Celtics exposed?

[Texas Chuck]

Never a fan of bumping threads to gloat. Hate it even more honestly when the original OP is so stupid that it should have been ignored from the jump. Not a big fan of the punching down at the Knicks either just because one fan makes some bad posts.

Enjoy your sweep fellow Celtics fans.

[CeltsfanSinceBirth]

That was primarily about timing regarding Butler and George, any trade made while they were available would have cost the team major assets and it would have used up their future cap space. Hayward was signed without giving up assets, just using cap space and it went simultaneously with trading for Irving. If you don't time things perfectly you lose out on subsequent moves and that would have been the case here. Ainge waited until the 2017 off season on purpose.

Plus considering that both Butler has played for 3 other teams since that trade opportunity was there, that looks like an excellent decision and he had the same intel that everyone else had on George and Kawhi, that they both wanted to head to LA as free-agents and that's where they have both ended up.

All I'm saying here is that Ainge could have made one or more of the moves that you're pointing out here and still ended up being criticized for making the wrong moves today. Personally, I think he made a mistake not trading for Kawhi last season. He easily could have made that deal and the Celtics probably win the championship. But if they don't and Kawhi bolts to the Clippers, the criticism would be even worse right now.

Yo shoutout you man. Every other non-Celtics fan looking clownish here except you.

The_Hater's hypothetical about Ainge trading Brown for Kawhi and then Kawhi leaving is one of several nightmare alternate history scenarios I have thought about where Ainge could have destroyed the franchise if he went with moves that were popular here on RealGM at the time. Various combinations of things like trading away one or more of the Brooklyn picks that became Tatum and Brown for Winslow/Butler/George, drafting Bender over Brown, drafting Fultz over Tatum, and trading Brown or Tatum in a package for a player like Drummond/Cousins/Butler/George/Kawhi/AD who either wouldn't have been effective or probably would have left after 1-2 years were all popular ideas on RealGM at various points. There's a chance with some of these that they could have traded a future for a chance at a championship, but the most likely outcome would have been a depleted roster missing key young players who are part of this current playoff run.

I still don't think Kawhi on the Celtics wins the chip last year. The toxicity that Kyrie brought to that locker room would have irritated Kawhi to the point where he would have demanded out by December.

[Slax]

Never a fan of bumping threads to gloat. Hate it even more honestly when the original OP is so stupid that it should have been ignored from the jump. Not a big fan of the punching down at the Knicks either just because one fan makes some bad posts.

Enjoy your sweep fellow Celtics fans.

I agree with you about bumping threads to gloat and punching down at the Knicks, but I do want to point out that the OP being too stupid to respond to or just one fan making bad posts was not the RealGM consensus at the time. In hindsight, it feels crazy to imagine anyone arguing that a team with Kemba, Tatum, Brown, and Hayward would be so bad that they would likely miss the playoffs, but there were a LOT of fans who shared these sentiments or similar ones early in this thread up until the Celtics' 10-game winning streak at the beginning of the regular season. I am not particularly interested in calling any of them out individually, lord knows I've made lots of predictions in the past that turned out to be silly in hindsight, but I don't think it's true this thread wasn't worth engaging in when it first popped up.

[UNCBlue012]

Funny how the BSPN analysts couldn't see this coming .No interior defense... You lose Morris, Horford, and Baynes, replace that with Kanter and what did they expect?Instead of talking about the Celts being a top 4 Eastern team and whether Kemba could replace Kyrie , they needed to be asking if they can even make the playoffs as a "donut" team.

OP is pure gold, criticising analysts while going for the hot take

Pure gold beating an undermanned team ...but what happens when the Celts face real competition?

Dawg, get out of here. People know your opinions suck at this point.

[spikeslovechild]

I mean the sixers imploded. The Celtics still aren't that impressive to me.

[Texas Chuck]

but I don't think it's true this thread wasn't worth engaging in when it first popped up.

Hey to each their own on that.

I just think even for those who didn't have much faith in Theis, looking at three strong wings in a wing driven league, Kemba and Smart, and Brad Stevens alone is a clear playoff team. I can't imagine taking seriously any post suggesting the Celtics weren't.

I always kinda liked Daniel Theis, but I'll admit I didn't realize he was this good. I'm afraid with Dirk retired he's surpassing my homey Maxi for the best German big man in the league.

And I definitely didn't see this coming from Tatum.

But the East still just has so many just trainwreck teams that its pretty much impossible for a competent team to miss.

[Ill News]

I know we're not suppose to bump threads of this nature; however, this one is rather special.

Plus it gave us the legend of Prok.

Prok is a Celtics fan now, isn't he? That's what his avatar and signature implies.

