Who says we're not? If I was betting man the trade that eventually comes through won't be quite as big as we might have hoped, but would have been impossible to predict in hindsight.
Despite the Ime thing, I have not heard much about a fruitful Celtics Rox trade relationship. In part also because Stone is not much of a trader himself.
i certainly would love brown and white. brings more color to our team. wish mike red was still playing
Again the media is so sad that their big summer story is 36 year old Durant for 1.5 picks. There is no chance they will trade their Finals MVP and only healthy star in Brown. Be realistic, put yourself in the GM and Coach's shoes. Tatum will be out next season and with the achilles injury he won't be fully himself till at MINIMUM 50% through the following season. So he's essentially not there for 1 year and he's not Jayson Tatum for 0.5 to 1 years. Even after all that, he was always shaky driving to the basket unless playing in a 5-out offense. What if he comes back and his driving ability is slightly worse than before? Then he's no longer better than Jaylen Brown who will have been sharpening his game for 1-2 years in the meantime. They're not trading Brown. They're unlikely to trade White unless it's for a major overpay - he's one of the most elite role players you have ever witnessed in your lifetime, you can put him on any legendary team and he will get 30+ minutes in the backcourt. Porzingis, Hauser, Pritchard, Holiday. Those are the available guys. I think there's some interesting options for us in there. I would prefer Holiday over FVV but doubt Udoka would be willing to make the switch. Porzingis would be nice to get if he can give us 50-60 games. I would love to swap Brooks for Porzingis - who's just as good a shooter as Brooks. As good as Brooks has been, I think we're overloaded at SF (Amen, Tari) and could use Porzingis' shooting and rim protection at the 4/5 to help Sengun and Bari. When Brooks moved to PF to replace Jabari, the starting lineup tanked defensively - we clearly need some length there and better rebounding than Brooks can provide. I would even be ok with bringing Porzingis off the bench if we prefer to start Jabari. Porzingis is not someone I see as a key cog, just a very good rotation player on limited minutes and load management. Pritchard and Hauser don't interest me much. Just one dimensional shooters with below average defense. They're a dime a dozen. Sheppard over Pritchard for me. Hauser for Landale and Whitmore maybe, but even then I'd almost rather take the outsider's chance on Whitmore.
I guess? To re-trade him? How would he play? We have 3 SF's and 2 SG's. We're pushing people to PF for minutes already. He's worth it but I don't think we'll play a pure shooter.
If it is to be believed, JG & DB may be headed out. I see him as a backup SG/SF. Would allow us to play Alpe with 4 shooters ("KD?", Hauser, Reed, Bari) a la Rox 94.
I guess if both Jalen and Brooks are headed out (personally I think 0% chance of happening) then good for depth but I also don't believe Udoka will ever give significant minutes to that many shooters who can't defend. He panics every minute Holiday is on the floor already.
You can say the same thing about Durant. Adding Durant will make the 3-4 spots more crowded unless you trade a couple of our existing forwards for him. But all of those except Brooks are young players we don't want to get rid of casually. Hauser at least is cheap and will come off the bench rather than taking up starter minutes. And he's still on this side of 30.
From @Twin Towers Sam Hauser had nearly identical defensive rating to Jalen Green (113.1 vs 113.4) last season and Rockets had the better team defensive rating over Celtics. Hauser reputation as poor defender is overstated and per Mazulla, just incorrect. “People see a white shooter, I think most people think he can’t play defense,” Mazzulla said after the Celtics beat the Rockets. “Yeah, I said it. And he’s been able to play defense since I’ve coached him in Summer League (in 2021), and he does a really good job of taking tendencies, does a really good job of understanding who he’s guarding.” “He does a really good job of not giving up angles, and he’s been that way since day one,” Mazzulla said. “So I’ve always said he could guard, I always knew he could be a good defender, and the more people attack him, the more reps we get for the playoffs. I hope they continue to do it.” https://www.masslive.com/celtics/20...s-why-teams-assume-sam-hauser-cant-guard.html Ahead of the season, Mazzulla praised Celtics center Luke Kornet, noting that the team’s comfortability with the big man stemmed from his understanding of their defensive system. Hauser not only falls under that same distinction, but he’s also been able to capitalize on what has been affectionately called “Hauser Island.” Physical attributes are important on the defensive end, but they mean nothing without positioning and intelligence. Hauser may not be stocked up on the former, but he’s proven to have the latter. “His technique and his ability to know tendencies,” Mazzulla said of Hauser’s sound defense. “I feel just as comfortable with him guarding as anybody else. And I’ve said it from Day 1: I think he’s a very, very good defender. Underrated. And as he continues to get better, it makes our team better.” Hauser’s one-on-one defense has been matched by his ability to protect the rim without fouling. https://www.celticsblog.com/2023/11...oting-joe-mazzulla-jalen-brunson-jimmy-butler Hauser's high IQ and his length allows him to excel as a positional defender. But it's his hair trigger release (never holds ball long) and overall offensive efficiency that is just off the charts special: 41.6% 3P 100% FT 63.2% TS And Hauser's last season numbers are not outliers, they are very consistent for his career. Hauser averages 42% 3P on 9.5 attempts FOR HIS CAREER. In his 4 seasons in NBA, Hauser has not had a season shooting under 41% from 3P. That's just ridiculous. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hausesa01.html
The Rockets could really use a guy like Hauser. Keep Sheppard and add Hauser. Let Green go for Durant.
