Putting aside the roster math, one thing I've noticed about Brad Stevens is he seems to want his top 6 or 7 to be "his guys" and he doesn't want roster churn or turnover.
I think Brad has a theory of basketball & human character and he wants to acquire players like White, Holiday, Horford who can defend, shoot, space the floor, and have personal integrity. I don't think he wants to acquire players for financial reasons or asset management reasons.
If a high ceiling player that wasn't an archetypal Brad Stevens player was available in the draft at a low value pick slot, say, like, the #30 pick, I don't think Brad would "take the asset" to figure it out later, because he doesn't want to manage the team that way. Remember when Danny Ainge acquired Ricky Davis, Chris Mihm and a first in trade, and this was just an asset management trade, getting undervalued players to develop to hopefully trade them again for the players Danny really wanted. I don't think Brad has any interest in trades like this.
Perhaps Brad is partly uneasy with Anfernee Simons questions (didn't even have a press conference) because Brad hates the situation, that he had to trade Jrue Holiday to acquire Anfernee Simons, a move he only made for financial reasons.
And so, when you look at the bigman Brad has spent on, I don't see Nic Claxton as fitting the "Brad Stevens" mold, & I personally doubt Brad would trade for him because a $20 million center who doesn't provide shooting is just going to be another roster problem down the road ... and so I would be surprised if Brad goes the Nic Claxton route.
hugepatsfan wrote:Fierce1 wrote:I don't think the Cs will go back to the 2nd apron any time soon.
That's closer than you think if they make the moves you've been suggesting (trading for Claxton and keeping Hauser)...
If they traded Simons for Claxton and kept Hauser, just to add placeholders for some math...
And none of this is including your Coby White dreams of course...
Playing all the math out, that's why I believe it's prudent to ditch Hauser if they add a big salary center like Claxton or whoever. I don't believe this team can sustain a payroll at or over the 2nd apron at repeater rates, and that's exactly where they're going to be in 27-28 and 28-29 if they add that big man and keep Hauser. But dealing with the loss of Hauser resets the repeater rates these next two years and makes it all very sustainable long term.
