The Official Off-Season Thread, part I of many

[Captain_Caveman]

**** Dwight Howard.

[LarryBirdsFingr]

**** Dwight Howard.

my post moves are more effective than his.

[Wes-J]

Plan A right now is Butler
Plan B is to trade for Love

The issue with Butler is they are willing to trade the 3rd pick, but not both Crowder and Bradley.

For Love, they get to keep the 3rd pick and would trade Crowder and Bradley.

In the Butler scenario, they pair Crowder with Butler and retain a max slot for KD or some other star. They'd retain Jerebko as their vet center and use their other picks to replenish depth.

Jerebko/Crowder/Durant/Butler/IT

In the Love scenario they draft Jaylen Brown and sign Harrison Barnes. Trading Crowder/Bradley offsets most of Love's money, which leaves room for KD or some other star.

Love/Barnes/KD/Smart/IT

In every scenario they are trying to leave enough assets to address front court needs and add multiple stars.




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No way you can give up Bradley and Crowder for Love. They are the identity of this team. I'd give up Bradley Crowder can play the small ball 3 or 4 h'ed pair well Butler or KD.

Furthermore I'm against anything that makes them a better team, gracious Smith and Shumpert are terrible.

[ConstableGeneva]

Lakers, Pistons, Magic chasing after Horford in FA, for those who care.

[Pacino62]

Lakers, Pistons, Magic chasing after Horford in FA, for those who care.

Horford, Bron, KD and Wade to LA??

[OFWGKTA]

Need a volunteer to monitor all the guys we're rumored to be after's new twitter follows

[ConstableGeneva]

Need a volunteer to monitor all the guys we're rumored to be after's new twitter follows

Evan Turner, Brad Stevens, and Gordon Hayward are following each other. It's happening.

[Edug27]

**** Dwight Howard.

my post moves are more effective than his.

And you jump shot is probably better than Smarts.

[VeryMuchWoke]

Bradley/Crowder for Love, drafting Brown, and signing Barnes sounds like a nightmare. The only way to make it worse would be by drafting Hield.

[Jingles]

Bradley/Crowder for Love, drafting Brown, and signing Barnes sounds like a nightmare. The only way to make it worse would be by drafting Hield.

Coming away from this offseason with Love and Barnes as the big gets would be classic Knicks.

[VeryMuchWoke]

I can see Love as a buy-low move, but Bradley and Crowder is too much, and you better have plans to put him next to a defensive monster up front. I'd take Crowder off the table in any Love talks. Bradley and a couple of non-premium firsts I could live with.

Brown I could be talked into as the pick. I'd prefer Bender, but I can live with any of the high upside guys.

Barnes I just can't find any justification for whatsoever. Guy is on a team just stacked with players to make him look good and he still doesn't. To me that's easily the most troubling aspect of the whole "plan B". If we need to sign a wing to replace Crowder it should be Crabbe.

[ryaningf]

Lol, Bulpett already floating the idea that the Cs might punt til next year.

I'm totally fine with it if it means Bender's in tow.

If the Celtics have their way, they’ll be using up most, if not all, of the new, exploded NBA salary cap.

To do so would mean they are able to make a trade around tomorrow night’s draft that nets them the kind of higher-priced veteran talent they so badly need. Or it could signal the successful recruitment of a major free agent early next month.

But because both scenarios require another party willing to make a deal that would so obviously jump-start the Celts, it remains more likely that president of basketball operations Danny Ainge will not be able to thread either needle.

And that might not be such a bad thing for the Celtics in the long run.

Though it would require essentially sacrificing another season to the development of younger players with no real expectation of contending for the Eastern Conference championship, a quiet summer while others overpay could put the Celtics in even better position against a weakened field of spenders in what is expected to be a better free agent class in 2017. For example, many league types still expect Durant to remain with Oklahoma City on a one-year deal with an option, putting him back in the market next year.

And the Celtics might have no choice anyway.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/celtics/2016/06/bulpett_for_celtics_it_might_be_wait_til_next_year

[KumaJG]

I hope we sign Chandler Parsons now that he opt out.

[LarryBirdsFingr]

**** Dwight Howard.

my post moves are more effective than his.

And you jump shot is probably better than Smarts.

definitely on the mid range, my back is **** so my 3's don't fall anymore :-/

[soxfan2003]

If the Celtics are going to punt to next year, I think the team has to seriously consider trading players like IT and/or Bradley.

If the league doesn't value them highly, of course, keep them but if they can fetch good picks, I would strongly consider dealing them.

Sometimes its best to zig when everyone wants to zag.

[Slartibartfast]

Lol, Bulpett already floating the idea that the Cs might punt til next year.

