Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26, part 2

[Larry_Russell]

This is a legit championship contender imo:

C Tatum
F Brown
F Hauser
G White
G Pritchard

6th man: Simons
backup big: Queta / Ngongba (1st round pick)
8th man: whoever emerges as the best option among Hugo/Baylor/Minott/Walsh

And we aren't having to rely on other teams to help us out by trading good players to us and we're not hoping/praying that really good players sign here for the MLE. We have less control with that kind of stuff..it's easier said than done.

This is simply keeping our team together, developing our guys, getting Tatum back healthy, resigning Simons to a team friendly deal and drafting a good center in like the 10-17 range..

Just what Tatum and his doctors will want. Him pushing against centers defemsively all game long prematurely wearing himself out and putting undue strain on his surgically repaired achillies

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

This is a legit championship contender imo:

C Tatum
F Brown
F Hauser
G White
G Pritchard

6th man: Simons
backup big: Queta / Ngongba (1st round pick)
8th man: whoever emerges as the best option among Hugo/Baylor/Minott/Walsh

And we aren't having to rely on other teams to help us out by trading good players to us and we're not hoping/praying that really good players sign here for the MLE. We have less control with that kind of stuff..it's easier said than done.

This is simply keeping our team together, developing our guys, getting Tatum back healthy, resigning Simons to a team friendly deal and drafting a good center in like the 10-17 range..

Still not seeing that the core you mentioned above is a contender, plus JT at center is...interesting. Queta is decent but Garza, Tillman and Boucher are not. Simons could be gone at the trade deadline and even if he survives that you know some team like the hornets, hawks wizards or kings will offer him some absurd contract.

I am not saying the window is closed because Cs still have Brown and hopefully JT can be the player he once was but this teams needs better pieces. Even if JT was playing this year I still have them behind Detroit, NY, Cleveland. That is just the east. OKC, Nuggets, Rockets Lakers and Spurs (assuming Wemby can stay healthy) are better teams.

[Hal14]

This is a legit championship contender imo:

C Tatum
F Brown
F Hauser
G White
G Pritchard

6th man: Simons
backup big: Queta / Ngongba (1st round pick)
8th man: whoever emerges as the best option among Hugo/Baylor/Minott/Walsh

And we aren't having to rely on other teams to help us out by trading good players to us and we're not hoping/praying that really good players sign here for the MLE. We have less control with that kind of stuff..it's easier said than done.

This is simply keeping our team together, developing our guys, getting Tatum back healthy, resigning Simons to a team friendly deal and drafting a good center in like the 10-17 range..

Just what Tatum and his doctors will want. Him pushing against centers defemsively all game long prematurely wearing himself out and putting undue strain on his surgically repaired achillies

One may argue it would be better for his achilles to play center because guards run more miles per game than forwards, forwards run more miles per game than centers due to the way the game is played. Centers do more standing around, are having to cover less ground out on the perimeter..more just hanging around near the basket = less running = less wear and tear.

Also, the part of basketball that puts the achilles at the most risk is when you're having to play defense and your legs are having to make really quick, sudden, sharp movements..really quickly changing direction unexpectedly because you don't know where the guys you're defending is going and he's likely going to make quick, sharp, change of direction movements in order to create an advantage - the more of those movements you're having to do each game, the greater the risk is for re-injury. That happens most often if you're having to defend really quick, shifty guys out on the perimeter like Brunson, Garland, Trae, Steph, Kyrie, SGA, Harden, Donovan Mitchell, etc.

Who has to do less of that than anyone else? The center.

Is Tatum at center ideal? Maybe, maybe not. But doing so:
a) allows us to put our best players on the floor and as much talent on the floor as much as possible

and

b) we're not relying (or hoping and praying) for other teams to help us out by trading a good center to us for basically nothing..as the saying goes, hope is not a strategy. While it would be nice, there's no guarantee that we'll be able to acquire a good starting center in the near future. Tatum at the 5 could be our best option.

