Free Agent/Trade Thread 2026-27, Part X (It's a Tragedy to See the Dream is Over)

[Shak_Celts]

Not disagreeing with you because the extra money from the max to the supermax should not count against the cap makes sense.

But the parity in the NBA right now is good for the entire league.

Sucks for us, but I think overall it's good for everyone.

Let’s see how you feel about parity in a few seasons when it’s another pairing you’ll have to choose between. Hugo and Tatum. Hugo and Cenac. Cenac and whoever we pick next season? Some other guys were don’t know yet.

Imagine having to choose between Bird or McHale. We could go down any teams with good homegrown duos and be at a loss if one had to go.

It’s the CBA but I will forever blame LBJ!! I think people blame McCollum, but need to look at super-team-builder extraordinaire!

If it applies to all then that's fine.

Cs will eventually win another championship.
It's just a matter of when.

But domination is not possible with this current CBA and that's fine.

If the Celtics draft 5 studs in a row, they will all be on supermax at the same time. Well, they can’t be because we’ll have to give up all of them except 1 or 2, if we want to pay. I’m a Celtics fan, I don’t care about parity when it comes to us, I want Celtics to win every time!

[greenbeans]

Parity blows, nobody looks back at the outlier champions and that's what this past decade equates to.
The times where there are teams with dynastic runs have shown to be most successful periods in the leagues history, giving an ear to the lowlife owners living in the lottery regardless was a mistake, greatness is a good thing, whatever market it comes from

[celtxman]

The CBA sucks imo. Teams should be able to re-sign their own young players. Making good teams blow it up every couple years leads to a worse on-court product.

Read on Twitter

There isn't enough space to write about how bad the CBA is. What I will write about is something Stevens mentioned that not many picked up on ans something I wrote about before. The NBA tells teams how much they want to keep home grown with their team hence developing the SUPERMAX. Yet like most things, the NBA botched this. They COULD have said the teams would pay the SUPERMAX rate to the players, but the extra money between the MAX and SUPERMAX would not count against the CAP, but they didn't. The cost to Boston is about $16 Million on the CAP. Would it have made a difference.? I'll let Brad Stevens answer as he did at the presser: We may not be sitting here if there was a rule in the CBA that said, ‘The guys that you drafted that you signed for 35% supermaxes count as 25% of the cap, because then that would allow you to build out towards the aprons with a lot less flexibility, or with a lot more flexibility.”
Adam Silver and the NBA KILLED US on this. The ultimate bait and switch - we want to keep teams with homegrown players together, but we'll punish you if you try.

Not disagreeing with you because the extra money from the max to the supermax should not count against the cap makes sense.

But the parity in the NBA right now is good for the entire league.

Sucks for us, but I think overall it's good for everyone.

There's an old saying - "if it ain't broke- don't fix it. The Celtics at that time was the 6th different champion in a row.

[ryan in Maine]

There isn't enough space to write about how bad the CBA is. What I will write about is something Stevens mentioned that not many picked up on ans something I wrote about before. The NBA tells teams how much they want to keep home grown with their team hence developing the SUPERMAX. Yet like most things, the NBA botched this. They COULD have said the teams would pay the SUPERMAX rate to the players, but the extra money between the MAX and SUPERMAX would not count against the CAP, but they didn't. The cost to Boston is about $16 Million on the CAP. Would it have made a difference.? I'll let Brad Stevens answer as he did at the presser: We may not be sitting here if there was a rule in the CBA that said, ‘The guys that you drafted that you signed for 35% supermaxes count as 25% of the cap, because then that would allow you to build out towards the aprons with a lot less flexibility, or with a lot more flexibility.”
Adam Silver and the NBA KILLED US on this. The ultimate bait and switch - we want to keep teams with homegrown players together, but we'll punish you if you try.

Not disagreeing with you because the extra money from the max to the supermax should not count against the cap makes sense.

But the parity in the NBA right now is good for the entire league.

Sucks for us, but I think overall it's good for everyone.

Let’s see how you feel about parity in a few seasons when it’s another pairing you’ll have to choose between. Hugo and Tatum. Hugo and Cenac. Cenac and whoever we pick next season? Some other guys were don’t know yet.

