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Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26

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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1841 » by 165bows » Wed Aug 13, 2025 2:36 pm

Fierce1 wrote:Celtic offense becomes stagnant when everybody on the floor are just at the 3pt line wanting to shoot 3s.

Simons' ability to score on drives to the basket will result in more open shots for the Cs.

Simons shoots as many of his shots from 3 as anyone in the top 6 last year outside of Horford.

Ie moving Tatum, Jrue and KP out and Simons in is moving towards more 3s not less.
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1842 » by Hal14 » Wed Aug 13, 2025 2:52 pm

djFan71 wrote:
Hal14 wrote:
djFan71 wrote:I'm still on the trading Simons ship. The only way it makes sense to keep him this year is if you think he's a long-term fit.

Maybe we need to see him play for us for like half a season (or even a full season) in order to make a more informed decision about whether we think he's a long term fit.

Try before you buy..

Plus, his trade value seems to be extremely low right now..his trade value could go up once we're a few months into the season. And at that point there may be some teams with more of a need for Simons' services and will be more interested in trading for him as we get closer to the deadline..

yeah, I don't discount it's possible. It's just feels a little like blind optimism hoping his value increases substantially in 3 months here after 7 years of service, and given even less time on his contract after that point. But, it's definitely possible. Contract year has done wonders for many a player's effort/production. Just have to count on him knowing that playing the right way and doing the little things is more important than buckets in that regard.

Lux tax and more dev time for other guys outweigh the potential gain by keeping him for me, but I can see both sides.

I mainly was responding to your comment "The only way it makes sense to keep him this year is if you think he's a long-term fit."

So I said in order to have a better idea of whether he is a long term fit in Boston, it might help if we first see him play 30+ games in Boston.

I get that he's already played 7 years in the league. And that experience can help us decide if we think he might be a long term fit in Boston. But the 7 years he's played so far were in Portland. So while they are a helpful data point, his 7 yrs in Portland doesn't really tell us a whole lot about how he would fit long term in Boston. We're a different team than Portland. Different personnel, different coaches, different schemes, completely opposite part of the country, we play in more meaningful games than Portland does, etc.

He'd likely have a different role here (3rd/4th option, rather than 1st/2nd option..Usage would probably be like 20-23 here, rather than 24-28 in Portland). He's also entering a different phase of his career now..entering the age 26-28 part which is typically where players really hit another gear, step it up a notch, get better, reach their peak..rather than lots of ups and downs players face when they're age 19-25 (his time in Portland).

Also, I'm not too worried about Simons blocking guys like Hugo/Baylor/Walsh from getting mins. Regardless, we're gonna have 14 or 15 guys on the roster. If we trade Simons, we're getting back 1 or 2 new players in the deal. And those new players might block those guys from getting mins. There's also not a ton of positional/role overlap there. Simons is a SG/PG whose role is to handle the ball, playmake, shoot/score. Baylor is a shooting wing, Hugo is a defensive minded wing, Walsh is a defensive minded SF/PF..

12th in the league in gravity. I don't know about ya'll but I'm at least somewhat curious what that would look like - a guy with this type of gravity playing with the Jays..the other time the Jays (in their prime) played with a guy who had that type of gravity on offense (KP), we were damn near unbeatable. Simons is much younger and much less injury prone than KP. Sure, there's defensive concerns but we can possibly get him playing better D here..and we have other guys who are strong defenders (Tatum, Brown, White, etc.) to help fill in any gaps.

Read on Twitter
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1843 » by Larry_Russell » Wed Aug 13, 2025 2:53 pm

165bows wrote:
Fierce1 wrote:Celtic offense becomes stagnant when everybody on the floor are just at the 3pt line wanting to shoot 3s.

Simons' ability to score on drives to the basket will result in more open shots for the Cs.

Simons shoots as many of his shots from 3 as anyone in the top 6 last year outside of Horford.

Ie moving Tatum, Jrue and KP out and Simons in is moving towards more 3s not less.



