of  Porter, Ayton, Doncic or Bamba while developing those 5 deep bench players.

[Fireworks_Boom!]

Losing AB hurts. There is a sting felt on this one. Beyond his contributions on the court, he was a stand-up person off the court and very charitable to the city of Boston.

Losing a key player is never going to feel good but this is the business side of basketball and given the redundancy DA and CBS built into this roster, it was either he or Smart going. And from a defensive perspective, Smart can guard 1-4 whereas AB got caught with size issues against longer SF.

I'm left wanting for more following this trade. But please don't let the more part be Crowder going out in a trade. Unless the return is that significant. We lose both AB and Crowder and our identity is drastically changed heading into next season.

Just a strange feeling overall with this news...

[Scintan]

Terrible trade

That doesn't mean it won't work out, but it's still a terrible trade.

[kozlodoev]

I told you we had little leverage until we badly traded one of our three "expendable" players. And people was thinking the other way. Time was running out and Hayward has already given up some money to sign here. After all, it's not a bad trade given we obtain a starting-caliber PF.

I hate seeing Bradley go, my favourite Celtic last years 

Woj said two other teams were interested in Bradley. If that's the best deal it could get it's just sad. Might have been better off just waiving him.

Or just keep him this year and let us have a great year and let him go into free agency.

That was my hope.

Why do we dump our best defender just to get a bit of cash to sign GH?.  Figure out another way to do it DA.  I hope there is another shoe to fall.  Shipping off our best defender for someone like Morris is such a net loss for the team.

there weren't enough minutes to keep smart Bradley and crowder. 1 had to go and AB was as good as gone after this year.

No, there aren't enough minutes for Hayward, Tatum and Crowder ... and Ainge just "solved" this issue by adding Morris to this same mix. Brilliant move...

Morris is more of a 4 while Crowder should only see spot minutes there, Tatum's big enough but almost certainly not ready, and Hayward won't be there much either.

Think of Morris more as a replacement for Olynyk than an additional SF.

Real good point. I think the idea is to replace KO through a combination of Morris and Tatum (low post game).   Not that KO was a great low post presence - not even close - but Tatum probably gives you equal ability in that aspect of his game.

Nah, this is rubbish. Olynyk was a big who could sometimes play center in given lineups. Morris is a guy who played a SF or was paired with John Henson. Since Henson and Morris are virtually the same player on paper, it's hard to tell who guarded the bigger forwards unless you actually followed the Detroit Pistons (I didn't). This is  clearly adding another rotation player whose best position is probably SF and who does nothing to address the #1 deficiency you had last season (REBOUNDING!). Oh, and you just traded away your second best rebounder in the process. Subtraction by subtraction?

[max215]

For the record, not trading Jae (yet) was the right move.

[Tr1boy]

 I think this is what happened in the last 24/48 hours

Crowder/Hayward S&T was in the works... But Jazz went cheap mode and werent going to give up anything worthwhile

They cant give up picks bc its the only way they can stay relevant.  Danny prob asked for Donovan Mitchell (with Danny sending back some 2nds)... Jazz prob whiffed

So trading AB next was best alternative (plus he was going to be a FA next season). Plus Celts get a starting PF in return

Crowder and Smart will probably be staying.  Hopefully Crowder wont be a crybaby about it

[Kuberski33]

I have been a Bradley supporter since day one, thinking he would eventually have his shot drop because his form was so good. He really proved to be a great Celtic and I will miss him. Best of luck Avery.

That said, someone in the group of IT, Smart and Avery had to go for clearing cap this year and because we couldn't sign all of them next year. The other day I was running through various teams trying to find a trade that worked and came across Morris' name I was intrigued as he plays PF and like Crowder is on one of the better contracts in the league.

Morris will be a good addition. He will be the type of player that will easily go to the bench if Tatum turns out to be as NBA ready as I think he is. I really think Tatum could start early in the year and be a ROY type player.

By year's end I could see a rotation of:

IT/Rozier
Brown/Smart
Hayward/Crowder
Tatum/Morris
Horford/yet to be signed vet center

With a deep bench of

Allen
Bird
Nader
Ojeleye
Zizic

Thats a team that can fight for a Finals appearnce and grow into a beast of a team in the 2020's, especially if we draft 2 of  Porter, Ayton, Doncic or Bamba while developing those 5 deep bench players.

I still think you need to add an extra 2 who can make the 3 pointer but you have plenty of time for that.  You could even do it at the trade deadline.  With so many teams openly tanking, some decent options should be available.

[Chief Macho]

Love Avery Bradley.   think he's an organizational success in player development.   

Not a bad trade either.  Morris isn't on long term money. Avery isn't signed. 