Imagine having to choose between Bird or McHale. We could go down any teams with good homegrown duos and be at a loss if one had to go.

It’s the CBA but I will forever blame LBJ!! I think people blame McCollum, but need to look at super-team-builder extraordinaire!

Talk about completely altering the course of history!

[phincsfan]

Glad they didn’t entertain Watson for 25mil a season.

[celtxman]

Let’s see how you feel about parity in a few seasons when it’s another pairing you’ll have to choose between. Hugo and Tatum. Hugo and Cenac. Cenac and whoever we pick next season? Some other guys were don’t know yet.

Imagine having to choose between Bird or McHale. We could go down any teams with good homegrown duos and be at a loss if one had to go.

It’s the CBA but I will forever blame LBJ!! I think people blame McCollum, but need to look at super-team-builder extraordinaire!

If it applies to all then that's fine.

Cs will eventually win another championship.
It's just a matter of when.

But domination is not possible with this current CBA and that's fine.

If the Celtics draft 5 studs in a row, they will all be on supermax at the same time. Well, they can’t be because we’ll have to give up all of them except 1 or 2, if we want to pay. I’m a Celtics fan, I don’t care about parity when it comes to us, I want Celtics to win every time!

Well said. The Celtics had no unfair advantages, especially financial in their championship year. The Celtics were willing to build a roster with brilliant trades and drafting. The Grousbecks were near the bottom of wealth with NBA owners. Steve Balmer wasn't walking through that door to give the Celtics money. The Warriors weren't sharing any of the extra revenue (they currently take in $350- 400 million more than the Celtics do.
I'm not a parity fan, but especially rules that punish teams for keeping their home grown talent.

[celtxman]

Glad they didn’t entertain Watson for 25mil a season.

There was no practical way to get him, but if there was, I would do it for $25M a season. The most important aspect is they would have gotten a quality player who would have helped the Celtics have the depth they need to back up Tatum and George, where they could actually have planned rest especially for George.

[JimmyFromNz]

So I listened to the most recent Bill Simmons and Joe House podcast today which had a large segment on the Jaylen Brown / analytics debate.

Such a rough discussion.

The whole premise was analytics dont account for how Jaylen single handidly carried a team of "bums" last season. On the basis you have to "watch games" - if either of them watched more than 15 games last season they'd know how dumb that sounds.

There was genuine shock as to why analytics dont favour a player whose scoring output is more easily replaced in lineups than a playmaker or elite defender... despite them comparing Jaylens analytics to other poor analytics profiles from other mid efficiency primary scorers like Carmelo, Stackhouse and Ai.

What capped it off was then in the same breathe saying that, in spite of all these misleading analytics, the Celtics would still be a 55 win team (which i agree).

Im not an analytics all or nothing guy, and not criticising Jaylen, but having these completely contradictory takes on the most influential sports entertainer in the worlds podcast does a massive disservice to the conversation. Get someone on that knows the basics please so the general nba fanbase can understand what they are reading. Rather than two drunk uncles trying to have a half assed conversation on it.

I guess im just exhausted from how terrible the public conversation on this situation has been. Zero nuance whatsoever.

[Fierce1]

Maybe JB will channel that inner Carmelo Anthony in him with Philly.

[Parliament10]

What would be our Tax liability to Sign Amari (at some point) back to the NBA?

[Fierce1]

What would be our Tax liability to Sign Amari (at some point) back to the NBA?

If Cs do that later in the season then the answer is "none".

[Darthlukey]

The CBA sucks imo. Teams should be able to re-sign their own young players. Making good teams blow it up every couple years leads to a worse on-court product.

Read on Twitter

Yep. If you draft them you should be rewarded for your insight and player development skills. Not punished.

