RealGM

Yes the trade dudline has up and went and left us with nothing, but that doesn't mean we can't consign all your bad trade ideas for the future to this sticky.

No! NOOO!!

I thought we were out!

Why would you do this to us!?!

Why do you hate us, Slart??

I'm pretty jaded right now.

Very much doubt Danny Ainge can get us the superstar we need at this point. Looks like we are going to need to get lucky via the draft.....ugh.

Slartibartfast wrote:

SMTBSI wrote:On the plus side, what's important the rest of this season just got a lot clearer:

Be the team to knock Toronto out of the playoffs yet again, make the ECF, win a game, dispel the impression that we're "overachievers", establish ourselves as one of the clear best teams in the conference, with one of the youngest rosters and the most flexibility.

That's a tough row to hoe, but there's nothing else to set our sights on any longer - no more distractions.

We can do ourselves a lot of favors simply by finishing strong. Fate's in our own hands.

I disagree. Our fate is still in the hands of Brooklyn and, to a much lesser extent, Dallas.

Atlanta won 60 games last year and made it to the ECF. Does winning one game make Al want to sign on for more? Houston won 56 games and took a game off the Warriors in the WCF? Does doing the same in the East change his opinion?

I don't think we merit serious consideration from the star big man crop of free agents unless we can add a star prior to them. And doing that depends on the BK pick or maybe the Dallas pick having enough value to pull that other star.

I agree that a star would obviously increase the allure of joining BOS but I think you miss an very important point in your description of ATL and Horford. He was ON that team that went to the ECF. Your hope as the Celtics making some noise in the playoffs with essentially no star is that Horford (or Star X)'s ego tells them that they are the piece to put them over the top especially with the fact that its a young, up and coming team. If their ego doesn't tell them that than you sell them on it.

ddb wrote:Danny has "plans" on how to use that Cap space. He wants Durant so bad lol.

Always thought there was no chance of this happening. Your thoughts?

prov1ml wrote:

Slartibartfast wrote:

SMTBSI wrote:On the plus side, what's important the rest of this season just got a lot clearer:

Be the team to knock Toronto out of the playoffs yet again, make the ECF, win a game, dispel the impression that we're "overachievers", establish ourselves as one of the clear best teams in the conference, with one of the youngest rosters and the most flexibility.

That's a tough row to hoe, but there's nothing else to set our sights on any longer - no more distractions.

We can do ourselves a lot of favors simply by finishing strong. Fate's in our own hands.

I disagree. Our fate is still in the hands of Brooklyn and, to a much lesser extent, Dallas.

Atlanta won 60 games last year and made it to the ECF. Does winning one game make Al want to sign on for more? Houston won 56 games and took a game off the Warriors in the WCF? Does doing the same in the East change his opinion?

I don't think we merit serious consideration from the star big man crop of free agents unless we can add a star prior to them. And doing that depends on the BK pick or maybe the Dallas pick having enough value to pull that other star.

I agree that a star would obviously increase the allure of joining BOS but I think you miss an very important point in your description of ATL and Horford. He was ON that team that went to the ECF. Your hope as the Celtics making some noise in the playoffs with essentially no star is that Horford (or Star X)'s ego tells them that they are the piece to put them over the top especially with the fact that its a young, up and coming team. If their ego doesn't tell them that than you sell them on it.

Well, since that got quoted top front row center on the first page, I'll copy my response that died at the very end of the last thread.

Slart, consider the first line of my post. I agree that there's a lot of work to be done, but I'm referring to what we can control / impact now. There will come time again to worry about picks and trades, but there's nothing that can be done about all that right now, except try to keep building this thing.

My original post up there was basically meant to mean that we get to put the actual games back in focus, for a while. (I mean, would not making the ECF be better than making it?)

FWIW, wouldn't be opposed to adding a bought-out Joe Johnson with Lee's spot.

truth18 wrote:

ddb wrote:Danny has "plans" on how to use that Cap space. He wants Durant so bad lol.

Always thought there was no chance of this happening. Your thoughts?

Well there has already been hinting of a possible Ben Simmons-Anthony Davis swap.

I like that Memphis' 2 moves were to cast off our old castoffs.

prov1ml wrote:

Slartibartfast wrote:

SMTBSI wrote:On the plus side, what's important the rest of this season just got a lot clearer:

Be the team to knock Toronto out of the playoffs yet again, make the ECF, win a game, dispel the impression that we're "overachievers", establish ourselves as one of the clear best teams in the conference, with one of the youngest rosters and the most flexibility.

That's a tough row to hoe, but there's nothing else to set our sights on any longer - no more distractions.

We can do ourselves a lot of favors simply by finishing strong. Fate's in our own hands.

I disagree. Our fate is still in the hands of Brooklyn and, to a much lesser extent, Dallas.

Atlanta won 60 games last year and made it to the ECF. Does winning one game make Al want to sign on for more? Houston won 56 games and took a game off the Warriors in the WCF? Does doing the same in the East change his opinion?

I don't think we merit serious consideration from the star big man crop of free agents unless we can add a star prior to them. And doing that depends on the BK pick or maybe the Dallas pick having enough value to pull that other star.

I agree that a star would obviously increase the allure of joining BOS but I think you miss an very important point in your description of ATL and Horford. He was ON that team that went to the ECF. Your hope as the Celtics making some noise in the playoffs with essentially no star is that Horford (or Star X)'s ego tells them that they are the piece to put them over the top especially with the fact that its a young, up and coming team. If their ego doesn't tell them that than you sell them on it.

Chances are we'd be ditching a pretty good player to sign Horford. Likely Amir.

