Hard to Believe Ainge will Make any Move Soon Trade Thread

[ddb]

I don't know why people here wouldn't take KAT. I'd welcome him with open arms. Dude has talent. Not his fault the Wolves are a train wreck

Of course we'd welcome him with open arms. He's a gifted player. What I think people mean is that in order to acquire KAT Boston would have to part ways with Jaylen Brown...Which I am not willing to do. Crazy to say that, but Jaylen is proving to be the much better competitor and winner. He also plays a much more important position VS KAT. It sorta reminds me of when Golden State could have had Kevin Love for Klay and said, "we aren't dealing Klay". They made the right choice. Just because KAT puts up big numbers doesn't mean he's worthing going all-in for.

[yeleven11]

Dedmon is out of a job for a reason.

Bro we're talking about a third-string big man. You cant have quality 3 deep at every position lol

All 3 players are on cost control contracts and none of them are 30+ MPG guys. Some nights we will see more RWill than others. Some nights we will see more TT than others. This isn't a problem in the slightest bit. The fact of the matter is in order to get through the playoffs Boston will need these guys against Bam, Embiid, Sabonis...If Celts reach finals then AD or Jokic is a load as well. Need to have guys that can combat that. We just witnessed Bam destroy the Celtics in the bubble. That's why TT came in. To take some pressure off Theis...And obviously RWill is starting to improve which will help some

It actually is a problem when your coach plays them together because he cant find minutes for all of them when the two-big lineup clearly doesnt work. It's also a problem that another reason he plays the two bigs together is because there isnt enough wing depth to play 48 minutes without playing two bigs or two small guards. It is absolutely an issue.

[ddb]

Given the likely cost of obtaining him, I wouldn't touch Towns. He doesn't like basketball.

classic case of a fake franchise guy.

yeah, I'm all set on trading key pieces for KAT.

[BK_2020]

Stevens isn't playing them together to find minutes for them. The reason for the two big lineup is our pathetic wing depth with Langford and Javonte out and Nesmith not capable. The solution to weak wing depth is not to weaken our center depth so our weak wings are forced to play.

[ddb]

Bro we're talking about a third-string big man. You cant have quality 3 deep at every position lol

All 3 players are on cost control contracts and none of them are 30+ MPG guys. Some nights we will see more RWill than others. Some nights we will see more TT than others. This isn't a problem in the slightest bit. The fact of the matter is in order to get through the playoffs Boston will need these guys against Bam, Embiid, Sabonis...If Celts reach finals then AD or Jokic is a load as well. Need to have guys that can combat that. We just witnessed Bam destroy the Celtics in the bubble. That's why TT came in. To take some pressure off Theis...And obviously RWill is starting to improve which will help some

It actually is a problem when your coach plays them together because he cant find minutes for all of them when the two-big lineup clearly doesnt work. It's also a problem that another reason he plays the two bigs together is because there isnt enough wing depth to play 48 minutes without playing two bigs or two small guards. It is absolutely an issue.

Last I checked Boston is 7-3 having played all 10 games without Kemba Walker or using their TPE. Not to mention playing games with guys out for various reasons. Seven & three.

[ddb]

"I think Kyrie is going to have to explain what's transpired here in the last week," said Adrian Wojnarowski on ESPN. "Ultimately, teams have to be able to count on you. If there's issues, if there are things they need to help Kyrie Irving work through, like any organization with a great player, they are going to be there to do that.

"Ultimately, they need to know you have seriously committed to this endeavor, this group, this team. Kyrie Irving has to be a leader on this team. He has to be a leader for good.

"I think for the Nets, they need to know that. Bringing James Harden in changes that dynamic. This is a team now that has three MVP-level players on it. I do think, perhaps, the organization gained a little leverage now over Kyrie and over his future by landing James Harden."

