What now?

[Bohemian]

I wonder if the Celtics have any interest in Festus Ezeli?

I am sure they would like to add Ezeli. The issue here is if you want to pay him what he´ll probably demand. And I don´t think Ainge wants to spend a lot of money on a complementary player. He has that in mind for a star player

[GreenFor3]

I wonder if the Celtics have any interest in Festus Ezeli?

Is there any way they can sign him and still maintain max space next year? I think that is priority number one. Maybe overpay for a 1+1 deal but I doubt he wants to do that

[Fencer reregistered]

It's also possible that the Durant/Warriors combo doesn't work. In that case, we can do this all over again next offseason.

[Iguodaladon]

I wonder if the Celtics have any interest in Festus Ezeli?

I hope not, that guy looked soft in the Finals. Cowered from contact and played like he was 5ft small on the boards

[ParticleMan]

Cheer up guys, you're getting Westbrook IMO.

Only if he signs an extension which seems unlikely since he wants to go to la.

Don't underestimate the pull of playing for a storied franchise like the Celtics. Get him in for one year and he would fall in love IMO.

i think so too but given what we would have to give up it's not a chance we could take even if it's more likely than not. and we would have to figure out what to do with IT. i'm not keen to give up our leading scorer and only go-to guy just to get another albeit better one. i'd rather add to IT somehow.

i think it's better to wait to see if we can sign him as a FA in 2017, so we don't have to give up anything. or see if there is a fire sale at the trade deadline.

[BigTrade92]

Getting Westbrook is essentially the same as getting Durant.

Not if he's already decided where he wants to play next.

Yup, but maybe not. Maybe he likes it here and stays.

That's the risk you taking getting a Top 5 NBA player. And you take that risk 100% of the time.

[165bows]

Only if he signs an extension which seems unlikely since he wants to go to la.

Don't underestimate the pull of playing for a storied franchise like the Celtics. Get him in for one year and he would fall in love IMO.

i think so too but given what we would have to give up it's not a chance we could take even if it's more likely than not. and we would have to figure out what to do with IT. i'm not keen to give up our leading scorer and only go-to guy just to get another albeit better one. i'd rather add to IT somehow.

i think it's better to wait to see if we can sign him as a FA in 2017, so we don't have to give up anything. or see if there is a fire sale at the trade deadline.

I'm pretty much in this camp as well, unless the contract issue really brings his trade return down.

Imagine if we knew going into the off season that the team would sign Horford and have a shot at Russell Westbrook, people would be pretty psyched.

[SmartWentCrazy]

Read a Zach Lowe piece this AM and he had an interesting hypothetical. You can resign Westbrook and bump his salary this year up from 17 to 25. He'd lose out next year, but the 8mm up front nets it out.

If Westbrook was amenable to signing a 1 year extension with us, giving us two total years with him, I'd empty the war chest for him. I'd imagine this is what Ainge is looking into given Smitty's comments regarding JJ and Amir-- we'd need to use cap space this year to do the extension.

I'd also imagine OKC would have done interest in Smart given that he went to school there. Maybe BKN17, BKN18, Smart and another asset? I'd imagine Presti would love to rebuild with two high lotto picks next year, if possible.

[ajones9219]

Read a Zach Lowe piece this AM and he had an interesting hypothetical. You can resign Westbrook and bump his salary this year up from 17 to 25. He'd lose out next year, but the 8mm up front nets it out.

If Westbrook was amenable to signing a 1 year extension with us, giving us two total years with him, I'd empty the war chest for him. I'd imagine this is what Ainge is looking into given his comments regarding JJ and Amir-- we'd need to use cap space this year to do the extension.

I'd also imagine OKC would have done interest in Smart given that he went to school there. Maybe BKN17, BKN18, Smart and another asset? I'd imagine Prestibwould love to rebuild with two high lotto picks next year, if possible.