Kid has only watch Simons youtube videos and knows nothing of Simons game.
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1844 » by Hal14 » Wed Aug 13, 2025 3:00 pm

165bows wrote:
Fierce1 wrote:Celtic offense becomes stagnant when everybody on the floor are just at the 3pt line wanting to shoot 3s.

Simons' ability to score on drives to the basket will result in more open shots for the Cs.

Simons shoots as many of his shots from 3 as anyone in the top 6 last year outside of Horford.

Ie moving Tatum, Jrue and KP out and Simons in is moving towards more 3s not less.

Someone else posted this awhile back:

Drives per game Boston:
Brown - 12.7
Tatum - 10.3
Pritchard - 5.4
White - 4.8
Holiday - 4.8
Porzingis - 1.5
Horford - 1.1
Hauser - 0.9

Drives per game Indy:
McConnell - 11.6
Haliburton - 10.8
Nembhard - 8.4
Mathurin - 7.0
Siakim - 6.2
Nesmith - 3.8
Toppin - 2.3

The Jays are the only ones on our team who drove the ball 6+ times a game. Pacers had 5 of those players.

Simons - 9.3 drives per game"

Simons is the best of both worlds. We shoot more 3's than any team in history under Mazzulla..so 3 pt shooting ability is a must - check. But it's not good to rely too much on the 3. And the data tells us that successful teams like Indy and OKC attack the basket a lot, Denver when they won the title they generated lots of shots near the rim - they had shooters but their 3PA volume wasn't crazy high. We need someone else who can drive the ball, so Simons checks that box as well.
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1845 » by 165bows » Wed Aug 13, 2025 3:30 pm

Larry_Russell wrote:
165bows wrote:
Fierce1 wrote:Celtic offense becomes stagnant when everybody on the floor are just at the 3pt line wanting to shoot 3s.

Simons' ability to score on drives to the basket will result in more open shots for the Cs.

Simons shoots as many of his shots from 3 as anyone in the top 6 last year outside of Horford.

Ie moving Tatum, Jrue and KP out and Simons in is moving towards more 3s not less.



Kid has only watch Simons youtube videos and knows nothing of Simons game.

It's just math bro
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1846 » by 165bows » Wed Aug 13, 2025 3:33 pm

Dude jacks a ton of threes and has the free throw rate of Al Horford but Anfernee's 44% floater game is taking this team to the promised land idk what to say here...

...other than everyone knows this dude is on borrowed time but most can't really say why other than $$$.
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1847 » by Fierce1 » Wed Aug 13, 2025 4:08 pm

It's hard to debate when some of the posters already made up their minds about Simons.

Guess we'll just have to wait for opening night.
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1848 » by 165bows » Wed Aug 13, 2025 4:14 pm

Fierce1 wrote:It's hard to debate when some of the posters already made up their minds about Simons.

Guess we'll just have to wait for opening night.

Why wait?

He's going to shoot a ton of threes, long twos and floaters and not get to the line like always and people will say that he's changed since he came to Boston and that he's been influenced by JoeBall.
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1849 » by Fierce1 » Wed Aug 13, 2025 4:23 pm

165bows wrote:
Fierce1 wrote:It's hard to debate when some of the posters already made up their minds about Simons.

Guess we'll just have to wait for opening night.

Why wait?

He's going to shoot a ton of threes, long twos and floaters and not get to the line like always and people will say that he's changed since he came to Boston and that he's been influenced by JoeBall.

It's not rocket science.

Last season Simons attempted 8.5 3s per game.
But his field goal attempts is 16.1 per game.
That means half his shots are 3-pointers.
So he's not like DWhite or PP, guys that attempt more 3s than 2s.

White attempts 12.6 shots per game and 9.1 of those are 3s.

PP attempts 10.8 shots per game and 7.8 of those are 3s.

If the impression of Simons is all he does is jack up 3s then those guys are the ones only watching Simons on Youtube.
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1850 » by Hal14 » Wed Aug 13, 2025 4:25 pm

165bows wrote:
Fierce1 wrote:It's hard to debate when some of the posters already made up their minds about Simons.

