everdiso wrote:As a long time Celtics hater I actually wouldn't mess with the core much. They're not actually young anymore so we're probably seeing their peak already but tatum-brown-smart-williams have proven they can win at a high level and should be good for a while.
Horford is good but obviously near the end - probably best to just keep him unless you can pull off a steal of some kind.
I like White a lot but he might be their best trade bait - maybe they can use him to get a purer PG and 3rd option type.
The rest imo should be aggressively marketed on the off chance that their youth a draft pedigree could still tempt aomeone to give up something.
Packaging White plus some younger guys for a 3rd option PG is probably the ideal scenario. That would solve most of the issues with their lineup.
After that, the only question left to answer would be whether Tatum can be a champion 1st option. I ha e my doubts....but hey, might as well gamble on him and see if he can do it.
Rob W =24
Tatum=24
Brown= 25
Smart=28
Jaylen Brown is 3 years away from his prime. Rob and Tatum are 4 years away. Smart has entered his prime this year.
I'd say they're pretty 'young' lol.
But thankyou for the constructive discussion.
Derrick White is too important to our rotation to let go under pretty much any circumstances.
As you say, the core is fine, and their identity is their defense.
They just need a bit more scoring production off the bench. There's a large trade exception which might come in handy but I think they will try and see what they can get out of their 3 point shooters on the bench to fill that void.
Aaron Nesmith has looked very good at times as a 3 and D sharpshooter who can also attack off the dribble. Grant Williams will ideally get even better at becoming a dribble drive threat.
The final piece of the puzzle would be to have Nik Stauskas have a bit of a resurrection/awakening and turn into bubble Duncan Robinson.
The offense was stagnant in the finals at times, but that's how this team is. They don't need to score a lot of points because they usually stop their opponents scoring enough to win. The problem in the finals was our turnovers led to too many easy transition points for the Warriors. Getting a floor general/PG might help that, but their turnovers weren't too bad throughout the playoffs until the finals, so I think it's being over stated by a lot of people who probably didn't watch too much of the Celtics until the finals.
One day Marcus Smart will be defensive player of the year, mark my words.
