Around the NBA (Non-Celtics) 2019-2020

[Darth Celtic]

Horford benched down the stretch vs. the Knicks. Wow.

Love it.

Dude jumped ship at the worst time. Idiot. Boston is a clear finals favorite with him here over Theis.

Dude got paid way more than Boston was willing to offer, hardly idiotic on his part. ANd if he's in Boston, Celtics have a huge hole at PG, maybe they even retain Rozier.

at that point we could have given the nets a first round pick and made it all sign and trade everywhere and keep Horford.

[Bleeding Green]

Love it.

Dude jumped ship at the worst time. Idiot. Boston is a clear finals favorite with him here over Theis.

Dude got paid way more than Boston was willing to offer, hardly idiotic on his part. ANd if he's in Boston, Celtics have a huge hole at PG, maybe they even retain Rozier.

at that point we could have given the nets a first round pick and made it all sign and trade everywhere and keep Horford.

So Kyrie to Nets, Kemba to Boston, Rozier to Charlotte all in one sign-and-trade? Sounds like a lot of moving parts and a massive tax bill for the owners. Horford/Kemba/Brown/Tatum/Hayward all on max/near-max starting in 2021 basically. Would you really want Horford on a 4/109 deal right now?

[GoCeltics123]

Love it.

Dude jumped ship at the worst time. Idiot. Boston is a clear finals favorite with him here over Theis.

Dude got paid way more than Boston was willing to offer, hardly idiotic on his part. ANd if he's in Boston, Celtics have a huge hole at PG, maybe they even retain Rozier.

at that point we could have given the nets a first round pick and made it all sign and trade everywhere and keep Horford.

Well Bulpett said that that deal was in place, but Horford stuck to his Philly commitment. That's why the three-way sign and trade didn't happen.

[Darth Celtic]

Dude got paid way more than Boston was willing to offer, hardly idiotic on his part. ANd if he's in Boston, Celtics have a huge hole at PG, maybe they even retain Rozier.

at that point we could have given the nets a first round pick and made it all sign and trade everywhere and keep Horford.

So Kyrie to Nets, Kemba to Boston, Rozier to Charlotte all in one sign-and-trade? Sounds like a lot of moving parts and a massive tax bill for the owners. Horford/Kemba/Brown/Tatum/Hayward all on max/near-max starting in 2021 basically. Would you really want Horford on a 4/109 deal right now?

wouldn't have been a tax bill, legally we would have had to be under the tax line after. And it was possible.

[Bleeding Green]

at that point we could have given the nets a first round pick and made it all sign and trade everywhere and keep Horford.

So Kyrie to Nets, Kemba to Boston, Rozier to Charlotte all in one sign-and-trade? Sounds like a lot of moving parts and a massive tax bill for the owners. Horford/Kemba/Brown/Tatum/Hayward all on max/near-max starting in 2021 basically. Would you really want Horford on a 4/109 deal right now?

wouldn't have been a tax bill, legally we would have had to be under the tax line after. And it was possible.

No, I mean in a couple years when you have five players making 27-37mm each. Not saying it's a bad idea, but I can see the benefit in not having 35 year old AL Horford making 27.5 million. But maybe there is a butterfly effect, and Hayward leaves in FA, Brown maybe isn't retained, etc.

[Darth Celtic]

So Kyrie to Nets, Kemba to Boston, Rozier to Charlotte all in one sign-and-trade? Sounds like a lot of moving parts and a massive tax bill for the owners. Horford/Kemba/Brown/Tatum/Hayward all on max/near-max starting in 2021 basically. Would you really want Horford on a 4/109 deal right now?

wouldn't have been a tax bill, legally we would have had to be under the tax line after. And it was possible.

No, I mean in a couple years when you have five players making 27-37mm each. Not saying it's a bad idea, but I can see the benefit in not having 35 year old AL Horford making 27.5 million. But maybe there is a butterfly effect, and Hayward leaves in FA, Brown maybe isn't retained, etc.

I mean, i think his contract will be toxic as soon as next year, but looking at what we see now, we would be favorites for finals this year if we kept Al over the frenchman, theis and Kanter.

[Bleeding Green]

wouldn't have been a tax bill, legally we would have had to be under the tax line after. And it was possible.

No, I mean in a couple years when you have five players making 27-37mm each. Not saying it's a bad idea, but I can see the benefit in not having 35 year old AL Horford making 27.5 million. But maybe there is a butterfly effect, and Hayward leaves in FA, Brown maybe isn't retained, etc.

I mean, i think his contract will be toxic as soon as next year, but looking at what we see now, we would be favorites for finals this year if we kept Al over the frenchman, theis and Kanter.

I guess, they might still be reasonably favorites or near enough and now they don't have to go into 2021-22 with 10 players under contract and a 197 million dollar salary cap. Even right now, if they wish to retain Hayward, I have them at ~171 million in salary with just Kemba/Brown/Tatum/Hayward/Smart/Langford/Williams/Williams/Edwards. This assumes a max extension for Tatum, picking up the options for the current rookies. Add Horford on top, another rookie scale contract or two and it's up near 200 million. Which is fine if you win the title, but not if Al Horford is 35 and suddenly sucks, Tatum and Brown don't become stars, etc. God damn you need a lot of luck to be successful in this league.

[azee2890]

So Kyrie to Nets, Kemba to Boston, Rozier to Charlotte all in one sign-and-trade? Sounds like a lot of moving parts and a massive tax bill for the owners. Horford/Kemba/Brown/Tatum/Hayward all on max/near-max starting in 2021 basically. Would you really want Horford on a 4/109 deal right now?

wouldn't have been a tax bill, legally we would have had to be under the tax line after. And it was possible.