Good job on that avatar

[bisme37]

I just clicked here to say the C's still have work to do and let's not get involved in yesterday's stupidity. But now that I'm here I gotta admit it's kinda fun to And 1 the absolute dumbest comments in the thread so the person remembers how dumb they are lol.

[Texas Chuck]

I just clicked here to say the C's still have work to do and let's not get involved in yesterday's stupidity. But now that I'm here I gotta admit it's kinda fun to And 1 the absolute dumbest comments in the thread so the person remembers how dumb they are lol.

Just as a note if you do that to my dumb posts, I'm not going to understand that you are doing it so I'm forced to re-visit my terrible take. I'm going to view it as a ringing endorsement by a board reg.

[The_Hater]

Yo shoutout you man. Every other non-Celtics fan looking clownish here except you.

The_Hater's hypothetical about Ainge trading Brown for Kawhi and then Kawhi leaving is one of several nightmare alternate history scenarios I have thought about where Ainge could have destroyed the franchise if he went with moves that were popular here on RealGM at the time. Various combinations of things like trading away one or more of the Brooklyn picks that became Tatum and Brown for Winslow/Butler/George, drafting Bender over Brown, drafting Fultz over Tatum, and trading Brown or Tatum in a package for a player like Drummond/Cousins/Butler/George/Kawhi/AD who either wouldn't have been effective or probably would have left after 1-2 years were all popular ideas on RealGM at various points. There's a chance with some of these that they could have traded a future for a chance at a championship, but the most likely outcome would have been a depleted roster missing key young players who are part of this current playoff run.

I still don't think Kawhi on the Celtics wins the chip last year. The toxicity that Kyrie brought to that locker room would have irritated Kawhi to the point where he would have demanded out by December.

Well if Kyrie wasn’t playing, it’s possible your odds would have improved with what would have still been a very talented roster. Also, Kyrie seems like the type of guy who only respects players who he perceives to be better than he is. Kawhi would fit that mold and perhaps that would have made Kyrie a better teammate. Perhaps. Like you’re saying, no guarantees. Toronto to a man was all in on winning last season while Kyrie was playing the exact opposite role in Boston. .

[CeltsfanSinceBirth]

The_Hater's hypothetical about Ainge trading Brown for Kawhi and then Kawhi leaving is one of several nightmare alternate history scenarios I have thought about where Ainge could have destroyed the franchise if he went with moves that were popular here on RealGM at the time. Various combinations of things like trading away one or more of the Brooklyn picks that became Tatum and Brown for Winslow/Butler/George, drafting Bender over Brown, drafting Fultz over Tatum, and trading Brown or Tatum in a package for a player like Drummond/Cousins/Butler/George/Kawhi/AD who either wouldn't have been effective or probably would have left after 1-2 years were all popular ideas on RealGM at various points. There's a chance with some of these that they could have traded a future for a chance at a championship, but the most likely outcome would have been a depleted roster missing key young players who are part of this current playoff run.

I still don't think Kawhi on the Celtics wins the chip last year. The toxicity that Kyrie brought to that locker room would have irritated Kawhi to the point where he would have demanded out by December.

Well if Kyrie wasn’t playing, it’s possible your odds would have improved with what would have still been a very talented roster. Also, Kyrie seems like the type of guy who only respects players who he perceives to be better than he is. Kawhi would fit that mold and perhaps that would have made Kyrie a better teammate. Perhaps. Like you’re saying, no guarantees. Toronto to a man was all in on winning last season while Kyrie was playing the exact opposite role in Boston. .

It would have been tough in that locker room last season trying to appease both Kyrie and Kawhi, both of whom were pending free agents. And I disagree about Kyrie respecting players who are better than him. Remember, this is a guy who clashed with Lebron, a player who in every regard is superior to him.

Kawhi is a no-nonsense type of dude. The second Kyrie starts talking to him about weird things (e.g. "What does the word 'government' mean to you?") is the moment Kawhi starts tuning him out.

It's all moot though - the trade was never going to happen. Once Kawhi told the Celtics he had no interest in staying, Ainge decided to hold on to Brown for the AD trade (which Kyrie would end up sabotaging anyways).

If there's one team that should be criticized for not trading for Kawhi, it's the Sixers, who Kawhi was willing to re-sign with thanks to Crazy Uncle Dennis being a Sixers fan.

[PierceFan4ever]

I’m sure Celtics fans can bump a lot of threads from the summer and deserve to imo. The amount of **** they were getting losing Horford, losing Kyrie missing out of Anthony Davis, etc was crazy.