[keevsnick1]

This is a legit championship contender imo:

C Tatum
F Brown
F Hauser
G White
G Pritchard

6th man: Simons
backup big: Queta / Ngongba (1st round pick)
8th man: whoever emerges as the best option among Hugo/Baylor/Minott/Walsh

And we aren't having to rely on other teams to help us out by trading good players to us and we're not hoping/praying that really good players sign here for the MLE. We have less control with that kind of stuff..it's easier said than done.

This is simply keeping our team together, developing our guys, getting Tatum back healthy, resigning Simons to a team friendly deal and drafting a good center in like the 10-17 range..

I know you like Tatum at Center, but I think there's literally a 0% chance Boston goes into next year with Tatum starting at Center. If they add no center Queta will start, and I think it's a pretty good bet they'll add at least another serviceable rotation big to split minutes with him. They aren't going to suddenly start a guy off a major injury at a position he's almost never played before. Again, Tatum at center is a fine change of pace look, it's not going to be the first thing they do, you give up too much at the rim when you don't play a real center.

[hugepatsfan]

The Celtics have the 6th highest team salary total in the NBA right now. They have the 4th highest payroll total, however. Why? Because we're paying repeater rate taxes.

Building around two supermax players in Tatum/Brown is going to NECESSITATE going DEEP into the tax to have championship supporting cast. And the deeper into the tax you go, the more incremental the luxury tax penalties are. You pay more and more tax on each incremental dollar you spend and the rates are crazy high in repeater status. So if they start adding more pieces to go deeper into the tax, more and more of what they spend will go towards other owners vs. what we put on the court. Make all of the additions we all agree we need and that discrepancy between player salary spending and total payroll spending gets wider and wider. That's how the repeater tax is designed to work.

If we stay in repeater rate status, it's gong to create a situation where ownership spending more than any other team still results in us having less salary than our top competitors actually going to guys on the court. I expect this ownership group to be at or near the top in payroll every year. That should be the standard. But at repeater rates, spending at or near the top in total payroll/cash outflow still means you're a good deal behind what everyone else is spending on the court.

I simply don't believe that's sustainable. I think it's too tall a task to ask Brad to build a team as good as everyone else while being able to sign less players than everyone else. And considering our ownership group doesn't own the arena and has one of the lower net worth in the NBA, I don't believe they're going to be able to spend way more payroll dollars than everyone else to accommodate Brad being able to sign as many players despite being in the repeater rate status.

The most important thing to me is that we are spending as much or more than every other team on SALARIES because that's what goes out there on the court. It doesn't do anything for me if they're spending as much or more than all the other teams but they have more money going to guys out there on the court because we're paying repeater rates.

We're talking about Hauser and/or Simons here as the trade offs here. I wouldn't advocate trading White to reset the repeater rates. Simply not worth it. But Simons and Hauser are marginal enough for me that it's good planning to reset the repeater rates at the cost of them. That's my position and I'm sticking to it.

[Celts17Pride]

Simons as a 6th man on a championship caliber team

Simons can't even get minutes on a barely above .500 team, and rightfully so.

[redslastlaugh]

Sound good. Especially if we can get a pair of 2nds for Hauser from Chicago, then take those 2nds pair with Simons to trade for Colin Sexton who is good despite his size and then tax issue put to bed for the rest of the seaon, lol

Hauser for Dalen Terry if CHI is still in play-in contention by the deadline. Probably get a 2nd after Sam bounces back shooting wise.

Saves BOS $4.6M. That coupled with a Simons move that saves $7.5M (which teams not over aprons can do) gets you under the tax. If you save slightly less on the 2nd deal, you pull the cap shenanigan moves with X and/or Boucher and 10-days.

[Hal14]

Simons as a 6th man on a championship caliber team

Simons can't even get minutes on a barely above .500 team, and rightfully so.

Can't even get minutes? He's tied for 4th on the team in minutes.

And is in the 6MOY race:



Nice try.

Simons' defense has been decent. He's had some ups and downs but that's to be expected from a guy who's new to the team and having to adjust to a new role...

His closest comp might be Jordan Poole, 6th man for the 2022 NBA champs Warriors..