That last line is interesting. Honestly, I wonder if Kyrie pulls **** like this again, will they start to explore trades for him

They are clearly not pleased about this. Sounds like they are giving him a chance to finish whatever he needs to do but the excuse has to be better than "I needed some time for my mental health" or "there are bigger things than basketball"

Read on Twitter

let me just leave this here. I'll say it for the millionth time on realgm.com. Kyrie Irving is a FRAUD. He's a head case. He's the new Marbury. I said this when he was still in Boston. This dude is bizarre. I wouldn't be shocked in the least bit if he retired or left to play overseas sooner than later.
If and when he comes out with a statement about why he isn't playing it's going to be some B.S. about social justice and some excuse that people can't attack. But the fact of the matter is I have a sneaking suspicion that the guy just flat out needs help. and let me be clear. If in fact he does have mental illness, I'll take back the part about me calling him a fraud. Mental illness is obviously an important issue in the world and something that shouldn't be taken lightly. but as of right now, Kyrie hasn't come out to say anything about mental health, so I'm going on the assumption that he's fine. If he's fine, then he's a FRAUD. A weirdo. A head case, etc

[Captain_Caveman]

His body language is so poor. Reminds me of Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard.

He has little in common with those guys in terms of his mental makeup. Have you heard any of his interviews recently? Dude sounds ready to retire. And of course his on/off stats are good. Have you seen the rest of his team?

In sum, for the TPE and a late 1st? Of course. But given that he would cost Jaylen plus other assets, I'm out. Towns is a career loser halfway through his career.

STATS THO.

He just lost his mother and like 6 other family members to COVID.

He's 25. What a **** take. He played the first 328 games of his career, had one injury, his team is ass, he had to play with ANDREW WIGGINS. But idk, I'm not a psychologist like you.

Steph Curry can't even win with Andrew Wiggins.

I'm not judging his grief. Seems like a really good kid.

He's also softer than puppy ****.

[yeleven11]

All 3 players are on cost control contracts and none of them are 30+ MPG guys. Some nights we will see more RWill than others. Some nights we will see more TT than others. This isn't a problem in the slightest bit. The fact of the matter is in order to get through the playoffs Boston will need these guys against Bam, Embiid, Sabonis...If Celts reach finals then AD or Jokic is a load as well. Need to have guys that can combat that. We just witnessed Bam destroy the Celtics in the bubble. That's why TT came in. To take some pressure off Theis...And obviously RWill is starting to improve which will help some

It actually is a problem when your coach plays them together because he cant find minutes for all of them when the two-big lineup clearly doesnt work. It's also a problem that another reason he plays the two bigs together is because there isnt enough wing depth to play 48 minutes without playing two bigs or two small guards. It is absolutely an issue.

Last I checked Boston is 7-3 having played all 10 games without Kemba Walker or using their TPE. Not to mention playing games with guys out for various reasons. Seven & three.

The celtics dont hang banners up for regular season wins.

[GoGreen]

Theis really needs to go. Even if we just get a pick out of it. I'm sick of Danny letting guys walk. Makes too much sense to trade him.

[SmartWentCrazy]

His body language is so poor. Reminds me of Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard.

He has little in common with those guys in terms of his mental makeup. Have you heard any of his interviews recently? Dude sounds ready to retire. And of course his on/off stats are good. Have you seen the rest of his team?

In sum, for the TPE and a late 1st? Of course. But given that he would cost Jaylen plus other assets, I'm out. Towns is a career loser halfway through his career.

STATS THO.

Jimmy Butler is a gigantic dick, but he wasnt wrong about KAT. Or Simmons.

[SmartWentCrazy]

I think my top, realistic acquisition is Nance. On a great contract, highly switchable defensively and makes smart plays with the ball in his hands.

He’s everything Stevens wants Theis to be.

[SMTBSI]

It actually is a problem when your coach plays them together because he cant find minutes for all of them when the two-big lineup clearly doesnt work. It's also a problem that another reason he plays the two bigs together is because there isnt enough wing depth to play 48 minutes without playing two bigs or two small guards. It is absolutely an issue.

