At one point I made a trade on how the Celtics could get KD and Kyrie. Although this may sound too good to be true to some people, the main thing I wanted to demonstrate is that’s the Celtics are in position to trade for 2 max contracts. They can literally obtain anyone by offering youth and picks. We have enough salary cap on our team to match with anyone. Even if you feel like No team would like Gordy, but I’m sure that even in the state he’s still good enough to start on most teams, especially as he gets more comfortable.
If Kyrie and AD are ok this roster, they may look to add another high value asset, who really knows. All I’m saying is that’s it’s POSSIBLE. I always think back how we got KG and Ray. Even a team which just the addition of AD and the subtraction of Tatum is good, but I feel empty. I feel like we can still obtain a Beal, or Booker, or a Westbrook (if they want to blow it up we could be in position)
Or something like this if no 3rd team is involved.
http://tradenba.com/trades/SyIV2XijV
I find the notion that Gordy has to be traded nonsensical. He's the perfect compliment to AD and Kyrie, if Brad lets him play his game. Especially if we lose both Tatum and Smart/Brown
Agreed re: Hayward. Let’s also pump the brakes on the “Hayward looks soooo good now,” which I’ve heard in the media. Yeah, better than the start of the season, but Gordon was a bad man in Utah who dunked on fools and piled up and-1s. That guy is not here yet. Hopefully he’ll be much closer to that next season, and that’s as good of a “second pickup” as we could ask for if that happens. If we trade for Davis and keep Kyrie, Gordon gains some explosiveness back, that’s a team that looks really good on paper AND has defined roles.
Exactly! Which is why it makes too much sense for Smart and Tatum to be the two main outgoing pieces in a potential AD trade. With a lineup of Kyrie/Brown/Hayward/Horford/Davis, you have balance and clearly defined roles (as you mentioned.)
Trust me, you wouldn't want to trade defensive cogs on a contender. It didn't worked back then, it clearly won't work now. AD is a premier talent but the league is now perimeter oriented. Back with the KG trade, KG specifically requested that Rondo should stay because he like how fierce young Rondo was. And Tony Allen were also retained and provided us a defensive tenacity on what's already a deep defensive team.
I'm not saying don't trade for AD, but you would want to keep impact players on your team. AB was traded because he can't stay healthy. Smart was healthy for majority of the season. Crowder was traded because he doesn't have much impact and is unhappy with his future roles.
All fell apart when James Posey, another scrappy player left for another team. Talent is nice, but you would prefer to retain scrappy, hard-nosed glue guys in a contending team. So far the Bucks series showed that we needed toughness when things aren't going our way and Smart have provided that for past few years.