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

[redslastlaugh]

Al would be so much more enjoyable to watch in Denver than in Golden St

The biggest news of the day is that Horford has yet to sign with a WC team. The odds that he re-signs with the Cs for the taxpayer MLE for two years after BS gets us under the second apron have increased dramatically if Denver keeps Valanciunas as planned.

Rumor has it, Al is either going to the warriors, the nuggets or retiring. I think the Al return to boston ship has sailed

[The Corey's]

What were you expecting they would get?

It's not up to me to figure it out. That's not the point.

The question is, how does it make them better in 2026?

No one can answer that. Any more than I can answer what they should of done.

It's not 2026-2027 season yet. It's sports. It's entertaining. I can't tell others how to feel, I'm just happy we won a title in 2024. That's only the 2nd time after the 1986 championship. Guess what, it was fun but it's didn't make my life an better. Just like losing doesn't make my life worse.

It's a game. The players and owners win, even when they lose. Because they make millions and do something they love.

The point of this forum is to commentate in real time on how things unfold.

I'm the one who's talking about what's happening now. The ones who are responding to me apparently think I lack the ability to see the bigger picture.

Same as you, the title didn't change my life. It made me pretty satiated frankly. Still, if you're going to argue that these are the right moves, you're gonna need more than "you dummies don't understand the cba"

That isn't a commentary on you. It's what those of us who are asking what the plan here is are dealing with for simply having the balls to be so negative on how badly this off-season has been.

Keep in mind my original post simply was "imagine defending the Celtics for tearing down a championship roster"

And like flies on **** people were quick to tell me how stupid I am in so many words for not understanding that we don't have a championship roster and that no one goes into the second apron on this cba.

I get it. I promise you all I'm not ignoring the facts here.

[Fierce1]

Cs keeping JB and White is the signal there will be no tanking entering the 2026 season.

If the Cs were tanking, they would have traded JB or White or both.

Brad simply does not believe in tanking.

[Fierce1]

Pacers gave us a clue.

They announced that Hali will be out for the entire 2026 season.

Hali got hurt in June.

JT who got hurt in May has never said he will not be playing in 2026.

Cs also have not made an announcement about JT missing the 2026 season.

Knowing JT's history, when it comes to injuries, he will return if he's healed by March.

[brackdan70]

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.

What were you expecting they would get?

It's not up to me to figure it out. That's not the point.

The question is, how does it make them better in 2026?

No one can answer that. Any more than I can answer what they should have done.

It’s as if you are turning a blind eye to reality. It’s fine if you want to keep that up.
Before these offseason moves the Celtics for 26/27 had JT, JB, White, Pritchard, Hauser, Queta, Scheierman, Walsh, and a 36 yo Jrue and would have to shed about 15 million$ to get under the tax.
The only difference now is they don’t have Jrue and his contract and they have bird rights on Simons and flexibility. They are clearly in a much better place than they were before the trades unless you expected Porzingis to resign for cheap and play 70 games and Jrue to improve from 34 to 36.

[The Corey's]

What were you expecting they would get?

It's not up to me to figure it out. That's not the point.

The question is, how does it make them better in 2026?

No one can answer that. Any more than I can answer what they should have done.

It’s as if you are turning a blind eye to reality. It’s fine if you want to keep that up.
Before these offseason moves the Celtics for 26/27 had JT, JB, White, Pritchard, Hauser, Queta, Scheierman, Walsh, and a 36 yo Jrue and would have to shed about 15 million$ to get under the tax.
The only difference now is they don’t have Jrue and his contract and they have bird rights on Simons and flexibility. They are clearly in a much better place than they were before the trades unless you expected Porzingis to resign for cheap and play 70 games and Jrue to improve from 34 to 36.

The question is, if it's to make us better in the future, I asked how.

So you're saying much better but you've not mentioned how?

You're on record that the pieces we got in return are going to be better than the pieces we sent out? That's the "much better position" you're referring to?

[fallguy]

Ultimately, we can't know exactly what comes ahead.

But I prefer the uncertainty of what's coming with Brad's current approach vs. what I perceive to be the certainty of a broke down KP, a breaking down Jrue, and severe team-building limitations sabotaging us in 26-27.

Neither of those possible teams may be as good as the 2024 NBA Champions, but such is life.

[djFan71]

Who says no? This assumes Beal doesn't go to the Clippers

BOS: SloMo for Simons. Duck the tax.
LAC: Simons for Bogi, DJJ, 2nds from SAC.
SAC: DJJ for 2nds.
UTA: Bogi for SloMo

BOS ducks the tax. Fulfills the inevitable SloMo timeline.
LAC gets what people see here in Simons - scoring and creation. Anchors the 2nd unit scoring.
SAC gets a good player who defends. They may balk at that last part.
UTA gets the better player. Can flip later in the summer for an asset.

[Fierce1]

Reality is the Cs have not gotten much better, for now.

That can change with one move.

Here's the thing, since the 1980s, the Cs have won a championship every other decade.

So if we're basing it on a pattern, 1986 to 2008 to 2024, the Cs next championship will be in the 2040s.

Brad has 15 years to assemble another championship team.

[redslastlaugh]

Over eighteen drafts Danny Ainge made 26 first round picks as GM of the Celtics
(Banks, Perk, AlJeff, TA, Delonte, Gerald Green, Rondo, JR Giddens, Avery, Jajuan J., FabMelo, Sullinger, Olynyk, Marcus, James Young, Rozier, RJ Hunter, Jaylen, Yabu, Zizic, JT, Robwill, Romeo, Grant Williams, Nesmith, Pritchard)


In the five drafts since Brad took over we've made 2 first round picks.
The rookie aged players under team control right now: JDD, Jordan Walsh, Scheierman, Hugo, Amari Will, Max Shulga
if two or three of these guys become important rotation players, not stars per se but good players like a Danny Green or Boris Diaw or George Hill type of pro,
then we are in pretty good shape.