What comments by ainge? Must have missed it

[SmartWentCrazy]

Read a Zach Lowe piece this AM and he had an interesting hypothetical. You can resign Westbrook and bump his salary this year up from 17 to 25. He'd lose out next year, but the 8mm up front nets it out.

If Westbrook was amenable to signing a 1 year extension with us, giving us two total years with him, I'd empty the war chest for him. I'd imagine this is what Ainge is looking into given his comments regarding JJ and Amir-- we'd need to use cap space this year to do the extension.

I'd also imagine OKC would have done interest in Smart given that he went to school there. Maybe BKN17, BKN18, Smart and another asset? I'd imagine Prestibwould love to rebuild with two high lotto picks next year, if possible.

What comments by ainge? Must have missed it

D'oh! Meant Smitty's comments. Corrected original post, sorry for confusion.

[KGboss]

Read a Zach Lowe piece this AM and he had an interesting hypothetical. You can resign Westbrook and bump his salary this year up from 17 to 25. He'd lose out next year, but the 8mm up front nets it out.

If Westbrook was amenable to signing a 1 year extension with us, giving us two total years with him, I'd empty the war chest for him. I'd imagine this is what Ainge is looking into given Smitty's comments regarding JJ and Amir-- we'd need to use cap space this year to do the extension.

I'd also imagine OKC would have done interest in Smart given that he went to school there. Maybe BKN17, BKN18, Smart and another asset? I'd imagine Presti would love to rebuild with two high lotto picks next year, if possible.

Empty the war chest for 2 years of westbrook? No thanks. Id rather have Harry Giles for the next 10 to 15 years.

[SmartWentCrazy]

Westbrook is a top 5 player. Id rate our chances of resigning him after two years far higher than the chances of:

1) being in position to draft Giles
2) him emerging as the guy at Duke coming off of two ACL tears in the same leg
3) him developing into a top 5 player
4) him not leaving us as a FA

I get being hesitant to pull the trigger, but we need to take a shot soon. We have one more off-season with our core signed to cheap deals that allows us to sign max FA's. We need to take a chance either this off-season or the next, and, frankly, I don't see a better opportunity than this to assemble a serious contender. We can't just sit around forever with our dicks in our hands.

[Stadium5]

Dude, give it a rest

We just finished year three of a rebuild. Two of those three years we made the playoffs, we just signed Al Horford, had the #3 pick in the draft, we'll have another top pick next season and the season after, and a Top 3 player in this league just visited this team, and pretty much chose to make the worst Free Agency decision of all time, and had us placed in second.

The sky isn't falling, we have multiple assets still at our disposal and a VERY bright future ahead.

Danny Ainge has done a hell of a job.

Ya okay........I hear the same song from Chris Mannix, Brian Scalabrine, Chris Forsberg and every other Danny jock sniffer. Change the fn disc.

My favorite is how everyone envies us. Envies WHAT? A roster full of ham and eggers? Al old man Horford who even Tommy "I hype everyone up" Heinson thinks is a fn glorified ham and egger? Give me a break.

Danny made his bed and now he has to find a STUD asap or we r screwed. Why sign a 30 year old forward with no STUD ride-a-long? Foolish GMing.

Dude seriously enough. Everyone is tired of your negative spin on everything. We all get it, you wanted us to tank and we didn't. We get it, you don't like the Al Horford signing. We got a top 3 pick and a 4 time all star without surrendering assets. Al Horford has show exactly 0 signs of a steep decline. In fact, every analyst projects him to age very well so he will be playing at a high level for at the very least his entire 4 year deal. idk why you even waste your time rooting for the Celtics if you're just going to root for them to fail every year. I'd bet my entire life savings that we win a title before tanking teams like the 76'ers or Lakers. I understand that it's the normal way teams win, but most teams aren't gifted top draft picks from another team every season so the smart move is to put yourself in the best position to win every year, maintaining a culture of winning and a high chemistry locker room while Brooklyn funnels you draft talent.....I'm seriously tired of all the 'ham and egger' nonsense.

