Around the League - Beasley Boogies to Detroit

[RiotPunch]

Blazers are always let off the hook for their terrible trade with Boston.

The reality is all the Boston titles have been won because they fleeced the crap out of a dumb team.

Trading Joe Barry Carroll for McHale and Parish
Suckering the Nets into giving up their draft for five years for old KG and Pierce. Get Ray for 5th overall pick
Identify three really good players and get them in trades where they don’t give up much (White, Zinger, Jrue)

Masterclass by Ainge and Brad Stevens.

Not to mention trading down because Ainge knew Tatum was better than Fultz.

[chonestown]

A new commemorative offering of a malted beverage infused with caffeine called 44 Loco this imagines that the manufacturer wanted to honor the life and on court exploits of Jerry West the 44 references his jersey number and the Loco refers to his nickname which I imagine would be misheard by the manufacturer

[paulpressey25]

Props to Boston. Not entirely over, but they've responded to pretty much every challenge thrown their way.

Did they have an easy path? Sure. But that team is so deep, that literally two guys can be injured or have an off night, and they'll still have enough juice to win.

The part I didn't see was Jaylen Brown earning his $300mm contract by becoming the Alpha over Tatum.

[Fotis St]

Blazers are always let off the hook for their terrible trade with Boston.

The reality is all the Boston titles have been won because they fleeced the crap out of a dumb team.

Trading Joe Barry Carroll for McHale and Parish
Suckering the Nets into giving up their draft for five years for old KG and Pierce. Get Ray for 5th overall pick
Identify three really good players and get them in trades where they don’t give up much (White, Zinger, Jrue)

Masterclass by Ainge and Brad Stevens.

Not to mention trading down because Ainge knew Tatum was better than Fultz.

Don't you forget Luke Kornet ... my undrafted love , my cheap Brook replacement ... they took him too... I am telling you with all humidity or not, I am an elite eye talent evaluator.

I have even posted my super cheap pickup players to inject talent and youth to our dead corpse. 3 cheap players and #23,#33 are actually spread evenly in every position, its a whole lineup.
A talented Front Office is basically the difference between a 1st round exit team and a championship team.

[RiotPunch]

The reality is all the Boston titles have been won because they fleeced the crap out of a dumb team.

Trading Joe Barry Carroll for McHale and Parish
Suckering the Nets into giving up their draft for five years for old KG and Pierce. Get Ray for 5th overall pick
Identify three really good players and get them in trades where they don’t give up much (White, Zinger, Jrue)

Masterclass by Ainge and Brad Stevens.

Not to mention trading down because Ainge knew Tatum was better than Fultz.

Don't you forget Luke Kornet ... my undrafted love , my cheap Brook replacement ... they took him too... I am telling you with all humidity or not, I am an elite eye talent evaluator.

I have even posted my super cheap pickup players to inject talent and youth to our dead corpse. 3 cheap players and #23,#33 are actually spread evenly in every position, its a whole lineup.
A talented Front Office is basically the difference between a 1st round exit team and a championship team.

Kornet is a solid situational/emergency big with some skills, so props I guess? Def not a Brook replacement.

You had me looking at Cam Christie highlights the other day, though. Even though I watch Big Ten basketball pretty heavily every year.

[Chuck Everett]

Blazers are always let off the hook for their terrible trade with Boston.

The reality is all the Boston titles have been won because they fleeced the crap out of a dumb team.

Trading Joe Barry Carroll for McHale and Parish
Suckering the Nets into giving up their draft for five years for old KG and Pierce. Get Ray for 5th overall pick
Identify three really good players and get them in trades where they don’t give up much (White, Zinger, Jrue)

Masterclass by Ainge and Brad Stevens.

Sounds like the Lakers as well. Trading Gail Goodrich for an unprotected #1 that ends up being Magic Johnson.

[soxperry]

This is such bull.. Celtics got absolutely spoon fed an easy title run. It's Minnesota's fault, really. Overperform to take out Denver. Underperform to allow one of the weakest teams to come out of the west in a long time. Shooting variance played a huge role, too.

Is the NBA becoming more like the NFL? 7 game series is supposed to determine the best team but now we have shooting variance than can crop up over stretches that are just long enough. See: Van Vleet, Fred.

Whatever

[German Athens]

People keep bringing up the Jrue trade, but they gave up pretty good value for him. A 6th man of the year winning backup combo guard, an elite defensive but oft injured big man, and two firsts. One of those firsts had significant potential to be a lottery pick, and it did become that.

That’s a pretty nice step up from the Marcus smart package. Same picks, but then a worse bench point guard.

The fleecing was getting porzingis for a backup point guard and a second.

He was Washington’s best player last year, and was good on both sides of the ball. Beyond that, he fits damn near every team in the league. It would be like a team getting Lauri for a backup and a second - just absurd.

[emunney]

And yet Boston isn't winning the title because of either of those trades. They're on the brink because they've been good enough for long enough to catch an absurd string of injury breaks that left a path wide enough for many teams to stroll down. They didn't need Jrue or KP to win any of these series. Last year's team would have been more than enough.

[jschligs]

People keep bringing up the Jrue trade, but they gave up pretty good value for him. A 6th man of the year winning backup combo guard, an elite defensive but oft injured big man, and two firsts. One of those firsts had significant potential to be a lottery pick, and it did become that.

That’s a pretty nice step up from the Marcus smart package. Same picks, but then a worse bench point guard.

The fleecing was getting porzingis for a backup point guard and a second.

