Hard to Believe Ainge will Make any Move Soon Trade Thread

[Darth Celtic]

Vucevic
Randle
Barnes

Personal Top 3 possible additions.

not a bad list. By the trade deadline Randle and Barnes could be had this year. All three are eligible into exception in the offseason to as they have at least 1 more year after this year.

I always saw Randle as a stats guy who would never win. If the knicks fade out of the playoff race, i could see him being available. Not sure i'd give up the picks they would probably want.

Barnes fits the small ball switching defense line up better. Hits 3's a a high %. Not overly efficient, but good fit for our roster.

Vuc is something we don't have. A true big man. He could kill embiid with 3's, his one fault is he doesn't get out on 3pt shooting bigs. I just don't see the magic trading him. It leaves a team who hopes to be a playoff team next year with no real center.

Barnes fits the best. Barnes is also on a team that isn't going to sniff the playoffs, and has a log jam of salaries they don't want to pay. He would probably be had for almost nothing but taking on his salary in full. Maybe 2 2nds.

[SMTBSI]

Its unfortunate because our bench would be stacked and I doubt yhis conversation exists if we had drafted well in 2019 and 2020.

lol. Tangent time:

I went to go look at some of our recent picks compared to their counterparts at the same draft slot in recent drafts.

First one I looked at was Timelord at #27 in 2018. I was all prepared to make the case that he's already outperforming the average 27th pick.

Here are the five #27s immediately before him:

Kyle Kuzma
Pascal Siakam
Larry Nance Jr
Bogdan Bogdanovic
Rudy Gobert

Turns out #27 is apparently the sweet spot for value in the first round these days.


Okay, that's obviously pure coincidence as the #26s and #28s all around them are nothing conspicuous. It just made me laugh to get my intended argument so completely upended in the first five seconds.

[GoGreen]

We need to keep things realistic with this tpe. I think Barnes is a good bet. Unless we want to give yo Smart, Pritchard or Nesmith as well, then we can't expect John Collins types, and surely not Beal

[Andrew McCeltic]

How do we get Lonzo Ball?

[SMTBSI]

Barnes seems to make more sense with every passing day.

- He hits the three well enough.
- His age is fine - he should have no problem providing value for the remainder of his contract.
- If he's even overpaid at all, it's only by a little. Not enough to really matter.
- His salary is big enough that its not going to be an easy acquisition for every team, so we may not be bidding against every team in the league.
- His team should be looking to sell soon.
- We're one of few (if any) teams that can offer SAC a TPE for his full salary.

Only question is is he worth going into the tax for? If not, one of Theis or Thompson has to go, which is problematic for a couple of reasons.

- Though we think we have a Center "logjam" right now, we won't feel the same way when we only have two playable Cs left and one gets injured.
- If the outgoing C gets sent to SAC, it reduces the size of their incoming TPE, which might make them ask for additional compensatory value.
- If It's TT outgoing, we lose the ability to easily match another large contract with Smart + TT. Essentially, Barnes would be costing us the opportunity to take in not one large salary, but two.

Now, if we decide to go into the tax, a lot of those problems go away. Just take in Barnes, and keep TT, preserving the opportunity for the 2nd acquisition down the road.

[Curmudgeon]

Look for guys who fit the $5M exception for the Kanter trade. I don't think Ainge will touch the large exception until the offseason. I wouldn't mind Richaun Holmes if the price is right. Big body, plays hard.

They are trying to move Bjelica, but he's a little too expensive.

[captain green]

Do we have any indication of actual players we are targeting with the tpe? Because I'm not sold on some of these na!es that are being floating around.i would like a legit pf and center to move Tatum to the 3. Imo moving him to the three would work wonders but he kinda have to play him at the four because I enjoyed this and tt for like 2 games tt just isn't doing what I thought he would still early but to me shore that pf and center spot we can talk finals at that point

[SMTBSI]

Weird ideas.

Keep an eye on someone like DeMar DeRozan. 31, expiring. Spurs on their last legs.

The ability to actually offer SAS a TPE for his full 27.7mil might take a chunk out of whatever the asking price would be.

Sure he can't hit the three to save his life, but he's still out there scoring an efficient 20ppg and getting 5.7ast vs 2.3to the last four seasons. Giving his best impression of a legit Point Forward these days. Kind of like an upgraded ET.


Edit: Well, they project to have a ton of cap space. So I guess the TPE is not an incentive for them.

[31to6]

Barnes is so unexciting, but does make some sense. Using the MLE on him would be like ordering vanilla ice cream for dessert. Which I have sometimes done.

Aaron Gordon is more exciting and makes less sense? Like ordering a root beer float:)

I hope there are better possibilities and I’m just missing them. I do think Vuc would immediately make us a legitimate top-tier contender, but ORL shouldn’t trade him for anything we’d offer.

[CelticFaninLBC]

Can't see Smart or Kemba getting dealt, which makes Barnes a very likely trade candidate over guys like Aaron Gordon, Vucevic and John Collins.

[MagicBagley18]

I like Barnes and he fits our criteria but I’ve shifted into let’s hold onto the tpe or a majority of it until the offseason. With the play in tournament teams only have to get to the 10 seed to have a shot at the post season which means to me there will be more buyers or teams staying as is as oppose to sellers then other years.