I don't see Durant as a SF and we'd be losing 1 or 2 of FVV/Brooks/Green. Different scenario. I don't have anything against Hauser I just think he's a 15-20 minutes player and Udoka will play him even less than that so no point.
its sad that almost every player the fans are wishing for, we have to add an Ime caviat. it was stupid to extend and give him more power to put the saame tired offense out there again for the sake of a couple more regular season wins and sacrifice development of our potential stars.
To get some financial relief: I think this is their tier of who they're willing to move. (From most unwilling to most willing). Tier 1 Tatum (untouchable, although I have my own hot take on this, another time) ------- Tier 2: Brown and White. Brown got surgery, they may even sit him out longer next year, if next year is a gap year. Gettable, but like Bane would have to overpay to get either of them. ------- Tier 3: ( other category ). Pritchard and Al. Horford prefers to stay in BOS. If on a different team, Al might choose to retire instead. Payton, also unlikely, but below Brown and White. ------- Tier 4: Porzingis ------- Tier 5: on the sell block: Jrue and Hauser. Hauser's money can ease some of the tax burden immediately. Jrue, larger salary, but out of their vet core, is believed to be on the top of pile to be shipped first. They may still do him a solid and get his preferred destination list. Note: there are some other guys like Kornet and Queta, they might be gettable, but since their salary is low, BOS might just keep them for depth. The Celtics beat interviewed guys like Kornet, where he likes the city and prefer to stay if possible.
It's a math question, right? If your lead offensive player is also your best defender (Amen) then that player is going to be maxed the F out ASAP. So then if your coach insists that of your 10-man rotation, at least 8 of them have to be two way players: is that realistically affordable under the cap? Does Ime Udoka think that when other coaches play one-way specialists here and there it's because they're stupid? Does he not understand that it's because there's economic realities after you've financially secured the best players on your roster? If Amen has to be surrounded by 4 guys who can shoot and defend + of those 4 guys at least 1 or 2 of them have to be able to put the ball on the floor to make passes or drives or post ups + you apply the same 2-way requirement to the remaining 3 out of 5 bench players: is this a FEASIBLE plan? Udoka seems to want a Popovic-style team but with extra emphasis on defense. Does he understand that Popovic has been through this a couple of dozen times and understands that you have to take some risks with a couple of shooters? Now here's where we discover that it's not strategy but rather bias that drives Ime: he is totally willing to put endless one-way defenders on the floor. How can anyone in the world say that defense is more important than offense? I'm a person who deeply believes that basketball is half offense and half defense. The majority of the basketball world believes it's either that or offense is more important than defense. Why is it ok to put a guy on the floor who is not good at FT's and jumpers (Steven Adams) on a team that's bleeding in the shooting and FT's department? Well, because Ime makes exceptions for what he subjectively likes without needing to demonstrate that it benefits us in any way. They had to give him the extension. You never let a coach become a lame duck because they will lose their voice in the locker room. Especially after NY approached him for the top job, fully rehabilitating his public image after the Celtics fiasco. His agency is CAA who have close ties with the Knicks and you know they can have secret conversations easily and that he can leave. What I hope is that before all this emerged, someone talked to Ime about trying some new things for the first time in his career. Doubling down on a 1990's strategy is a bad idea in my book. What's concerning me is they brought Adams back. Now you have 3 non-shooters in the core rotation and 3 below average shooters (FVV, Tari, Jabari). Jalen is a hair below average in efficiency though at a gigantic volume of attempts. That's 6 out of 8 guys in his playoff rotation. If they're still thinking about trying to win an NBA title using rebounds - the stat least correlated with winning - I'm terrified where this is headed. At least I hope they get Durant so that we don't need him to improve all that much and there's a voice in the locker room who's willing to call him out if he's being stupid.