He was Washington’s best player last year, and was good on both sides of the ball. Beyond that, he fits damn near every team in the league. It would be like a team getting Lauri for a backup and a second - just absurd.

Brogdon, while a great 6th man, was always injured. His value was certainly lower at the time of the trade. Rob Williams value was much lower due to injury, I mean he missed the playoffs the year before. GSW conditional '24 first (14th) in a weak draft class that they had gotten from the KP trade, and a five year out '29 first. Given the Celtics age, they could still be a top team then.

All for an elite DPoY caliber player who was an all-star a year or two before. Portland could've gotten a way better package for that pick. It was a fleece 100%.

The Porzingis one is worse IMO. Because they also got 2 first in return for Smart who was clearly not working there even with his talent. They also unloaded two ancient players in Gallinari and Muscala.

They kept most of their core and added two borderline all-star players.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

This is such bull.. Celtics got absolutely spoon fed an easy title run. It's Minnesota's fault, really. Overperform to take out Denver. Underperform to allow one of the weakest teams to come out of the west in a long time. Shooting variance played a huge role, too.

Is the NBA becoming more like the NFL? 7 game series is supposed to determine the best team but now we have shooting variance than can crop up over stretches that are just long enough. See: Van Vleet, Fred.

Whatever

Going back about the last 5 years to when the lakers won there hasnt been any champion who after the season you were really convinced about. maybe even the raptors before that and the runner ups even lesser. hell all the runnerups have been bum ass teams you never would have guessed..... the league has become kind of like the nhl that way. god only knows who wins the thing and who gets knocked out. regular season records and how good a team is perceived to be mean nothing

boston honestly this year is the first champ in years you could say yeah you saw that one coming.

i cant tell if its better or worse this way then what it used to be but sure as hell parity exists. the game has evolved to where actual skill means less than ever. its whoever wins the most recent shooting drill

[Ron Swanson]

And yet Boston isn't winning the title because of either of those trades. They're on the brink because they've been good enough for long enough to catch an absurd string of injury breaks that left a path wide enough for many teams to stroll down. They didn't need Jrue or KP to win any of these series. Last year's team would have been more than enough.

Yep. Gonna suck having to listen to all these dumb confirmation bias narratives all summer, but it is what it is. There shouldn't really be any "lessons" taken from this Boston run except for the fact that constantly being a great regular season team and getting top seeds means you always have a slightly better chance of benefitting from these "everything just fell our way" type runs.

[blazza18]

And yet Boston isn't winning the title because of either of those trades. They're on the brink because they've been good enough for long enough to catch an absurd string of injury breaks that left a path wide enough for many teams to stroll down. They didn't need Jrue or KP to win any of these series. Last year's team would have been more than enough.

They are something like 11-1 in the playoffs without Porzingis which is pretty nuts. He was fantastic for them when he did play.

[German Athens]

Yeah, I agree with Emunney. As much as how I just talked about how the swindle was really the KP trade, and the Jrue trade was decent value - neither have mattered for this run.

KP has been out injured for almost all of it, and Jrue has been good, but not to the point of tipping the scales against them if you had smart in place of him.

[theFireBlanket]

This is such bull.. Celtics got absolutely spoon fed an easy title run. It's Minnesota's fault, really. Overperform to take out Denver. Underperform to allow one of the weakest teams to come out of the west in a long time. Shooting variance played a huge role, too.

Is the NBA becoming more like the NFL? 7 game series is supposed to determine the best team but now we have shooting variance than can crop up over stretches that are just long enough. See: Van Vleet, Fred.

Whatever

Going back about the last 5 years to when the lakers won there hasnt been any champion who after the season you were really convinced about. maybe even the raptors before that and the runner ups even lesser. hell all the runnerups have been bum ass teams you never would have guessed..... the league has become kind of like the nhl that way. god only knows who wins the thing and who gets knocked out. regular season records and how good a team is perceived to be mean nothing

boston honestly this year is the first champ in years you could say yeah you saw that one coming.

i cant tell if its better or worse this way then what it used to be but sure as hell parity exists. the game has evolved to where actual skill means less than ever. its whoever wins the most recent shooting drill

Still think Dame & Giannis healthy were enough to undo them. But we'll have to wait for next year, with a more stable situation in place.

Maybe its better for the team, that Dame saw how ridiculous Khris actually is vs. the Pacers. And collectively got to scrap 2 wins, nearly 3.

[BUCKnation]

Boston are going to walk their way to the finals and you can still question their late game offense and whether or not Tatum is the guy.

[RogerMurdock]

Read on Twitter

[Matches Malone]

I'm mad at Horst for not having the foresight to get Jrue to a third team that wasn't a direct competitor, but the number of media members acting like the Bucks just handed Jrue to the Celtics without giving any context, is going to make me go insane. No mention of Jrue's offensive role being cut in half with the C's, or how the Blazers were the ones to make an awful trade for injured players... I should stay off social media for the day.

[chonestown]

Props to Boston.

Banworthy post.imo

[Turk Nowitzki]

I'm mad at Horst for not having the foresight to get Jrue to a third team that wasn't a direct competitor, but the number of media members acting like the Bucks just handed Jrue to the Celtics without giving any context, is going to make me go insane. No mention of Jrue's offensive role being cut in half with the C's, or how the Blazers were the ones to make an awful trade for injured players... I should stay off social media for the day.

It's legitimately making me mad. It's so blatantly disingenuous solely because of the jersey he's wearing. I can't handle it.

Also, it doesn't even have to be like this. They could just talk about it in the proper context and still heap all sorts of deserved praise on the Celtics for acquiring him and integrating him in a perfect role.