Last I checked Boston is 7-3 having played all 10 games without Kemba Walker or using their TPE. Not to mention playing games with guys out for various reasons. Seven & three.

The celtics dont hang banners up for regular season wins.

He didn't say we did. He said we're 7-3 with one of our better players coming back and means to improve further at the trade deadline.

I don't know who Brad is going to formally start when Kemba comes back, but, even if he sticks with both Theis and TT for political reasons, the total minutes they play together will certainly get substantially reduced. Kemba and PP will soak most of the PG minutes, moving Smart down to the 2 almost completely, and some of Brown's minutes down to the 3, making filling out 2-4 minutes a lot easier. Now this mean's we'll be playing a bit smaller, but that was always going to be the case with Kemba vs no Kemba. Smart plays big, and Teague should see his minutes reduced.

In other words, this "issue" is about to vanish. It was just an artifact of Kemba being out, and we weathered it just fine.

[yeleven11]

Last I checked Boston is 7-3 having played all 10 games without Kemba Walker or using their TPE. Not to mention playing games with guys out for various reasons. Seven & three.

The celtics dont hang banners up for regular season wins.

He didn't say we did. He said we're 7-3 with one of our better players coming back and means to improve further at the trade deadline.

I don't know who Brad is going to formally start when Kemba comes back, but, even if he sticks with both Theis and TT for political reasons, the total minutes they play together will certainly get substantially reduced. Kemba and PP will soak most of the PG minutes, moving Smart down to the 2 almost completely, and some of Brown's minutes down to the 3, making filling out 2-4 minutes a lot easier. Now this mean's we'll be playing a bit smaller, but that was always going to be the case with Kemba vs no Kemba. Smart plays big, and Teague should see his minutes reduced.

In other words, this "issue" is about to vanish. It was just an artifact of Kemba being out, and we weathered it just fine.

The issue still exists because you have 3 guys who deserve minutes at the 5 spot but only 48 minutes up for grabs for those three guys while our wing depth will still be an issue. Trading one of those 3 guys for a wing is just better resource allocation.

Just doing the rough math the rotation is gonna look something like this:

Kemba (30) Pritchard (18)
Smart (34) ???
Brown (36) ???
Tatum (36) Grant/Semi (12)
3 Centers (48 minutes)

Even if we're being optimistic about Langford's return and lets say he plays 15 minutes at the backup 2, theres still another 12-15mins that needs to be filled at the backup wing spot. If we dont fill that spot we're gonna see the Teague-Pritchard lineups again which is horrible defensively.

[SMTBSI]

The celtics dont hang banners up for regular season wins.

He didn't say we did. He said we're 7-3 with one of our better players coming back and means to improve further at the trade deadline.

I don't know who Brad is going to formally start when Kemba comes back, but, even if he sticks with both Theis and TT for political reasons, the total minutes they play together will certainly get substantially reduced. Kemba and PP will soak most of the PG minutes, moving Smart down to the 2 almost completely, and some of Brown's minutes down to the 3, making filling out 2-4 minutes a lot easier. Now this mean's we'll be playing a bit smaller, but that was always going to be the case with Kemba vs no Kemba. Smart plays big, and Teague should see his minutes reduced.

In other words, this "issue" is about to vanish. It was just an artifact of Kemba being out, and we weathered it just fine.

The issue still exists because you have 3 guys who deserve minutes at the 5 spot but only 48 minutes up for grabs for those three guys while our wing depth will still be an issue. Trading one of those 3 guys for a wing is just better resource allocation.

I agree with you to an extent. Having three serviceable centers is actually kind of non-ideal. You don't want good players racking up DNPs. Ideally Thompson would be a better player, Timelord would be exactly as he is, and Theis would be a worse player. You kind of want your third stringer to be happy (and therefore non-disruptive) as a third stringer.