Guess we'll just have to wait for opening night.

Why wait?

He's going to shoot a ton of threes, long twos and floaters and not get to the line like always and people will say that he's changed since he came to Boston and that he's been influenced by JoeBall.

We don't know what will happen.

None of us can predict the future.

Simons has not yet played a game for the Celtics.

We can guess but none of his (not even Brad or Joe) know for sure how we would play or how he would fit long term on this team yet.
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1851 » by djFan71 » Wed Aug 13, 2025 4:38 pm

jmr07019 wrote:
djFan71 wrote:I'm still on the trading Simons ship. The only way it makes sense to keep him this year is if you think he's a long-term fit. If not, duck the tax, and develop the guys who will possibly be long term players. Every minute Simons plays is one less for all the young guys to split. Yeah, they're not the same position exactly, but it comes out of the same pool of total minutes. Would you rather give 1800 minutes to Simons and see him walk or split that to give Baylor/Hugo/Walsh more time on the wing?

Simons would help score this year with Tatum out for sure. But with Tatum back, do you still want Simons around with the ball in his hands less? Or do you think he's going to being the one to setup Tatum/Brown/White? Either way, you need a big improvement on D and either in primary playmaking or playing off-ball. Obviously, it's all possible that he improves across the board - but it's not something he's shown much of in his career. And, if he does show all that - can we afford to resign him then? Esp over a big with that salary slot?

IMO, Brad's looking, but just trying to not spend assets to do it. And the market's weak. Sept might mean something if other teams need to be able to aggregate to get Simons, plus a few other things may unjam with the unresolved RFAs.


Simons is only 15 months older than Scheierman and a much, much better player.

Jordan Walsh has yet to prove he belongs in the league.

Hugo could barely crack the rotation in Europe and is now playing in a better league. He is likely multiple years away from contributing to a deep playoff run.

Celtics are much better off investing in Simons. Much higher chance he can contribute to a playoff run than those other 3 guys.

I get what you’re saying about not wanting to take the ball out of Tatum’s hands but I also believe having only two guys (Brown and Tatum) who could consistently bend a defense was a problem. And as much as I love JB he can be turnover prone and or have tunnel vision while driving. Whether it’s Simons or someone else Celtics need another guy who can drive the ball.

It's the combo of skillset and salary allocation. Those other guys are what we have to work with that we can retain cheaply. We need at least a few of the young/new guys to hit in order to fill in around our top 3 salaries.

I agree we could use more diversity in scoring creation - every team could. I'm just not sure we can allocate as much of our salary on a - to date - one-sided player to score behind JB and JT. It hinges on both a) Simons getting better on D, and all the smaller non-bucket skills on offense, and b) us being able to resign him significantly cheaper than his current deal. It seems to me those are pulling in opposite directions.
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1852 » by Hal14 » Wed Aug 13, 2025 4:38 pm

More than just a shooter:

Read on Twitter


He made this look so damn effortless, too.

Think about how many possessions we've had in clutch situations over the past 6 or so years where the possession for us looks painful to watch. Not effortless at all. It ends up being one of the Jays dribbling around and bricking on a contested off the dribble, turnaround fadeaway 3 point or (or long 2 pt jumper)..

Not saying we would just give the ball in the clutch to Simons every possession instead of the Jays..but it'd be nice to have it as an option.
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1853 » by 165bows » Wed Aug 13, 2025 4:40 pm

Fierce1 wrote:
165bows wrote:
Fierce1 wrote:It's hard to debate when some of the posters already made up their minds about Simons.

Guess we'll just have to wait for opening night.

Why wait?

He's going to shoot a ton of threes, long twos and floaters and not get to the line like always and people will say that he's changed since he came to Boston and that he's been influenced by JoeBall.

It's not rocket science.

Last season Simons attempted 8.5 3s per game.
But his field goal attempts is 16.1 per game.
That means half his shots are 3-pointers.
So he's not like DWhite or PP, guys that attempt more 3s than 2s.

White attempts 12.6 shots per game and 9.1 of those are 3s.