Betting your entire life savings on against a free agent destination like LA, or a philly tanking team that already has 3 potential all stars not winning before us is nonsense in itself. Theres no negative spin from us, we call it like it is. If it hurts your agenda or feelings thats too bad, its a message board where we as fans get to discuss rebuilding strategies and voice our criticism or praise. I root for the Celtics and always will, but I disagree with the way Ainge and Wyc went about this rebuild. I feel we should be a lot further along than where we are, and we take the BKN picks for granted.

Any posters on here telling me and/or banners to be shown the door because we dont share the same opinion as them need to settle down and realize we don't give a F what you think of our opinion and couldn't give two **** about losing Kamikaze from Realgm "credibility as a fan"

[BigTrade92]

Ya okay........I hear the same song from Chris Mannix, Brian Scalabrine, Chris Forsberg and every other Danny jock sniffer. Change the fn disc.

My favorite is how everyone envies us. Envies WHAT? A roster full of ham and eggers? Al old man Horford who even Tommy "I hype everyone up" Heinson thinks is a fn glorified ham and egger? Give me a break.

Danny made his bed and now he has to find a STUD asap or we r screwed. Why sign a 30 year old forward with no STUD ride-a-long? Foolish GMing.

Dude seriously enough. Everyone is tired of your negative spin on everything. We all get it, you wanted us to tank and we didn't. We get it, you don't like the Al Horford signing. We got a top 3 pick and a 4 time all star without surrendering assets. Al Horford has show exactly 0 signs of a steep decline. In fact, every analyst projects him to age very well so he will be playing at a high level for at the very least his entire 4 year deal. idk why you even waste your time rooting for the Celtics if you're just going to root for them to fail every year. I'd bet my entire life savings that we win a title before tanking teams like the 76'ers or Lakers. I understand that it's the normal way teams win, but most teams aren't gifted top draft picks from another team every season so the smart move is to put yourself in the best position to win every year, maintaining a culture of winning and a high chemistry locker room while Brooklyn funnels you draft talent.....I'm seriously tired of all the 'ham and egger' nonsense.

Betting your entire life savings on against a free agent destination like LA, or a philly tanking team that already has 3 potential all stars not winning before us is nonsense in itself. Theres no negative spin from us, we call it like it is. If it hurts your agenda or feelings thats too bad, its a message board where we as fans get to discuss rebuilding strategies and voice our criticism or praise. I root for the Celtics and always will, but I disagree with the way Ainge and Wyc went about this rebuild. I feel we should be a lot further along than where we are, and we take the BKN picks for granted.

Any posters on here telling me and/or banners to be shown the door because we dont share the same opinion as them need to settle down and realize we don't give a F what you think of our opinion and couldn't give two **** about losing Kamikaze from Realgm "credibility as a fan"

Dude, in turn, no one cares that "you don't care".

You can disagree all you want, but no one wants to read negative crap all day long. You're certainly not "calling it how it is" if everything is negative, because this team is in very good shape and your GM has done a very good job.

When every post is "ham and egger" stuff and I'm reading nonsense like Banners taking about "wiping up diarrhea on Danny Ainge's face", it's time to draw the line.

[ajones9219]

Ya okay........I hear the same song from Chris Mannix, Brian Scalabrine, Chris Forsberg and every other Danny jock sniffer. Change the fn disc.

My favorite is how everyone envies us. Envies WHAT? A roster full of ham and eggers? Al old man Horford who even Tommy "I hype everyone up" Heinson thinks is a fn glorified ham and egger? Give me a break.

Danny made his bed and now he has to find a STUD asap or we r screwed. Why sign a 30 year old forward with no STUD ride-a-long? Foolish GMing.