But it's being made out in some corners to be this fatal roster construction flaw that's seriously damaging our competitiveness. It's not. It's not nearly as big a deal as is being said, and it's about to be even less big a deal. If we have an opportunity to address it, we will, but no need to force something through right now at any cost.

And, if we fail to address it, and take that personnel grouping to the playoffs, it won't be the thing that makes or breaks us, either.

[Half-Full]

I think my top, realistic acquisition is Nance. On a great contract, highly switchable defensively and makes smart plays with the ball in his hands.

He’s everything Stevens wants Theis to be.

I would love to have Nance, but is Cleveland looking to move him? If not, what would it take to convince them? Certainly not Carsen Edwards and a second round pick. I'm not even going to try to get into how the financial/cap situations of each team play into it (too esoteric for me). Perhaps there is an angle there. If some creative mind can come up with a reasonable trade proposal, and a rationale for why each team would go for it, I'd be on board.

[BK_2020]

Let's just ignore the fact that Ainge used the MLE this off-season on a serviceable center just for the purpose of having two serviceable vets and Timelord. That's clearly not ideal and no team should try to have depth in any one position.

[yeleven11]

He didn't say we did. He said we're 7-3 with one of our better players coming back and means to improve further at the trade deadline.

I don't know who Brad is going to formally start when Kemba comes back, but, even if he sticks with both Theis and TT for political reasons, the total minutes they play together will certainly get substantially reduced. Kemba and PP will soak most of the PG minutes, moving Smart down to the 2 almost completely, and some of Brown's minutes down to the 3, making filling out 2-4 minutes a lot easier. Now this mean's we'll be playing a bit smaller, but that was always going to be the case with Kemba vs no Kemba. Smart plays big, and Teague should see his minutes reduced.

In other words, this "issue" is about to vanish. It was just an artifact of Kemba being out, and we weathered it just fine.

The issue still exists because you have 3 guys who deserve minutes at the 5 spot but only 48 minutes up for grabs for those three guys while our wing depth will still be an issue. Trading one of those 3 guys for a wing is just better resource allocation.

I agree with you to an extent. Having three serviceable centers is actually kind of non-ideal. You don't want good players racking up DNPs. Ideally Thompson would be a better player, Timelord would be exactly as he is, and Theis would be a worse player. You kind of want your third stringer to be happy (and therefore non-disruptive) as a third stringer.

But it's being made out in some corners to be this fatal roster construction flaw that's seriously damaging our competitiveness. It's not. It's not nearly as big a deal as is being said, and it's about to be even less big a deal. If we have an opportunity to address it, we will, but no need to force something through right now at any cost.

And, if we fail to address it, and take that personnel grouping to the playoffs, it won't be the thing that makes or breaks us, either.

We're not a title favorite, so our margin for error is smaller, so in that sense those construction flaws on the margins do matter. You lose playoff games and series due to a bad 4-5 minute stretch with the wrong lineup out there. It's a flaw that should be fixed to maximize this group's chances. And that's before we get into the need for Robert to see more minutes and to maximize Theis's expiring contract into a piece that actually fits better on the roster. It doesnt have to be anything major but a Theis for a backup wing is a very logical and needed move. I never said we're in a doomsday scenario because of that but it is an issue and it should be fixed.

Just doing the rough math the rotation is gonna look something like this:

Kemba (30) Pritchard (18)
Smart (34) ???
Brown (36) ???
Tatum (36) Grant/Semi (12)
3 Centers (48 minutes)

Even if we're being optimistic about Langford's return and lets say he plays 15 minutes at the backup 2, theres still another 12-15mins that needs to be filled at the backup wing spot. If we dont fill that spot we're gonna see the Teague-Pritchard lineups again which is horrible defensively.

[SmartWentCrazy]

I think my top, realistic acquisition is Nance. On a great contract, highly switchable defensively and makes smart plays with the ball in his hands.

He’s everything Stevens wants Theis to be.