PP attempts 10.8 shots per game and 7.8 of those are 3s.

If the impression of Simons is all he does is jack up 3s then those guys are the ones only watching Simons on Youtube.

Yeah agree it's a big issue for this team that White/PP don't get to the rim much but the prob is neither does Simons, so if the answer to lots of threes from White/PP is more Simons non-rim 2s (where he's a 90 2P+, ie 10% below league avg efficiency inside the arc) then the question must be how's that draft choice going to be.
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1854 » by 165bows » Wed Aug 13, 2025 4:42 pm

Hal14 wrote:
165bows wrote:
Fierce1 wrote:It's hard to debate when some of the posters already made up their minds about Simons.

Guess we'll just have to wait for opening night.

Why wait?

He's going to shoot a ton of threes, long twos and floaters and not get to the line like always and people will say that he's changed since he came to Boston and that he's been influenced by JoeBall.

We don't know what will happen.

None of us can predict the future.

Simons has not yet played a game for the Celtics.

Sure we can, I just did ^^^
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1855 » by Hal14 » Wed Aug 13, 2025 4:55 pm

165bows wrote:
Fierce1 wrote:
165bows wrote:Why wait?

He's going to shoot a ton of threes, long twos and floaters and not get to the line like always and people will say that he's changed since he came to Boston and that he's been influenced by JoeBall.

It's not rocket science.

Last season Simons attempted 8.5 3s per game.
But his field goal attempts is 16.1 per game.
That means half his shots are 3-pointers.
So he's not like DWhite or PP, guys that attempt more 3s than 2s.

White attempts 12.6 shots per game and 9.1 of those are 3s.

PP attempts 10.8 shots per game and 7.8 of those are 3s.

If the impression of Simons is all he does is jack up 3s then those guys are the ones only watching Simons on Youtube.

Yeah agree it's a big issue for this team that White/PP don't get to the rim much but the prob is neither does Simons, so if the answer to lots of threes from White/PP is more Simons non-rim 2s (where he's a 90 2P+, ie 10% below league avg efficiency inside the arc) then the question must be how's that draft choice going to be.

I just posted the numbers in terms of drives per game. It's on this page.

Simons drives the ball way more than Pritchard. He drives the ball way more than anyone on our team - besides the Jays. Not all of Simons' drives end in floaters or non-rim 2's so posting those efficiency numbers isn't very helpful.

Some of his drives end in shots at the rim, like this one:
Read on Twitter
/video/1

Some of his drives end in passes because they put the defense into rotation and leave someone open, as we see here:
Read on Twitter


While his FTr isn't very high, it's higher than D-White's FTr, it's higher than Walsh, it's higher than Jrue's was last year, it's WAY higher than Pritchard's and it's WAYYY higher than Hauser's. Plus, good things can still happen on a drive, even if you don't get to the FT line so FTr, while it is a good indicator, doesn't tell the whole story of driving ability.

Let's also factor in that Simons is gonna have better spacing here in Boston than he had in Portland. So that will help create more driving lanes and help his efficiency on shots when he drives it.

And he's entering his prime now..so he will likely be better now than he was as a younger player in Portland..and he'll likely play better now, now that he's finally out of Portland..since he wanted to get out of Portland for awhile:



And he's in a contract year, so will likely play better.

And he won't have to carry as much of the offensive load, so that should also help his efficiency on shots (from 3, from mid range and at the rim) since he will carry less of the load, won't be facing the opposing team's best perimeter defender anymore..)
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1856 » by Curmudgeon » Wed Aug 13, 2025 5:01 pm

If Simons defense were half as good as his offense, I'd be fine with him. But his defense is HORRIBLE-- statstically he's one of the worst two or three defenders in the league.
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1857 » by 165bows » Wed Aug 13, 2025 5:12 pm

Hal14 wrote:
165bows wrote:
Fierce1 wrote:It's not rocket science.

Last season Simons attempted 8.5 3s per game.
But his field goal attempts is 16.1 per game.
That means half his shots are 3-pointers.
So he's not like DWhite or PP, guys that attempt more 3s than 2s.