Basically we'd be saying - you being able to hit jump shots better than Amir is what's going to put us over the top. I don't think it's all that compelling.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLo-ylNPXyE[/youtube]

Also. It's obvious what we need to do, everyone. There's only one recourse.

We must get this thread to 100 pages. And the next. And the next. It's a war of attrition, and we must fight on, tirelessly, until Slartibartfast himself wearies of carrying the banner.

That's the only way we'll ever be free. To escape the madness, we must fully embrace it...

So how long do we wait to buy out David Lee? A day?

Ainge's reaction post deadline is everything I imagined and more. Agree 110% with him.

"BOSTON (CBS) — After a surprisingly quiet trade deadline day, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge spoke to the media and said the lack of trades was not for lack of want.

“We feel like we came close to doing some things, but ultimately we didn’t,” Ainge said. “We didn’t really get anything accomplished that we wanted to do because there were no deals good enough that we wanted to do.”

That feeling might be a common one around the league, as the biggest names to move on deadline day were Jeff Green, Markieff Morris and Channing Frye.

Yet Ainge said he was busy throughout the day; the Celtics just weren’t enticed to execute any of the potential deals.

“We’re not in the business of making a 27-game gain for a long-term price to pay,” Ainge said, while adding that the current success of the team might have made him think a bit longer about potentially taking a long-term hit in order to improve in the short term.

As for the Brooklyn draft pick owned by Boston that could end up as a top three pick, Ainge said it was a topic of numerous conversations.

“I think that everybody knows what the value of those picks are. And I think that everybody in this league would like to have a pick in the top echelon of the draft,” he said. “But there certainly are players that would be worth trading an unknown draft pick for right now. And so, we did have some discussion in regard to that. There are some players that did get our attention and some that did not get our attention regarding that pick.”

The Celtics currently own three first-round picks for this year’s draft, and eight overall picks. Ainge said the team will have opportunities to make some more significant trades when the season ends.

“We’re anxious for the spring and summer,” Ainge said, “to have another crack at it.”

djFan71 wrote:I like that Memphis' 2 moves were to cast off our old castoffs.

Didn't they in each case trade them for similar draft picks to what they originally gave us?

Slartibartfast wrote:Yes the trade dudline has up and went and left us with nothing.

No, it left us with the players who have the third best record in the East and the 7th best record in the NBA overall. They can now breathe a little easier and get down to the business of winning 50 games.

165bows wrote:

truth18 wrote:

ddb wrote:Danny has "plans" on how to use that Cap space. He wants Durant so bad lol.

Always thought there was no chance of this happening. Your thoughts?

Well there has already been hinting of a possible Ben Simmons-Anthony Davis swap.

That's something I already thought about. Simmons and Crowder and Thomas for Davis. Not sure NOP even considers it.

SMTBSI wrote:

prov1ml wrote:

Slartibartfast wrote:
I disagree. Our fate is still in the hands of Brooklyn and, to a much lesser extent, Dallas.

Atlanta won 60 games last year and made it to the ECF. Does winning one game make Al want to sign on for more? Houston won 56 games and took a game off the Warriors in the WCF? Does doing the same in the East change his opinion?

I don't think we merit serious consideration from the star big man crop of free agents unless we can add a star prior to them. And doing that depends on the BK pick or maybe the Dallas pick having enough value to pull that other star.

I agree that a star would obviously increase the allure of joining BOS but I think you miss an very important point in your description of ATL and Horford. He was ON that team that went to the ECF. Your hope as the Celtics making some noise in the playoffs with essentially no star is that Horford (or Star X)'s ego tells them that they are the piece to put them over the top especially with the fact that its a young, up and coming team. If their ego doesn't tell them that than you sell them on it.

Well, since that got quoted top front row center on the first page, I'll copy my response that died at the very end of the last thread.

Slart, consider the first line of my post. I agree that there's a lot of work to be done, but I'm referring to what we can control / impact now. There will come time again to worry about picks and trades, but there's nothing that can be done about all that right now, except try to keep building this thing.

My original post up there was basically meant to mean that we get to put the actual games back in focus, for a while.

My problem I don't consider the potential reward of the actual games to be all that exciting. There's the hope that Smart breaks out and shows himself to be a true 2-way force and not much else. Beyond that this team is pretty much an exact redux of last year's post-deadline team with Amir in place of Bass.

This deadline was our chance to crank it up a notch. Instead we're looking at deja vu with a twist until the lotto.

Fencer reregistered wrote:

djFan71 wrote:I like that Memphis' 2 moves were to cast off our old castoffs.

Didn't they in each case trade them for similar draft picks to what they originally gave us?

I think pretty close, but slightly worse in each case. 4632 2nd rounders to acquire Lee, only 2783 2nd rounders back for trading him. Complicatedly protected 1st rounder to get Green, heavily protected pick back for trading him. Green one could bite them if they are bad in a few years.

I don't get the negativity regarding the lack of deals... People are crying that we didn't get the "Superstar" but let's take a step back, what superstar has been traded since James Harden?
Ainge can offer as many picks as he likes for Griffin/Cousins but at the end of the day it takes two to make a deal, it's not his fault they don't accept the offer now is it?
Do you then expect him to go rent a Howard/Horford for 27 games spending the Brooklyn pick to do so?

Superstars will move in the offseason not right now... Clippers traded to get better now
Horford/Howard didn't even get moved because their asking price was too high.

Let's enjoy the last 27 games and playoffs and see where we stand in the offseason... It is Extremely likely that Ainge will consolidate picks and try for the next superstar on the market... Like I said earlier a "Superstar" hasn't been on the market since James Harden.
Keep that in mind.