Dude seriously enough. Everyone is tired of your negative spin on everything. We all get it, you wanted us to tank and we didn't. We get it, you don't like the Al Horford signing. We got a top 3 pick and a 4 time all star without surrendering assets. Al Horford has show exactly 0 signs of a steep decline. In fact, every analyst projects him to age very well so he will be playing at a high level for at the very least his entire 4 year deal. idk why you even waste your time rooting for the Celtics if you're just going to root for them to fail every year. I'd bet my entire life savings that we win a title before tanking teams like the 76'ers or Lakers. I understand that it's the normal way teams win, but most teams aren't gifted top draft picks from another team every season so the smart move is to put yourself in the best position to win every year, maintaining a culture of winning and a high chemistry locker room while Brooklyn funnels you draft talent.....I'm seriously tired of all the 'ham and egger' nonsense.

Betting your entire life savings on against a free agent destination like LA, or a philly tanking team that already has 3 potential all stars not winning before us is nonsense in itself. Theres no negative spin from us, we call it like it is. If it hurts your agenda or feelings thats too bad, its a message board where we as fans get to discuss rebuilding strategies and voice our criticism or praise. I root for the Celtics and always will, but I disagree with the way Ainge and Wyc went about this rebuild. I feel we should be a lot further along than where we are, and we take the BKN picks for granted.

Any posters on here telling me and/or banners to be shown the door because we dont share the same opinion as them need to settle down and realize we don't give a F what you think of our opinion and couldn't give two **** about losing Kamikaze from Realgm "credibility as a fan"

76'ers: there's a beyond good chance the Embiid will bust given his chronic injuries, okafor is a good piece but plays an outdated style. Ben Simmons is a good piece but there's a chance brown ends up just as good. The draft is a crap shoot.

Lakers: such a free agent destinations that they can't even get meetings with anyone


We are 3 years in to a rebuild and have a top 2 team in the east with 2 all Stars in their primes and assets to aquire a 3rd with a strong supporting cast or 2 additional high lottery picks. How the hell could we possibly be set up better for the present or future?

[Stadium5]

Dude seriously enough. Everyone is tired of your negative spin on everything. We all get it, you wanted us to tank and we didn't. We get it, you don't like the Al Horford signing. We got a top 3 pick and a 4 time all star without surrendering assets. Al Horford has show exactly 0 signs of a steep decline. In fact, every analyst projects him to age very well so he will be playing at a high level for at the very least his entire 4 year deal. idk why you even waste your time rooting for the Celtics if you're just going to root for them to fail every year. I'd bet my entire life savings that we win a title before tanking teams like the 76'ers or Lakers. I understand that it's the normal way teams win, but most teams aren't gifted top draft picks from another team every season so the smart move is to put yourself in the best position to win every year, maintaining a culture of winning and a high chemistry locker room while Brooklyn funnels you draft talent.....I'm seriously tired of all the 'ham and egger' nonsense.

Betting your entire life savings on against a free agent destination like LA, or a philly tanking team that already has 3 potential all stars not winning before us is nonsense in itself. Theres no negative spin from us, we call it like it is. If it hurts your agenda or feelings thats too bad, its a message board where we as fans get to discuss rebuilding strategies and voice our criticism or praise. I root for the Celtics and always will, but I disagree with the way Ainge and Wyc went about this rebuild. I feel we should be a lot further along than where we are, and we take the BKN picks for granted.

Any posters on here telling me and/or banners to be shown the door because we dont share the same opinion as them need to settle down and realize we don't give a F what you think of our opinion and couldn't give two **** about losing Kamikaze from Realgm "credibility as a fan"

No one cares that "you don't care".

You can disagree all you want, but no one wants to read negative crap all day long. You're certainly not "calling it how it is" if everything is negative, because this team is in very good shape and your GM has done a very good job.