White attempts 12.6 shots per game and 9.1 of those are 3s.

PP attempts 10.8 shots per game and 7.8 of those are 3s.

If the impression of Simons is all he does is jack up 3s then those guys are the ones only watching Simons on Youtube.

Yeah agree it's a big issue for this team that White/PP don't get to the rim much but the prob is neither does Simons, so if the answer to lots of threes from White/PP is more Simons non-rim 2s (where he's a 90 2P+, ie 10% below league avg efficiency inside the arc) then the question must be how's that draft choice going to be.

I just posted the numbers in terms of drives per game. It's on this page.

Simons drives the ball way more than Pritchard. He drives the ball way more than anyone on our team - besides the Jays. Not all of Simons' drives end in floaters or non-rim 2's so posting those efficiency numbers isn't very helpful.

Some of his drives end in shots at the rim, like this one:
Read on Twitter
/video/1

Some of his drives end in passes because they put the defense into rotation and leave someone open, as we see here:
Read on Twitter


While his FTr isn't very high, it's higher than D-White's FTr, it's higher than Walsh, it's higher than Jrue's was last year, it's WAY higher than Pritchard's and it's WAYYY higher than Hauser's. Plus, good things can still happen on a drive, even if you don't get to the FT line so FTr, while it is a good indicator, doesn't tell the whole story of driving ability.

Let's also factor in that Simons is gonna have better spacing here in Boston than he had in Portland. So that will help create more driving lanes and help his efficiency on shots when he drives it.

And he's entering his prime now..so he will likely be better now than he was as a younger player in Portland..and he'll likely play better now, now that he's finally out of Portland..since he wanted to get out of Portland for awhile:

https://youtu.be/FBGAM9DS29g

And he's in a contract year, so will likely play better.

And he won't have to carry as much of the offensive load, so that should also help his efficiency on shots (from 3, from mid range and at the rim) since he will carry less of the load, won't be facing the opposing team's best perimeter defender anymore..)

It is helpful, since if you read what I posted, was his overall inside the arc efficiency numbers which are quite not good.

So maybe he's got more drive and dish game than the other back court guys which would be nice but it doesn't matter much beyond that if people want to ignore that his career 2p% is 10% below league average and he takes a lot more non-rim twos than rim-2s (self explanatory based on his results).

I'm totally fine with the guy for the time being and he clearly has some self-created scoring which is always nice but the prob is he's small and not that strong nor efficient as a scorer and he's not that good on D, all reasons why back when this team was competitive and needed guards I was not a proponent (to say the least) of getting him. And along with is contract why he's still here.

Aside from all that though I'm totally fine to see how it goes but I am positive that people will blame his play style on playing for Joe even if he is exactly who he always was.
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1858 » by jmr07019 » Wed Aug 13, 2025 5:24 pm

djFan71 wrote:
jmr07019 wrote:
djFan71 wrote:I'm still on the trading Simons ship. The only way it makes sense to keep him this year is if you think he's a long-term fit. If not, duck the tax, and develop the guys who will possibly be long term players. Every minute Simons plays is one less for all the young guys to split. Yeah, they're not the same position exactly, but it comes out of the same pool of total minutes. Would you rather give 1800 minutes to Simons and see him walk or split that to give Baylor/Hugo/Walsh more time on the wing?

Simons would help score this year with Tatum out for sure. But with Tatum back, do you still want Simons around with the ball in his hands less? Or do you think he's going to being the one to setup Tatum/Brown/White? Either way, you need a big improvement on D and either in primary playmaking or playing off-ball. Obviously, it's all possible that he improves across the board - but it's not something he's shown much of in his career. And, if he does show all that - can we afford to resign him then? Esp over a big with that salary slot?

IMO, Brad's looking, but just trying to not spend assets to do it. And the market's weak. Sept might mean something if other teams need to be able to aggregate to get Simons, plus a few other things may unjam with the unresolved RFAs.


Simons is only 15 months older than Scheierman and a much, much better player.

Jordan Walsh has yet to prove he belongs in the league.

