Holy Offseason I Can’t Believe it’s July FA/Trade/Waiver Thread

[The Corey's]

Even if Tatum hadn't gotten injured, we would have lost the Knicks series. Not a championship roster.

If Tatum was healthy right now, I'd still support the KP and Jrue trades. (I'd also be more interested in Simons playing for us next year).

The roster wasn't the problem.

The coach was.

Some day everyone will agree with this but for now there are holdouts.

Health more than coach, imo. Jrue was off, JB was a little dinged up, KP barely played. That's 3 of your top 7. Fully healthy, we don't lose to NYK, or IND. OKC would have been a good matchup, but I think we would have prevailed.

Alas, we weren't healthy. But that's a roster thing.

I thought we all agreed finally that the 3 point merry go round went off the deep end?

[Celts17Pride]

The thing is they had a two year window to blow out the budget and "go for it" so they added KP and Jrue and went for it.
But then they were so far over the budget, they had to pull back

It's great to have owners who will even go all in like that in the first place.

If they had a different coach, could they have done better in 2023 or 2025, yea possibly
but fundamentally, there was no way to keep the team together

would you rather they never acquire Jrue in the first place?
They could "keep it together" if they just kept the 14th pick, took Bub Carrington and kept Rob Williams and let Brogdon walk?

They went "ALL IN" and this is what caused all this inability to keep the team together

They have?

I've yet to see anyone make a convincing case that the Celtics were not championship quality with or or without a different coach.

How did the Celtics get better for the future? That's the question. I'm all ears.

By simply getting Holiday and Porzingis off their books.

[djFan71]

Read on Twitter

Wow, Micic really didn't want to be there, lol. I'm sure he'll get money in Europe, but feels like he shouldn't have given up 75% of his salary.

Also means it will be at least a few days before Lillard signs with another team. Lillard may even wait a year before he signs with anyone.

Which means more dead time on Simons too, lol. Lillard and Beal need to resolve first. Then it's down to Monk and Simons as the top no-D scorers left on the "market". If Beal goes to MIL and Lillard to DAL there's just not much market left.

[The Corey's]

Holiday and Porzingis were very far away from what they were during the championship season. Tearing down a championship team is very disingenuous in my opinion.

Edit: Except for Porzingis who just never plays.

They are worse now than before the trades. Even with a 100% never injured, fully healthy Tatum. Full stop, non debatable.

Celtics didn't tear down a championship roster. That team was one and done once Jrue became half the player he was vs he first year here.
KP was a player that couldn't be counted in the playoffs for both seasons he was here.

Tatum being out for the season accelerated the process of rebuilding. The team being way over the tax apron hurt the team even more, but Brad still got a 20, 4 and 4 player for an aging Jrue.

On top of all that, if Georges Niang doesn't play a single minute in the playoffs for Boston, he would give us more than we got from KP in the playoffs. KP was hurting the team by being out there.

The Celtics are worse now than the roster they had before they got KP and Jrue. Let that sink in.

Once Tatum went down it was no longer a championship roster. When Tatum gets back in '26 some of the roster was no longer going to be viable due to age and injuries. Holiday, Porzingus, Horford are just being recycled for a viable supporting cast for a championship window #2 in '26 and beyond. Stevens has successfully shuffled the deck once before. I'll happily defend how he has started this current roster shuffle.

This is a copout. A excuse. And a lie. They were tearing it down before the injury and everyone knows that.

This is crazy talk. The second apron penalties are so ridiculous you can't go over once they start:

Freezing draft picks
Disallowing you to aggregate players in a trade
Make your salary 8x what you are paying the players. Essentially a windfall for other teams.
Prohibiting use if Taxpayer MLE.

You can't trade players over the second apron. It is nearly impossible.


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You know whats crazy talk? Defending going into the taxes because they're too high for these billionaires while not acknowledging that the trades they made do not set them up for future success.

So they lost those cap holds. They'll never be able to dip back into it, they don't have any long term depth and what's worse is the Jays and White take up almost all the cap, making it virtually impossible to improve the team without shipping one of them out the door.

It's not crazy talk at all. The owners didn't want to pay half a billion dollars, with or without Tatum. Great.

How did Brad make the Celtics a championship team for 2026 with these moves?

That's the question you should be answering. Not explaining to me about the second apron like I haven't heard it 2,000 times.

[redslastlaugh]

They went for it in 2024 and 2025
&
We raised banner 18 because of it

We sacrificed a bit to try to win a title, that's why we did that
Now we have to spend a little time cleaning up after the party

How did the Celtics get better for the future? That's the question. I'm all ears.

[djFan71]

The roster wasn't the problem.

The coach was.

Some day everyone will agree with this but for now there are holdouts.

Health more than coach, imo. Jrue was off, JB was a little dinged up, KP barely played. That's 3 of your top 7. Fully healthy, we don't lose to NYK, or IND. OKC would have been a good matchup, but I think we would have prevailed.

Alas, we weren't healthy. But that's a roster thing.