Watch on YouTube

That might be valid, but any changes will need to wait until okc and sas age past their cores, which is now a decade away

[Darthlukey]

There isn't enough space to write about how bad the CBA is. What I will write about is something Stevens mentioned that not many picked up on ans something I wrote about before. The NBA tells teams how much they want to keep home grown with their team hence developing the SUPERMAX. Yet like most things, the NBA botched this. They COULD have said the teams would pay the SUPERMAX rate to the players, but the extra money between the MAX and SUPERMAX would not count against the CAP, but they didn't. The cost to Boston is about $16 Million on the CAP. Would it have made a difference.? I'll let Brad Stevens answer as he did at the presser: We may not be sitting here if there was a rule in the CBA that said, ‘The guys that you drafted that you signed for 35% supermaxes count as 25% of the cap, because then that would allow you to build out towards the aprons with a lot less flexibility, or with a lot more flexibility.”
Adam Silver and the NBA KILLED US on this. The ultimate bait and switch - we want to keep teams with homegrown players together, but we'll punish you if you try.

Not disagreeing with you because the extra money from the max to the supermax should not count against the cap makes sense.

But the parity in the NBA right now is good for the entire league.

Sucks for us, but I think overall it's good for everyone.

Let’s see how you feel about parity in a few seasons when it’s another pairing you’ll have to choose between. Hugo and Tatum. Hugo and Cenac. Cenac and whoever we pick next season? Some other guys were don’t know yet.

Imagine having to choose between Bird or McHale. We could go down any teams with good homegrown duos and be at a loss if one had to go.

It’s the CBA but I will forever blame LBJ!! I think people blame McCollum, but need to look at super-team-builder extraordinaire!

Bron started it, grew it and durant perfected it

[Fierce1]

Parity favors the Celtics because the Celtics have Brad Stevens.

Brad is great at roster building.

So if teams have to rebuild their roster every 2-3 years, Brad has the edge.

Also, since the Larry Bird era ended, the Celtics have a pattern of winning a championship every other decade.
That was under the previous CBAs of no parity.

This new CBA might change that pattern and make the Celtics win a chip every decade.

[Andre3822]

With how the roster has shaped up I am loving the Conley signing much more.

I do wonder if we are going to try and go for another player who can handle the ball by trading Hauser for example?

Or just let it play out this year, conceding that without a major move it will be a good regular season and maybe a 2nd round/ECF.

Next summer go all in with PG's expiring and picks. Maybe someone like Ant/Luka/Franz/Lauri becomes available.

If no, go for 2 good players in the Trey Murphy range.

[cloverleaf]

With how the roster has shaped up I am loving the Conley signing much more.

I do wonder if we are going to try and go for another player who can handle the ball by trading Hauser for example?

Or just let it play out this year, conceding that without a major move it will be a good regular season and maybe a 2nd round/ECF.

Next summer go all in with PG's expiring and picks. Maybe someone like Ant/Luka/Franz/Lauri becomes available.

If no, go for 2 good players in the Trey Murphy range.

Yep, they've addressed their frontcourt, but still are wing heavy and need a PG (point guard, not Paul George) who can guard the really fast PGs in the league.

[ConstableGeneva]

Are we in search for a stretch-5 backup? Bring back Mike Muscala, out from retirement! Vitor, anyone?

[sam_I_am]

Are we in search for a stretch-5 backup? Bring back Mike Muscala, out from retirement! Vitor, anyone?

Garza has that locked up and Cenac may take over in a year for a long time if the Cs can unlock his full potential.

[ConstableGeneva]

Are we in search for a stretch-5 backup? Bring back Mike Muscala, out from retirement! Vitor, anyone?

Garza has that locked up and Cenac may take over in a year for a long time if the Cs can unlock his full potential.

Forgot about Garza. He was really good for us, at least in the regular season. Adding Vuc messed with his role and Vuc turned out to be a dud even in the postseason. Garza might be perfect for that situational 3rd big role in upcoming season or if one of Mitch/Neemy sits a game out/in foul trouble.

[cloverleaf]

Are we in search for a stretch-5 backup? Bring back Mike Muscala, out from retirement! Vitor, anyone?

Garza has that locked up and Cenac may take over in a year for a long time if the Cs can unlock his full potential.

Amile already noted how Cenac was responding to coaching and improving just over the past few days, so it will be interesting to see how far he can get, like Hugo last year, in the 4 months before the season starts.