Where do the Celtics go from here?

[djsunyc]

I think they will be happy they didn’t strip the team to land AD. Without Kyrie they will have better chemistry and they have good young players. Tatum and Brown are still good, they’ll get better. Celtics will be fine.

while this may be true - asking the fanbase to go from expecting a chip to wait and see what they have is a tough thing to do.

[Drygon]

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[Lego Legs]

I think they will be happy they didn’t strip the team to land AD. Without Kyrie they will have better chemistry and they have good young players. Tatum and Brown are still good, they’ll get better. Celtics will be fine.

while this may be true - asking the fanbase to go from expecting a chip to wait and see what they have is a tough thing to do.

That’s true, but things can change quickly. Tatum, Brown etc will get better. And another player may become available in a trade. One who wants to be in Boston.

The Celtics always had a problem in that teams knew they had a ton of assests, so teams wanted more from them which meant overpaying to make trades.

They have a good coach, young players and quality vets, that’s the foundation of building a winning team, if it takes a bit more time to come good then it will be worth it.

[levon]

Hope Hayward comes back then trade him for more assets. Youth movement. Figure out the real values of Brown and Tatum, not their inflated league-wide values, and potentially maneuver them as well. Keep building. They're not at all in a bad position if you consider what they have today. The opportunity cost paints them in a bad light though.

and basically tell every future free agent to avoid the celtics like the plague?

Yeah... I guess they should hope for Hayward to want out.

[mtron929]

The Celtics completely screwed up the rebuild. Unless one of Brown/Tatum becomes a top 5 player in the NBA (very doubtful), eventually the Celtics need to pay near two max money for these two and they are locked in that core for the next 5-10 years. They are going nowhere and Ainge completely made a blunder.

[chrisab123]

Hope Hayward comes back then trade him for more assets. Youth movement. Figure out the real values of Brown and Tatum, not their inflated league-wide values, and potentially maneuver them as well. Keep building. They're not at all in a bad position if you consider what they have today. The opportunity cost paints them in a bad light though.

and basically tell every future free agent to avoid the celtics like the plague?

Yeah... I guess they should hope for Hayward to want out.

Well he might after Rozier gets resigned.

[Kilo]

So did Ainge lie to Demps when he told NO that everybody would be on the table come the summer and then refused to include Tatum in talks?

[levon]

So did Ainge lie to Demps when he told NO that everybody would be on the table come the summer and then refused to include Tatum in talks?

It was a clear bluff. There was a TON of smoke of Kyrie leaving in FA, and wanting to play with Durant in a NY market. All the posters here called it out.

And it's a good thing Ainge did this, because it ended up helping the Lakers. They drove Magic out after the trade deadline debacle, and the Pelicans turned down the better offer.

[Adam1221]

I still really like that young core.
I really think what did them in was planning too hard on going after AD when he was the 1 superstar that didnt want to play for them.

[JohnPferdelack]

Maybe Ainge is now too old and always forgets free agency?

[mtron929]

I still really like that young core.
I really think what did them in was planning too hard on going after AD when he was the 1 superstar that didnt want to play for them.

This is retroactive analysis but they got pretty much most of that core from the Brooklyn picks. If they were going to keep all of this, they should have just tanked themselves in the last 2-3 years. They could have potentially had guys like Doncic, Trae Young, Ben Simmons, Donovan Mitchell, etc. on top of Tatum/Brown then. They made a mediocre attempt at trying to win now and trying to win later, and trying to win is completely gone now.

[FNQ]

They build around Tatum. They have to now. He will always be the guy they kept instead of pushing for AD, so they are his team now. Hope it’s worth it.. I don’t see a star in him, never did.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

Welcome to the bottom of the Atlantic, Celtics. I've been saving your seat next to us.

[bulliedog8]

Not getting a butler or Kawhi when they had the chance jurts, but losing kyrie is addition by subtraction. Re-sign rozier and see if the Celtics get back to that play style they had 2 years ago in the playoffs

[bfchs123]

Welcome to the bottom of the Atlantic, Celtics. I've been saving your seat next to us.

The team they put out next year was in the EC finals 2 years ago

No where even remotely close to Knicks level incompetence

[itsme23]

I also read that Celtics were one of the teams Kawhi would have signed with.

Maybe next time a team called and asked for Aaron Byrnes, Ainge won’t ask for multiple first round picks.

Ainge pretty much outsmarted himself. He thought every gm was Billy King.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

Welcome to the bottom of the Atlantic, Celtics. I've been saving your seat next to us.

The team they put out next year was in the EC finals 2 years ago

No where even remotely close to Knicks level incompetence

The East is considerably better now than it was 2 years ago, or did you miss the Bucks beating them in 5 after going to 7 the year before?


Oh, they are pretty close to Knicks level incompetence, considering they didn't trade for PG13, Butler, Leonard because they wanted to keep assets for AD, who they didn't get. All while losing Kyrie.....welcome to the bottom of the Atlantic.

[bisme37]

C's will be fine. Over on Celticsblog at least 80% of us are having a full on celebration right now. It hasn't been a very sexy offseason for us so far lol but we've managed to save $180M instead of giving it to Kyrie, and now we've managed to avoid giving up either of our two young blue chip talents for one year of AD. And we'll still win as many games as last season or more.

(Also, to you guys who like to yell about how Ainge never trades his precious assets, he recently traded our best player and best pick at the time for Kyrie Irving.)

[Mr Loggins]

Hopefully Kyrie signs with the nets and then things have come full circle. Celtics do nothing with all these assets and their star leave for the team they burnt. Poetic.

it’s the circle of life

but don’t sell Cleveland short in this. Backdoor screwed them with the Kyrie trade. The. it was against cleveland Hayward got hurt

[israelfirst]

celts will be fine. losing kyrie will be addition from subtraction for them.