WeLikeOurGuys wrote:If you're trading Simons just to bring back Al and Luke, then what's the actual plan? I love Horford — he's probably one of my favorite Celtics ever — and Luke is a great teammate and a dependable backup big. But given where the Celtics are right now, is bringing back two aging role players at the expense of a young, high-upside scorer really the right move?
Essentially, we’d be running it back without Jrue and KP. That might be fine if Horford or Kornet had any real upside left, but they don’t — they're solid, not game-changers. So what's the long-term value here?
It all depends on what you can get for Simons. But if they end up flipping him in a pure salary dump just to re-sign Luke and Al, I’ll be really disappointed.
I've been wondering about the plan since before they traded KP, especially now with the timing of that trade. Hartenstein got $30 million per. Now even a lesser player in Kessler is rumored to get $30 million per. Kornet $ 12-14 million, interest in Lopez rekindled. Getting a championship level big man back now feels like trying to put the toothpaste back into the tube.
Drastically lowering payroll and looking for a true big man in an impossible market are diametrically opposed. More than ever it feels like Brown could be gone.
Basically, if stuff happens in 26-27 and you find yourself willing/able to duck the tax then, if you haven't ducked it in 25-26, you missed an opportunity. 