I thought we all agreed finally that the 3 point merry go round went off the deep end?

Healthy KP helps address that, though. And we also couldn't get stops to close out the games, which Jrue with a healthy hamstring helps.

[The Corey's]

Jrue and KP in 26-27 would have been a huge mistake. You may disagree but it's pretty compelling. Especially given what keeping them would have meant from a roster-building and flexibility perspective.

You got nothing for them and the pieces you received are not helping you win either and worse yet they will not help you bring in the talent when you're looking to compete in 2026 when Tatum returns.

They can't just go out and replace talent simply because they wish too. They don't have the pieces to make that work or the cap.

They got what they could for them (unless you think they deliberately took less for them for some reason) and while I'm not a huge Simons fan, he's hardly nothing. They're adjusting to the new reality of team-building in the new CBA era. They now need to develop guys on the roster and look for the next Kornet or Hauser or PP. Amalgamate talent in trades. Etc.

You are free to ignore all this but please do explain your plan for the next two years. What did you want them to do?

So you're saying you get what you pay for?

You don't say.

[The Corey's]

This is a copout. A excuse. And a lie. They were tearing it down before the injury and everyone knows that.

You argue with the logic of an ex-wife.

That sounds like capitulation to me.

[The Corey's]

The thing is they had a two year window to blow out the budget and "go for it" so they added KP and Jrue and went for it.
But then they were so far over the budget, they had to pull back

It's great to have owners who will even go all in like that in the first place.

If they had a different coach, could they have done better in 2023 or 2025, yea possibly
but fundamentally, there was no way to keep the team together

would you rather they never acquire Jrue in the first place?
They could "keep it together" if they just kept the 14th pick, took Bub Carrington and kept Rob Williams and let Brogdon walk?

They went "ALL IN" and this is what caused all this inability to keep the team together

How did the Celtics get better for the future? That's the question. I'm all ears.

By simply getting Holiday and Porzingis off their books.

This response low key triggers me hard.

They saved money. The owners.

The Celtics can't simply spend that money again next year my friend. It's gone. Poof. The cap hold is out the window.

There's no going under the apron this year and above it again next year. It doesn't work that way.

[The Corey's]

They went for it in 2024 and 2025
&
We raised banner 18 because of it

We sacrificed a bit to try to win a title, that's why we did that
Now we have to spend a little time cleaning up after the party

How did the Celtics get better for the future? That's the question. I'm all ears.

A little time?

Try a couple decades if the last go around is any indication.

They can't build around the Jays with both them and their giant cap holds. It's literally impossible.

[fallguy]

Corey's - please tell us what you want them to have done the next two years. Show us your brilliant plan.

[Celts17Pride]

They went for it in 2024 and 2025
&
We raised banner 18 because of it

We sacrificed a bit to try to win a title, that's why we did that
Now we have to spend a little time cleaning up after the party

How did the Celtics get better for the future? That's the question. I'm all ears.

A little time?

Try a couple decades if the last go around is any indication.

They can't build around the Jays with both them and their giant cap holds. It's literally impossible.

Such an old tired dumb argument when players like SGA, Booker etc. are getting $70-75 million per year. 2nd aprons go up every year. Celtics in great shape because they got ahead of it.

[The Corey's]

They went for it in 2024 and 2025
&
We raised banner 18 because of it

We sacrificed a bit to try to win a title, that's why we did that
Now we have to spend a little time cleaning up after the party

A little time?

Try a couple decades if the last go around is any indication.

They can't build around the Jays with both them and their giant cap holds. It's literally impossible.

Such an old tired dumb argument when players like SGA, Booker etc. are getting $70-75 million per year. 2nd aprons go up every year. Celtics in great shape because they got ahead of it.

Really?

How do they go above the cap to sign players?

How are they going over the cap and back into the apron, through trade? With what assets?

[celticgreenie]

Wow, Micic really didn't want to be there, lol. I'm sure he'll get money in Europe, but feels like he shouldn't have given up 75% of his salary.

Also means it will be at least a few days before Lillard signs with another team. Lillard may even wait a year before he signs with anyone.

Which means more dead time on Simons too, lol. Lillard and Beal need to resolve first. Then it's down to Monk and Simons as the top no-D scorers left on the "market". If Beal goes to MIL and Lillard to DAL there's just not much market left.

Agree as I don't see Bulls wanting to part with Coby White although he is on expiring contract.

[jfs1000d]

They are worse now than before the trades. Even with a 100% never injured, fully healthy Tatum. Full stop, non debatable.



The Celtics are worse now than the roster they had before they got KP and Jrue. Let that sink in.



This is a copout. A excuse. And a lie. They were tearing it down before the injury and everyone knows that.

This is crazy talk. The second apron penalties are so ridiculous you can't go over once they start:

Freezing draft picks
Disallowing you to aggregate players in a trade
Make your salary 8x what you are paying the players. Essentially a windfall for other teams.
Prohibiting use if Taxpayer MLE.