I'm totally fine with it if it means Bender's in tow.

If the Celtics have their way, they’ll be using up most, if not all, of the new, exploded NBA salary cap.

To do so would mean they are able to make a trade around tomorrow night’s draft that nets them the kind of higher-priced veteran talent they so badly need. Or it could signal the successful recruitment of a major free agent early next month.

But because both scenarios require another party willing to make a deal that would so obviously jump-start the Celts, it remains more likely that president of basketball operations Danny Ainge will not be able to thread either needle.

And that might not be such a bad thing for the Celtics in the long run.

Though it would require essentially sacrificing another season to the development of younger players with no real expectation of contending for the Eastern Conference championship, a quiet summer while others overpay could put the Celtics in even better position against a weakened field of spenders in what is expected to be a better free agent class in 2017. For example, many league types still expect Durant to remain with Oklahoma City on a one-year deal with an option, putting him back in the market next year.

And the Celtics might have no choice anyway.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/celtics/2016/06/bulpett_for_celtics_it_might_be_wait_til_next_year

Sacrificing another season to the development of younger players like Amir Johnson, Jonas Jerebko, Evan Turner, Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder?

Does Bulpett not realize that we didn't develop young players at all last year? Our 3 incoming rooks all spent half their time in the D-league or inactive. Ditto Young.

And the two young guys we gave developmental minutes to - Sully and Smart - both failed spectacularly to show high-end potential and only kept their minutes because they are ready-to-go roleplayers.

I don't think punting makes much sense for this roster. Why would anyone want to repeat the last 2 years?

[Banks2Pierce]

If the Celtics are going to punt to next year, I think the team has to seriously consider trading players like IT and/or Bradley.

Probably not, since you'd want to have a competitive and cheap roster to add two max guys to. Depends on the returns.

[Slartibartfast]

If the Celtics are going to punt to next year, I think the team has to seriously consider trading players like IT and/or Bradley.

If the league doesn't value them highly, of course, keep them but if they can fetch good picks, I would strongly consider dealing them.

Sometimes its best to zig when everyone wants to zag.

Exactly. If everybody is holding too tightly to their win-now, low-cost goods, we might be able to fetch quite a return if we put ours on the market.

[Slartibartfast]

If the Celtics are going to punt to next year, I think the team has to seriously consider trading players like IT and/or Bradley.

Probably not, since you'd want to have a competitive and cheap roster to add two max guys to. Depends on the returns.

If we get rejected again this offseason, it calls into question just how valuable a "competitive and cheap roster" is for us.

We won 48 games. IT made the All-Star game. AB made the All-D 1st team. We have two max slots. We have 3 first rounders including the #3 pick. We have the perfect expiring contracts. We have the cheapest collection of ready-to-go roleplayer talent in the game.

If that's not enough to put together a Durant-magnet, we should try a different approach. Punting doesn't exactly improve our situation. Is Dragan Bender getting Tyler Zeller's 11th man minutes going to change our outlook? Jaylen Brown taking James Young's spot at the end of the bench? Kris Dunn duking it out with Terry Rozier for 4th guard minutes?

The opportunity cost of waiting for the quantity over quality approach to pay off rises dramatically after this offseason. IT's and AB's trade value will take big hits as they get closer to being expiring contracts. Adding 3 or more rookies to a team with 9 guaranteed contracts (6 of them rookie scales) is going to make the developmental crunch that much more acute, and push more guys out the door like Zeller was last season.

If it's a seller's market and we don't like the buying prices, it would behoove us to sell and cash in. We're really not losing that much.

I know there's a lot of adulation for Brad and IT and our crazy bargain RPM superstuds around here, but with a little detachment, our lack of separation from the rest of the pack is evident. We finished in 4 way tie for 3rd in the east. Look at our bedfellows:

1. A Charlotte squad that went from 33 wins to 48 in one offseason just by shifting around B-level assets and spare parts. And they only got 7 games out of MKG.

2. A Miami team that jumped from 37 to 48 wins despite losing Bosh again.

3. An Atlanta team that plunged from 60 to 48 wins by letting a roleplaying 3+D SF go and adding roleplaying pick and roll 5.

What's the point of keeping up with Jones' like these?

[Slartibartfast]

I can see Love as a buy-low move, but Bradley and Crowder is too much, and you better have plans to put him next to a defensive monster up front. I'd take Crowder off the table in any Love talks. Bradley and a couple of non-premium firsts I could live with.

Let's not pretend that Kevin Love is Rondo coming off a devastating injury and half a season away from free agency.

AB + Crowder IS the buy-low package. We're talking about a guy that was traded for a #1 pick and more 2 seasons ago.