[Slax]

The_Hater's hypothetical about Ainge trading Brown for Kawhi and then Kawhi leaving is one of several nightmare alternate history scenarios I have thought about where Ainge could have destroyed the franchise if he went with moves that were popular here on RealGM at the time. Various combinations of things like trading away one or more of the Brooklyn picks that became Tatum and Brown for Winslow/Butler/George, drafting Bender over Brown, drafting Fultz over Tatum, and trading Brown or Tatum in a package for a player like Drummond/Cousins/Butler/George/Kawhi/AD who either wouldn't have been effective or probably would have left after 1-2 years were all popular ideas on RealGM at various points. There's a chance with some of these that they could have traded a future for a chance at a championship, but the most likely outcome would have been a depleted roster missing key young players who are part of this current playoff run.

I still don't think Kawhi on the Celtics wins the chip last year. The toxicity that Kyrie brought to that locker room would have irritated Kawhi to the point where he would have demanded out by December.

Well if Kyrie wasn’t playing, it’s possible your odds would have improved with what would have still been a very talented roster. Also, Kyrie seems like the type of guy who only respects players who he perceives to be better than he is. Kawhi would fit that mold and perhaps that would have made Kyrie a better teammate. Perhaps. Like you’re saying, no guarantees. Toronto to a man was all in on winning last season while Kyrie was playing the exact opposite role in Boston. .

Seeing what the Raptors have done this season and postseason without Kawhi, and considering that Hayward struggled recovering from injuries and Tatum was not this year's Tatum and that the Celtics would have had to give up Brown to get Kawhi, I think last year's Raptors with Kawhi were more talented and better constructed than any Celtics team after a Kawhi trade could have been. Still might have been enough to eke out a championship, but not a sure thing. I would be much more optimistic if Hayward had been fully healthy.

[The_Hater]

I still don't think Kawhi on the Celtics wins the chip last year. The toxicity that Kyrie brought to that locker room would have irritated Kawhi to the point where he would have demanded out by December.

Well if Kyrie wasn’t playing, it’s possible your odds would have improved with what would have still been a very talented roster. Also, Kyrie seems like the type of guy who only respects players who he perceives to be better than he is. Kawhi would fit that mold and perhaps that would have made Kyrie a better teammate. Perhaps. Like you’re saying, no guarantees. Toronto to a man was all in on winning last season while Kyrie was playing the exact opposite role in Boston. .

It would have been tough in that locker room last season trying to appease both Kyrie and Kawhi, both of whom were pending free agents. And I disagree about Kyrie respecting players who are better than him. Remember, this is a guy who clashed with Lebron, a player who in every regard is superior to him.

Kawhi is a no-nonsense type of dude. The second Kyrie starts talking to him about weird things (e.g. "What does the word 'government' mean to you?") is the moment Kawhi starts tuning him out.

It's all moot though - the trade was never going to happen. Once Kawhi told the Celtics he had no interest in staying, Ainge decided to hold on to Brown for the AD trade (which Kyrie would end up sabotaging anyways).

If there's one team that should be criticized for not trading for Kawhi, it's the Sixers, who Kawhi was willing to re-sign with thanks to Crazy Uncle Dennis being a Sixers fan.

You’re probably right, it’s just that the Celtics would have had so many ‘win at all cost’ type players not named Kyrie. Horford, Smart, Tatum. Morris, although not perfect, is a gamer.

And if Kyrie is upsetting the apple cart and Kawhi is on the roster, perhaps that increases the chances that Ainge deals him at the deadline. Or better yet, maybe he’s part of the initial trade to acquire Kawhi in the first place.

[Duffman100]

I'll be honest, I thought the thin frontcourt was going to have more an effect than it did.

Boston is a damn good team and this is going to be one fight of a playoff series. No idea who is going to win.

[Feed Your Head]

I'll be honest, I thought the thin frontcourt was going to have more an effect than it did.

Boston is a damn good team and this is going to be one fight of a playoff series. No idea who is going to win.

NBA fans.

[Darth Celtic]

Celtics are going to be in the race for the number one pick unless they make some big moves. Can't make the playoffs with no defense. They probably have the worse interia defense in the league, and a really poor defensive point guard. The only thing that can save them is their coach, but even Stevens can not preform miracles with this mess.

and yet they ended the regular season with 4th rated DEF team......

The only race for the number one pick was if the griz won it and fell apart next year buddy.

It's a really old thread that we all knew wouldn't age well, but you can't NOT bring these takes back up again.

[Homer38]

The raptors and the Celtics were not in the same situation last year for Kawhi's situation

The Raptors would also never have given a few of their best young players(like Pascal or other) to have only one year of Kawhi ... Same thing for the Celtics ... The difference is that the Raptors wanted to trade Derozan and the Spurs wanted to have him and so the trade was completed after that.

[London2Boston]

Why are we even entertaining a Knicks fan?

It’s like beating up on your Dim witted Nephew.

[Wilfried]

I mean the sixers imploded. The Celtics still aren't that impressive to me.

Truth to be told, the Celtics have yet to be tested in this play-offs.

Toronto will do just that.