You can't trade players over the second apron. It is nearly impossible.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You know whats crazy talk? Defending going into the taxes because they're too high for these billionaires while not acknowledging that the trades they made do not set them up for future success.

So they lost those cap holds. They'll never be able to dip back into it, they don't have any long term depth and what's worse is the Jays and White take up almost all the cap, making it virtually impossible to improve the team without shipping one of them out the door.

It's not crazy talk at all. The owners didn't want to pay half a billion dollars, with or without Tatum. Great.

How did Brad make the Celtics a championship team for 2026 with these moves?

That's the question you should be answering. Not explaining to me about the second apron like I haven't heard it 2,000 times.

They have a $22M TPE for zinger, they have Simons $27m expiring. Maybe they send that into a TPE.

They have to Niang expiring at $8.5. They can take Simons, Niang, and Hauser and trade that for a $46M player.

Think about that, add in PP and White and literally we can trade for anyone in the nba.

Hauser, Simons, Nuanf works for Giannis. Need more neutral salary? Throw in White instead of Hauser.

This is setting us up nicely for 2026.


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[The Corey's]

This is crazy talk. The second apron penalties are so ridiculous you can't go over once they start:

Freezing draft picks
Disallowing you to aggregate players in a trade
Make your salary 8x what you are paying the players. Essentially a windfall for other teams.
Prohibiting use if Taxpayer MLE.

You can't trade players over the second apron. It is nearly impossible.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You know whats crazy talk? Defending going into the taxes because they're too high for these billionaires while not acknowledging that the trades they made do not set them up for future success.

So they lost those cap holds. They'll never be able to dip back into it, they don't have any long term depth and what's worse is the Jays and White take up almost all the cap, making it virtually impossible to improve the team without shipping one of them out the door.

It's not crazy talk at all. The owners didn't want to pay half a billion dollars, with or without Tatum. Great.

How did Brad make the Celtics a championship team for 2026 with these moves?

That's the question you should be answering. Not explaining to me about the second apron like I haven't heard it 2,000 times.

They have a $22M TPE for zinger, they have Simons $27m expiring. Maybe they send that into a TPE.

They have to Niang expiring at $8.5. They can take Simons, Niang, and Hauser and trade that for a $46M player.

Think about that, add in PP and White and literally we can trade die anyone in the nba.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Whoa. I thought this fan base learned their lesson about the Almighty trade exception lol

They don't have a championship roster going forward and the road to getting one is just about nearly impossible.

[jfs1000d]

You know whats crazy talk? Defending going into the taxes because they're too high for these billionaires while not acknowledging that the trades they made do not set them up for future success.

So they lost those cap holds. They'll never be able to dip back into it, they don't have any long term depth and what's worse is the Jays and White take up almost all the cap, making it virtually impossible to improve the team without shipping one of them out the door.

It's not crazy talk at all. The owners didn't want to pay half a billion dollars, with or without Tatum. Great.

How did Brad make the Celtics a championship team for 2026 with these moves?

That's the question you should be answering. Not explaining to me about the second apron like I haven't heard it 2,000 times.

They have a $22M TPE for zinger, they have Simons $27m expiring. Maybe they send that into a TPE.

They have to Niang expiring at $8.5. They can take Simons, Niang, and Hauser and trade that for a $46M player.

Think about that, add in PP and White and literally we can trade die anyone in the nba.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Whoa. I thought this fan base learned their lesson about the Almighty trade exception lol

They don't have a championship roster going forward and the road to getting one is just about nearly impossible.

Tatum/White/Brown is a championship core. They are missing a defensive center. You can find that. They fit loads of shooting in PP, Hauser, Pritchard.

This team is gonna be 60 wins again in 2026-27 if Tatum comes back full strength.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[The Corey's]

They have a $22M TPE for zinger, they have Simons $27m expiring. Maybe they send that into a TPE.

They have to Niang expiring at $8.5. They can take Simons, Niang, and Hauser and trade that for a $46M player.

Think about that, add in PP and White and literally we can trade die anyone in the nba.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Whoa. I thought this fan base learned their lesson about the Almighty trade exception lol

They don't have a championship roster going forward and the road to getting one is just about nearly impossible.

Tatum/White/Brown is a championship core. They are missing a defensive center. You can find that. They fit loads of shooting in PP, Hauser, Pritchard.

This team is gonna be 60 wins again in 2026-27 if Tatum comes back full strength.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

60 wins isn't easy. I think the last couple years have people expectations out of whack.

It is a championship core but with little to no money to reach into the free agent pool, few assete they can part with while also not sacrificing on court performance and a really awful coach?

I have serious doubts.

[SuperDeluxe]

The thread-crapping was expected but still mind-boggling. Between complete ignorance of CBA rules and constant negativity, this will be a long, long, long season.

[fallguy]

The thread-crapping was expected but still mind-boggling. Between complete ignorance of CBA rules and constant negativity, this will be a long, long, long season.

Some people are just here to whine.