[blink]

I told you we had little leverage until we badly traded one of our three "expendable" players. And people was thinking the other way. Time was running out and Hayward has already given up some money to sign here. After all, it's not a bad trade given we obtain a starting-caliber PF.

I hate seeing Bradley go, my favourite Celtic last years 

Woj said two other teams were interested in Bradley. If that's the best deal it could get it's just sad. Might have been better off just waiving him.

Or just keep him this year and let us have a great year and let him go into free agency.

That was my hope.

Why do we dump our best defender just to get a bit of cash to sign GH?.  Figure out another way to do it DA.  I hope there is another shoe to fall.  Shipping off our best defender for someone like Morris is such a net loss for the team.

there weren't enough minutes to keep smart Bradley and crowder. 1 had to go and AB was as good as gone after this year.

No, there aren't enough minutes for Hayward, Tatum and Crowder ... and Ainge just "solved" this issue by adding Morris to this same mix. Brilliant move...

Morris is more of a 4 while Crowder should only see spot minutes there, Tatum's big enough but almost certainly not ready, and Hayward won't be there much either.

Think of Morris more as a replacement for Olynyk than an additional SF.

Real good point. I think the idea is to replace KO through a combination of Morris and Tatum (low post game).   Not that KO was a great low post presence - not even close - but Tatum probably gives you equal ability in that aspect of his game.

Nah, this is rubbish. Olynyk was a big who could sometimes play center in given lineups. Morris is a guy who played a SF or was paired with John Henson. Since Henson and Morris are virtually the same player on paper, it's hard to tell who guarded the bigger forwards unless you actually followed the Detroit Pistons (I didn't). This is  clearly adding another rotation player whose best position is probably SF and who does nothing to address the #1 deficiency you had last season (REBOUNDING!). Oh, and you just traded away your second best rebounder in the process. Subtraction by subtraction?

I am going to be hot about this trade for a while.  So to summarize, we get GH which is a big plus, then we trade AB for some below average marginal 3/4 player that isn't a good rebounder because he has a good contract - this is a big loss  We lose what I think is the best def player on the team (others say Smart no problem with that) for a guy who might be in jail soon.

Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline.n DA why didn't you just hold onto AB for this year and let him go to free agency and not even worry about trading him...

[colincb]

- Bradley is the far superior player who was underpaid.
- Morris was fairly paid.
- Morris is more durable.
- Morris has always been a poor defensive rebounder for his size. He was better before Detroit though. BTW, KO is a better defensive rebounder.
- We were going to lose AB or IT, but given IT's scoring, I think most people thought it was AB.

Danny doesn't get fleeced and he works the lines as hard as any GM in the NBA. Yet, this was not a great deal, especially for 2017-18. Morris is nothing but a (durable) rotation player who may start in BOS as he did in DET for lack of anyone better or anyone ready. However, it was the market for a 1-year rental who we'd lose for nothing otherwise regardless if Smart pans out or whether you trade Crowder at some point because he's redundant.

[BringToughnessBack]

Wow, run an errand and come back to 12 pages of the last person I thought would be traded out of the 3 who were being shopped. I am definitely torn on this. I think AB adds so much for a playoff team and he has been improving year after year with us. I guess the bottomline is that if Danny had no plans to resign him when he expires next year, this had to be done.

Keeping him off the Lakers no matter what they offered makes a ton of sense as well. He would push them out of the bottom 5 for sure. Dumping Crowder for zip probably did not make sense as well and I definitely didn't want to see Smart in a Knicks uniform as he continues to improve.

At the end of the day, Hayward plus Morris is greater than Avery Bradley. Not the easiest of departures but one that was needed to give us the  room to sign Hayward.

[Neurotic Guy]

Terrible trade

That doesn't mean it won't work out, but it's still a terrible trade.

If it works out will it still be a terrible trade?

[kozlodoev]

- Morris has always been a poor defensive rebounder for his size. He was better before Detroit though. BTW, KO is a better defensive rebounder.

Also, don't forget that Bradley was the team's second-leading rebounder last season. We're going to be even worse on the glass this season as it stands right now.

[Celtics4ever]

I am going to be hot about this trade for a while.  So to summarize, we get GH which is a big plus, then we trade AB for some below average marginal 3/4 player that isn't a good rebounder because he has a good contract - this is a big loss  We lose what I think is the best def player on the team (others say Smart no problem with that) for a guy who might be in jail soon.

So you would rather lose him for nothing next year?   

Gives us room to sign Hayward, No?    Don't we have a mid level exception, too?   DA should be offering that 8 million or so to Dedmon or Green ASAP.  I mean Jymichel Not Jeff.