I think we have a really good shot of adding a significant player this offseason when teams can hold larger rosters and are in a different direction then in season. Armed with the full tpe , all of our picks, kemba & or smart (if necessary for the right player) I think we can really add a major piece to the jays.

[Andrew McCeltic]

Gordon is three years younger than Barnes and significantly less expensive, with a lower floor and a higher ceiling - but it’s hard to imagine Orlando treating him as a salary dump. We’d probably have to give up Grant Williams and maybe Carsen Edwards or Langford.. not worth it for a guy who still doesn’t have a position. Maybe the right coach could unlock him...

Just don’t forget Barnes is a ball-stopper who plateaued as the Jaylen Brown of 2-3 years ago. He can guard 4s, which is useful.

Steven Adams? He’s sucked in New Orleans this year, but he’s expiring, so they don’t have much incentive to move him. Adams into our TPE and Thompson back to NOP in a follow-up is a swap that could help us. It seemed like the FO really wanted TT this “summer” and I still don’t know why. Championship experience? He hasn’t looked comfortable in our system, he’s playing a beat slow.

[SMTBSI]

I'm talking myself into Barnes. First of all, he's acquirable. Then, he allows Tatum to start at the 4, which I greatly prefer. And he moves Smart to the bench, which I greatly prefer. He's at about 15ppg and 17-18 USG% the past two seasons; as "ball-stoppers" go, that's hardly egregious. Almost feels like exactly what we need. He's even putting up a career high in AST and AST% this year (albeit moving from useless to meh, if it's even sustainable).

Walker / Smart
Brown
Barnes
Tatum
Thompson / Theis

That feels like a very modern NBA top 7. Could stand to upgrade TT still, but that's for another day.


Maybe even more importantly, his salary is just the right size to provide matching options on any big names that become available in the next couple of seasons, without having to try to shoehorn Kemba into it. That is worth something.

[robdog_5]

Made this list the other day. Here's some possible names.

Wings/Bigs
PJ Tucker $8-can defend 1-5 and hits corner 3s. Battle tested
Fournier $17-can shoot and score. Not bad as a secondary creator
Barnes $22-big wing that can defend up or down. Having a good shooting season.
Gordon $18-super athlete who can defend bigs well, rebounds well and can run the break as good as anyone.
T. Ross $13-hot and cold shooter but can get nuclear hot and carry an offense for stretches
Sterling Brown $vet min. Having a good season with additional mins. Could a swap of Teague for Brown and a 2nd rd pick get it done?
Rudy Gay $14-old vet who can score in different ways

Guards
George Hill $9-battle tested solid vet whose good in all phases.
Paddy Mills $14-scoring spark off bench. Can fill it up
Delon Wright $9-long G who can defend and has been better shooting lately in career.
Lonzo Ball $11-awful this year but could use a change of scenery.

[bisme37]

Yo Wayne Ellington is shooting 50% from 3 and playing well for Detroit this year. Seems gettable.

[Celts17Pride]

How do we get Lonzo Ball?

We don’t

[Curmudgeon]

No deal is going to happen that puts team salary over 132.6M, the luxury tax line, unless Ainge fees certain that the player will bring a championship. The Celtics are at $119M now.

It's not that the first few million of the tax is a killer. It's what happens 2-3 years from now if the repeater tax kicks in. I like Harrison Barnes but he's not worth it given both the cost of acquisition and the tax consequences.

[CeltsFlow]

Jeremy Lamb anyone?

[SMTBSI]

No deal is going to happen that puts team salary over 132.6M, the luxury tax line, unless Ainge fees certain that the player will bring a championship. The Celtics are at $119M now.

It's not that the first few million of the tax is a killer. It's what happens 2-3 years from now if the repeater tax kicks in. I like Harrison Barnes but he's not worth it given both the cost of acquisition and the tax consequences.

This is the big problem with Barnes. To dodge the tax after bringing him in, TT almost certainly has to go out. Which robs you of the chance to match another big salary later with Smart+TT. Like I said earlier, Barnes would basically use up both of our most obvious avenues for bringing in a high-salary player.

The only way we go get Barnes is one of:

1.) We actually believe he's the missing piece worth going into the tax for, with its associated effects on the repeater clock. (The Every-Other-Contender-Gets-Major-Injuries scenario.)

2.) It's the first domino to fall, with another big name coming in after him via the Smart+TT route.

3.) We can shed ~6.5mil another way, which I don't see an obvious way to do without just giving away multiple young players for no returning salary.

[Dannyboy36]

Made this list the other day. Here's some possible names.

Wings/Bigs
PJ Tucker $8-can defend 1-5 and hits corner 3s. Battle tested
Fournier $17-can shoot and score. Not bad as a secondary creator
Barnes $22-big wing that can defend up or down. Having a good shooting season.
Gordon $18-super athlete who can defend bigs well, rebounds well and can run the break as good as anyone.
T. Ross $13-hot and cold shooter but can get nuclear hot and carry an offense for stretches
Sterling Brown $vet min. Having a good season with additional mins. Could a swap of Teague for Brown and a 2nd rd pick get it done?
Rudy Gay $14-old vet who can score in different ways

Guards
George Hill $9-battle tested solid vet whose good in all phases.
Paddy Mills $14-scoring spark off bench. Can fill it up
Delon Wright $9-long G who can defend and has been better shooting lately in career.
Lonzo Ball $11-awful this year but could use a change of scenery.

Would love Tucker and Gordon . Is Gordon possible though ya think?