No, I mean in a couple years when you have five players making 27-37mm each. Not saying it's a bad idea, but I can see the benefit in not having 35 year old AL Horford making 27.5 million. But maybe there is a butterfly effect, and Hayward leaves in FA, Brown maybe isn't retained, etc.

I'm with you. I'd rather have the future financial flexibility than commit to a declining player. The Celtics are the youngest team in the league, only way to go is up. I'm sure Ainge is looking at cementing a long term window rather than try to compete with Lebron/AD, Kawhi/George, Harden/Westbrook now.

[31to6]

wouldn't have been a tax bill, legally we would have had to be under the tax line after. And it was possible.

No, I mean in a couple years when you have five players making 27-37mm each. Not saying it's a bad idea, but I can see the benefit in not having 35 year old AL Horford making 27.5 million. But maybe there is a butterfly effect, and Hayward leaves in FA, Brown maybe isn't retained, etc.

I'm with you. I'd rather have the future financial flexibility than commit to a declining player. The Celtics are the youngest team in the league, only way to go is up. I'm sure Ainge is looking at cementing a long term window rather than try to compete with Lebron/AD, Kawhi/George, Harden/Westbrook now.

Except we just did:)

[Ed Pinkney]

I know it was against a G-League team who I think were on a back to back, but Doncic putting up a 35 point triple double in 26 minutes is ridiculous. Trae Young though....

[zoyathedestroya]

Lame NBA game day -- Dame-less Blazers @ Bucks (expecting a blowout) then Suns vs. depleted Pelicans. That's it. TNT must be thrilled lol.

[Bleeding Green]

What do you mean, you can watch the Blazers play Melo for 25 minutes and lose by 30.

[zoyathedestroya]

Bucks have 17 points in 3 minutes lol. Hasn't missed. Great D there, Blazers! How do you go from WCF to this? Well, lose your plus contributors/defenders and replace them with Hezonja/Whiteside/Bazemore/Melo.

[3D Chess]

God damn you need a lot of luck to be successful in this league.

This x10,000,000.

The average RealGM'er, let alone the average fan, isn't even close to understanding just how much luck you need. Even if you do every tiny thing to an elite level from a team building perspective, it guarantees absolutely nothing.

[Bleeding Green]

God damn you need a lot of luck to be successful in this league.

This x10,000,000.

The average RealGM'er, let alone the average fan, isn't even close to understanding just how much luck you need. Even if you do every tiny thing to an elite level from a team building perspective, it guarantees absolutely nothing.

For real, just look at the Raptors. They did almost everything right. Nailed several recent drafts (Delon Wright, Siakam, OG Anunoby all drafted after pick 20), snagged undrafted FVV, had to take a massive risk trading away Poeltl and DeRozan for an injured star on the final year of his contract, just to squeak into the Finals on a miracle shot. They won it all, but man, one thing goes wrong and it's very different. If they don't find FVV or make the Marc Gasol trade for instance. Or that Kawhi fading jumper hits the rim 5 times and falls out instead of in. And then the team they play in the Finals loses two of their 3 best players to injury. Incredible job by Masai and the Raptors, but it just shows how razor-thin the margin is. One shot by Kawhi goes the other way and they maybe lose in the second round. instead it goes in, they expose the Bucks, then the Finals is a laugher after the GSW start all getting injured.

[Fencer reregistered]

Really detailed discussion of Philly. Horford seems to be a really vocal leader there. Brown seems to find his job challenging. But everybody seems pretty good-natured with each others -- or, if they aren't, they've hidden those problems really well.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/28093610/the-sixers-all-new-vibes-their-absurdist-drama

[Fencer reregistered]

The Celtics have played a lot more games on the road than at home early this season. But similar things are true of the other teams near us at the top of the East standings. Indeed Milwaukee, who we're in a perfect tie with, has played one fewer home game than we have.

[Fencer reregistered]

at that point we could have given the nets a first round pick and made it all sign and trade everywhere and keep Horford.

So Kyrie to Nets, Kemba to Boston, Rozier to Charlotte all in one sign-and-trade? Sounds like a lot of moving parts and a massive tax bill for the owners. Horford/Kemba/Brown/Tatum/Hayward all on max/near-max starting in 2021 basically. Would you really want Horford on a 4/109 deal right now?

wouldn't have been a tax bill, legally we would have had to be under the tax line after. And it was possible.

Actually, there's a little space between the luxury tax and the hard cap. I think that's what's called "the apron".

[Fencer reregistered]

Dude got paid way more than Boston was willing to offer, hardly idiotic on his part. ANd if he's in Boston, Celtics have a huge hole at PG, maybe they even retain Rozier.

at that point we could have given the nets a first round pick and made it all sign and trade everywhere and keep Horford.

Well Bulpett said that that deal was in place, but Horford stuck to his Philly commitment. That's why the three-way sign and trade didn't happen.

I think it will turn out Horford screwed himself over. Whether or not the Celtics should have kept him, they would have if they could. Horford would still be here. Baynes I conjecture might have been too. Kanter and/or Poirier wouldn't. The draft pick warchest would be a bit smaller.

Unless Horford, despite good intentions, would have damaged team chemistry, that team would be well better than what the Sixers have now.

[leper-con]

The Celtics have played a lot more games on the road than at home early this season. But similar things are true of the other teams near us at the top of the East standings. Indeed Milwaukee, who we're in a perfect tie with, has played one fewer home game than we have.

For as well as we've played and for all the attention we've gotten, we have no separation from the pack.