I would love to have Nance, but is Cleveland looking to move him? If not, what would it take to convince them? Certainly not Carsen Edwards and a second round pick. I'm not even going to try to get into how the financial/cap situations of each team play into it (too esoteric for me). Perhaps there is an angle there. If some creative mind can come up with a reasonable trade proposal, and a rationale for why each team would go for it, I'd be on board.

Id guess so. Only so much room with Allen, Drummond and Love on the team.

It would cost actual assets to get him. But I think he’s worth it.

[Theocy]

His body language is so poor. Reminds me of Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard.

He has little in common with those guys in terms of his mental makeup. Have you heard any of his interviews recently? Dude sounds ready to retire. And of course his on/off stats are good. Have you seen the rest of his team?

In sum, for the TPE and a late 1st? Of course. But given that he would cost Jaylen plus other assets, I'm out. Towns is a career loser halfway through his career.

STATS THO.

It took garnett 6 or 7 years to play 2 rounds in playoffs. Maybe a bit longer my memory is crap. Michael Jordan was all about numbers at some point with bulls failing to do anything of significance. Hey guess what Pierce was also a just numbers guy until he got help. We have a tendency to review things from an angle that make sense for us. If any player comes to this team and replicates a 20ppg 10rpg + average coupled with brown Tatum and whoever else is left sudently those numbers are winning numbers.

Towns lost 7 family members to covid the past 6 months including his mother. I'm actually surprised he is even willing to play right now. Some things are bigger than bball.yet he is out there. So next time we're about to Broad brush something like this perhaps let's stop and consider what's causing it maybe?

[SMTBSI]

The issue still exists because you have 3 guys who deserve minutes at the 5 spot but only 48 minutes up for grabs for those three guys while our wing depth will still be an issue. Trading one of those 3 guys for a wing is just better resource allocation.

I agree with you to an extent. Having three serviceable centers is actually kind of non-ideal. You don't want good players racking up DNPs. Ideally Thompson would be a better player, Timelord would be exactly as he is, and Theis would be a worse player. You kind of want your third stringer to be happy (and therefore non-disruptive) as a third stringer.

But it's being made out in some corners to be this fatal roster construction flaw that's seriously damaging our competitiveness. It's not. It's not nearly as big a deal as is being said, and it's about to be even less big a deal. If we have an opportunity to address it, we will, but no need to force something through right now at any cost.

And, if we fail to address it, and take that personnel grouping to the playoffs, it won't be the thing that makes or breaks us, either.

We're not a title favorite, so our margin for error is smaller, so in that sense those construction flaws on the margins do matter. You lose playoff games and series due to a bad 4-5 minute stretch with the wrong lineup out there. It's a flaw that should be fixed to maximize this group's chances. And that's before we get into the need for Robert to see more minutes and to maximize Theis's expiring contract into a piece that actually fits better on the roster. It doesnt have to be anything major but a Theis for a backup wing is a very logical and needed move. I never said we're in a doomsday scenario because of that but it is an issue and it should be fixed.

Sure, but you can't just magically fix an issue the exact moment you want to, just because you want to. Unless you're a top, clear-cut title favorite, every team has "issues" they would like to fix. Trades take work, and timing. If we get the opportunity to resolve the Center logjam in a way that improves the team, we will. Until then, as "issues" go, this is not a very big one.

Just doing the rough math the rotation is gonna look something like this:
Kemba (30) Pritchard (18)
Smart (34) ???
Brown (36) ???
Tatum (36) Grant/Semi (12)
3 Centers (48 minutes)

Even if we're being optimistic about Langford's return and lets say he plays 15 minutes at the backup 2, theres still another 12-15mins that needs to be filled at the backup wing spot. If we dont fill that spot we're gonna see the Teague-Pritchard lineups again which is horrible defensively.

Teague will not get zeroed out on minutes. And Grant and Semi will play well more than 12mpg cumulatively. I don't know exactly what the rotation is going to look like, but those two things I can guarantee you.