When I'm readings nonsense like Banners taking about "wiping up diarrhea on Danny Ainge's face", it's time to draw the line.

yet you care enough to tell me how much you dont care

Then don't read it. Not my problem that you taking anything beneath outright praise for Ainge as being negative. I've said over and over, he did a great job locking these guys up in cheap contracts. He excels in minor trades where he always seems to be on the winning side of them However, his drafting is not very good. He tries to outsmart everyone in the room and consistently reaches for players he could have at later picks. And not outright punting/tanking during the first 3 years of the rebuild was completely idiotic in itself. I don't think fanboy Wyc does Danny any favors, but Danny needs to be a little more proactive and a lot less gun shy if hes going to be heading down this "Pretend to compete while leaving options open nonsense". You pick one or the other, and it just so happens that had he tanked the past 3 years, we'd be in a better spot than we are now considering we now have to stay inside the house for a while before we can even think about competing since this GSW storm has to finish up first

[Stadium5]

Dude seriously enough. Everyone is tired of your negative spin on everything. We all get it, you wanted us to tank and we didn't. We get it, you don't like the Al Horford signing. We got a top 3 pick and a 4 time all star without surrendering assets. Al Horford has show exactly 0 signs of a steep decline. In fact, every analyst projects him to age very well so he will be playing at a high level for at the very least his entire 4 year deal. idk why you even waste your time rooting for the Celtics if you're just going to root for them to fail every year. I'd bet my entire life savings that we win a title before tanking teams like the 76'ers or Lakers. I understand that it's the normal way teams win, but most teams aren't gifted top draft picks from another team every season so the smart move is to put yourself in the best position to win every year, maintaining a culture of winning and a high chemistry locker room while Brooklyn funnels you draft talent.....I'm seriously tired of all the 'ham and egger' nonsense.

Betting your entire life savings on against a free agent destination like LA, or a philly tanking team that already has 3 potential all stars not winning before us is nonsense in itself. Theres no negative spin from us, we call it like it is. If it hurts your agenda or feelings thats too bad, its a message board where we as fans get to discuss rebuilding strategies and voice our criticism or praise. I root for the Celtics and always will, but I disagree with the way Ainge and Wyc went about this rebuild. I feel we should be a lot further along than where we are, and we take the BKN picks for granted.

Any posters on here telling me and/or banners to be shown the door because we dont share the same opinion as them need to settle down and realize we don't give a F what you think of our opinion and couldn't give two **** about losing Kamikaze from Realgm "credibility as a fan"

76'ers: there's a beyond good chance the Embiid will bust given his chronic injuries, okafor is a good piece but plays an outdated style. Ben Simmons is a good piece but there's a chance brown ends up just as good. The draft is a crap shoot.

Lakers: such a free agent destinations that they can't even get meetings with anyone


We are 3 years in to a rebuild and have a top 2 team in the east with 2 all Stars in their primes and assets to aquire a 3rd with a strong supporting cast or 2 additional high lottery picks. How the hell could we possibly be set up better for the present or future?

The East sucks, top 2 doesn't mean anything to me in the eastern conference. IT is a bench all star player, he's 5'9'' and hes our best scorer....in a league of freakish size. Al Horford would have beena great pickup had we gotten Durant but he's exiting his prime as he'll be on the wrong side of 30 soon and we just threw a max deal at him. We would be better off if we tanked and got higher draft picks and more than likely better prospects than Smart, Olynyk, and Rozier for starters

[jmr07019]

I'm not committing any more long term salary and I go after the Griffin / Westbrook combo hard next offseason. Try and set up a team of

Westbrook / Rozier
AB / Smart / Hunter
Crowder / Brown / Young
Griffin / 17 Brooklyn pick / Yabusele
Horford / KO / Zizic

long shot? yes. but it will take a spectacular team to beat GSW. if we miss out on that I would blow up the team and tank.