Hugo could barely crack the rotation in Europe and is now playing in a better league. He is likely multiple years away from contributing to a deep playoff run.

Celtics are much better off investing in Simons. Much higher chance he can contribute to a playoff run than those other 3 guys.

I get what you’re saying about not wanting to take the ball out of Tatum’s hands but I also believe having only two guys (Brown and Tatum) who could consistently bend a defense was a problem. And as much as I love JB he can be turnover prone and or have tunnel vision while driving. Whether it’s Simons or someone else Celtics need another guy who can drive the ball.

It's the combo of skillset and salary allocation. Those other guys are what we have to work with that we can retain cheaply. We need at least a few of the young/new guys to hit in order to fill in around our top 3 salaries.

I agree we could use more diversity in scoring creation - every team could. I'm just not sure we can allocate as much of our salary on a - to date - one-sided player to score behind JB and JT. It hinges on both a) Simons getting better on D, and all the smaller non-bucket skills on offense, and b) us being able to resign him significantly cheaper than his current deal. It seems to me those are pulling in opposite directions.


I asked google what percentage of champions paid luxury tax and it said 14 of the last 18 champions paid the tax. Grok (X ai machine) said it was 14 of the last 19 champs. Either way the picture is clear. Spending into the luxury tax is something most champions do. I expect the Celtics to pay luxury tax and pay players outside of Brown Tatum and White significant salaries.

I do agree that getting productive minutes out of cheap contracts is extremely valuable and despite the last post I haven’t given up on any of those 3 guys, just don’t think we should trade Simons to facilitate their development. They haven’t shown enough to warrant further investment.

If you want to argue we can’t afford to pay Simons and a starting caliber big multiple years in a row… fine. I don’t expect the Celtics to be 30 million of the second apron every year. But the current level of spending seems reasonable. If Tatum never tore his Achilles where would this team be? If Queta were Theis level and Simons meshed with the team I think they would be contending for the title this year.
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1859 » by redslastlaugh » Wed Aug 13, 2025 5:44 pm

Hal14 wrote:
djFan71 wrote:
Hal14 wrote:Maybe we need to see him play for us for like half a season (or even a full season) in order to make a more informed decision about whether we think he's a long term fit.

Try before you buy..

Plus, his trade value seems to be extremely low right now..his trade value could go up once we're a few months into the season. And at that point there may be some teams with more of a need for Simons' services and will be more interested in trading for him as we get closer to the deadline..

yeah, I don't discount it's possible. It's just feels a little like blind optimism hoping his value increases substantially in 3 months here after 7 years of service, and given even less time on his contract after that point. But, it's definitely possible. Contract year has done wonders for many a player's effort/production. Just have to count on him knowing that playing the right way and doing the little things is more important than buckets in that regard.

Lux tax and more dev time for other guys outweigh the potential gain by keeping him for me, but I can see both sides.

I mainly was responding to your comment "The only way it makes sense to keep him this year is if you think he's a long-term fit."

So I said in order to have a better idea of whether he is a long term fit in Boston, it might help if we first see him play 30+ games in Boston.

Hal, I know it's the offseason and debating Ant Simons game & fit is a fine topic to discuss,but it really seems to me like his whole future just comes down to finances and not his game. If we had signed Jrue to a more market priced contract extension, we wouldn't even have Simons. And if Brad wants to reset the tax, he'll trade Simons. I don't think his game & fit is the main force driving what will happen here with Ant
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Re: Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26 

Post#1860 » by jmr07019 » Wed Aug 13, 2025 5:58 pm

165bows wrote:Dude jacks a ton of threes and has the free throw rate of Al Horford but Anfernee's 44% floater game is taking this team to the promised land idk what to say here...

...other than everyone knows this dude is on borrowed time but most can't really say why other than $$$.


Pretty simple premise. Simons will be more efficient on a better team playing next to better players.

If the Celtics want to not pay the tax two years in a row and are planning for the 2028 finals they should trade Derrick White not Simons. White will be 33 when the playoffs begin in 2028.
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