If in 3 yrs, none of these guys are in the NBA, we are going to be in trouble. A lot of our second apron and tax situation derives from not getting much yield from our draft picks. The last 3 players we drafted and extended were JB, JT and Payton Pritchard. We should have some Andrew Nembhard's and Christian Braun's coming up to extend but we punted so much on making picks.

Now that Austin Ainge and Remy Cofield are moved on, I hope we can bring in an additional exec/scout to help out with draft prioritization

[Fierce1]

Who says no? This assumes Beal doesn't go to the Clippers

BOS: SloMo for Simons. Duck the tax.
LAC: Simons for Bogi, DJJ, 2nds from SAC.
SAC: DJJ for 2nds.
UTA: Bogi for SloMo

BOS ducks the tax. Fulfills the inevitable SloMo timeline.
LAC gets what people see here in Simons - scoring and creation. Anchors the 2nd unit scoring.
SAC gets a good player who defends. They may balk at that last part.
UTA gets the better player. Can flip later in the summer for an asset.

Celtics can duck the tax in February 2026, if that's the goal.

Why the rush to trade Simons?

I think it's better to wait and see.

[165bows]

Cs keeping JB and White is the signal there will be no tanking entering the 2026 season.

If the Cs were tanking, they would have traded JB or White or both.

Brad simply does not believe in tanking.

He doesn’t but with no Al coming back we are tanking.

This team has a B+ backcourt and a D- front court.

Oh and they are still dumping some decent players for worse players that make less and we just got jilted out of a pair of second round picks today.

[Fierce1]

If it's really about ducking the tax then Brad would not have taken in Simons.

I believe the Cs want it both ways, stay competitive but minimize spending.

There's no clear evidence about ducking the tax now.

Simons could have been rerouted if it's just about the tax.

Clearly the Cs want to be in the mix for 2026.

[Fierce1]

Cs keeping JB and White is the signal there will be no tanking entering the 2026 season.

If the Cs were tanking, they would have traded JB or White or both.

Brad simply does not believe in tanking.

He doesn’t but with no Al coming back we are tanking.

This team has a B+ backcourt and a D- front court.

Oh and they are still dumping some decent players for worse players that make less and we just got jilted out of a pair of second round picks today.

You really think the 2016 Celtics with IT, Avery Bradley, and Jae Crowder are better than this JB and DWhite led Celtics?

[Fierce1]

Celtics, in 2016, with Amir Johnson and Jared Sullinger at Center won 48 games.

[SuperDeluxe]

Simons could have been rerouted if it's just about the tax.

Simons can only be traded with other players after September 7, so we may need to way two months (or more) to see where this story ends. The same is true for Niang.

[Fierce1]

Simons could have been rerouted if it's just about the tax.

Simons can only be traded with other players after September 7, so we may need to way two months (or more) to see where this story ends. The same is true for Niang.

I agree.

That's why I said Simons passed the first checkpoint of not getting rerouted by July 6.

So we wait for the 2nd checkpoint of Sep. 7.

If it were up to me, I want Vuc and Coby White for Simons and Hauser.

What I don't agree with is just dumping Simons for guys like Slo-Mo and Mann.

[Hal14]

Pacers gave us a clue.

They announced that Hali will be out for the entire 2026 season.

Hali got hurt in June.

JT who got hurt in May has never said he will not be playing in 2026.

Cs also have not made an announcement about JT missing the 2026 season.

Knowing JT's history, when it comes to injuries, he will return if he's healed by March.

I actually took that as a clue that Tatum will miss the entire season.

Since Haliburton tore his achilles a month later than Tatum did, of course that means Haliburton is less likely to play next season..he obviously is about a month behind Tatum in terms of returning to basketball activities. So it makes sense that Haliburton would be the first one to announce he will miss the entire season - before Tatum.

However, they both tore their achilles in the playoffs. If Player A tore his achilles in the playoffs and is out for the entire 25-26 season, it seems reasonable to assume Player B who tore his achilles in the playoffs will also miss the entire 25-26 season. Just because one of them got injured a month earlier than the other, I doubt it would make that much of a difference that Tatum plays next season but Haliburton doesn't.

Bottom line, both of them are are young franchise players. Not worth it to risk bringing them back too soon.

Not to mention the Celtics are known to keep things closer to the vest when it comes to sharing injury timelines publicly. Last year the Pacers came right out and said that Wiseman and Ijax were done for the year. Meanwhile, the Celtics were very coy with Gallinari a couple years ago, refusing to admit he was done for the year and leading fans to believe there might be a chance he would come back. that season - but he didn't.

[Fierce1]

Celtics need a Center, a dynamic scoring guard, and a defensive player.

Celtics get 2 out of 3 with Vuc and Coby.

Defense will still be an issue because Vuc is not a rim protector.

[Hal14]

Simons could have been rerouted if it's just about the tax.

Simons can only be traded with other players after September 7, so we may need to way two months (or more) to see where this story ends. The same is true for Niang.

True but if they really wanted to trade Simons, they don't have to wait till Sep 7. They could just trade him now..they just wouldn't be able to aggregate salaries.

And I believe Keith Smith tweeted earlier that if Simons is traded, it probably wouldn't be a trade where he is aggregated with another salary..