[ajones9219]

Betting your entire life savings on against a free agent destination like LA, or a philly tanking team that already has 3 potential all stars not winning before us is nonsense in itself. Theres no negative spin from us, we call it like it is. If it hurts your agenda or feelings thats too bad, its a message board where we as fans get to discuss rebuilding strategies and voice our criticism or praise. I root for the Celtics and always will, but I disagree with the way Ainge and Wyc went about this rebuild. I feel we should be a lot further along than where we are, and we take the BKN picks for granted.

Any posters on here telling me and/or banners to be shown the door because we dont share the same opinion as them need to settle down and realize we don't give a F what you think of our opinion and couldn't give two **** about losing Kamikaze from Realgm "credibility as a fan"

No one cares that "you don't care".

You can disagree all you want, but no one wants to read negative crap all day long. You're certainly not "calling it how it is" if everything is negative, because this team is in very good shape and your GM has done a very good job.

When I'm readings nonsense like Banners taking about "wiping up diarrhea on Danny Ainge's face", it's time to draw the line.

yet you care enough to tell me how much you dont care

Then don't read it. Not my problem that you taking anything beneath outright praise for Ainge as being negative. I've said over and over, he did a great job locking these guys up in cheap contracts. He excels in minor trades where he always seems to be on the winning side of them However, his drafting is not very good. He tries to outsmart everyone in the room and consistently reaches for players he could have at later picks. And not outright punting/tanking during the first 3 years of the rebuild was completely idiotic in itself. I don't think fanboy Wyc does Danny any favors, but Danny needs to be a little more proactive and a lot less gun shy if hes going to be heading down this "Pretend to compete while leaving options open nonsense". You pick one or the other, and it just so happens that had he tanked the past 3 years, we'd be in a better spot than we are now considering we now have to stay inside the house for a while before we can even think about competing since this GSW storm has to finish up first

How would we be in a better spot? That doesn't make any sense. We have like unlimited young talent to build around. Who did we miss out on that you're losing sleep over?

[BigTrade92]

Betting your entire life savings on against a free agent destination like LA, or a philly tanking team that already has 3 potential all stars not winning before us is nonsense in itself. Theres no negative spin from us, we call it like it is. If it hurts your agenda or feelings thats too bad, its a message board where we as fans get to discuss rebuilding strategies and voice our criticism or praise. I root for the Celtics and always will, but I disagree with the way Ainge and Wyc went about this rebuild. I feel we should be a lot further along than where we are, and we take the BKN picks for granted.

Any posters on here telling me and/or banners to be shown the door because we dont share the same opinion as them need to settle down and realize we don't give a F what you think of our opinion and couldn't give two **** about losing Kamikaze from Realgm "credibility as a fan"

No one cares that "you don't care".

You can disagree all you want, but no one wants to read negative crap all day long. You're certainly not "calling it how it is" if everything is negative, because this team is in very good shape and your GM has done a very good job.

When I'm readings nonsense like Banners taking about "wiping up diarrhea on Danny Ainge's face", it's time to draw the line.

yet you care enough to tell me how much you dont care

Then don't read it. Not my problem that you taking anything beneath outright praise for Ainge as being negative. I've said over and over, he did a great job locking these guys up in cheap contracts. He excels in minor trades where he always seems to be on the winning side of them However, his drafting is not very good. He tries to outsmart everyone in the room and consistently reaches for players he could have at later picks. And not outright punting/tanking during the first 3 years of the rebuild was completely idiotic in itself. I don't think fanboy Wyc does Danny any favors, but Danny needs to be a little more proactive and a lot less gun shy if hes going to be heading down this "Pretend to compete while leaving options open nonsense". You pick one or the other, and it just so happens that had he tanked the past 3 years, we'd be in a better spot than we are now considering we now have to stay inside the house for a while before we can even think about competing since this GSW storm has to finish up first

Please....the entire board doesn't want to keep skipping over the consistently negative spin stuff you two post. You guys clog up every discussion with it.

Bro, at the end of the day, just don't post it. We all want to see this team do well.

Making everything "doom and gloom" when in reality, it really isn't, isn't constructive conversation whatsoever.