So I was just looking up mock drafts and saw that Boston has 8 draft picks this year! 3 first rounders, 5 second rounders, they have the first and fifth draft pick of the 2nd round, which are essentially late 1st round picks anyway. 3. From BKLN 16. From Dallas 23. Boston's own pick 31. From Philly 35. From Minny 45. From Memphis 51. From Miami 58 from Cleveland David Lee comes off their books this summer, along with Evan Turner (although I'm not sure if they'll resign him or not) along with players like Perry Jones III and Zoran Dragic. This will open up the flexibility for free agents or trades. I'm interested to see what Boston does this offseason. They're a young up and coming team with an arguably top 5 coach in the league. They have a multitude of draft picks still to come and now have cap flexibility. Will Boston be the team to look out for next year? Thoughts?
I was thinking about their free agency. They need the right kind of player, not just a player that is good. If they add a good player that isn't a great fit they wont net much in the win column IMO. Like Milwaukee signing Monroe. So a guy like DeRozan... I don't see it. Horford, Dwight, Barnes, KD, Noah, Mahinmi - yes. Ainge is the man lately. Still a b**** though.
Barnes isnt going to help anyone do anything. Any team that gives that guy the max this offseason will regret it. Easily the most overrated player on the Warriors roster. He's worth 10-12 million a season, tops. And that's with the new cap numbers.
Only one pick is lottery, two are mid/late 1st and then there's 5 2nd round picks .... Would I trade Harden for one good pick and 7 mediocre ones? Hell no If we trade Harden we better have a proven young star coming back, as well as good picks, he's a healthy 26 year old top 10 player that's on bargain contract for two more seasons, he shouldn't be traded, and if he is it can't be for a garbage deal. Anyways, Celtics will have to trade off like at least 5 or 6 of those picks, either for a player or combining them to move up in the draft. What would the Celtics do with 8 rookies? They already have 4 young mediocre prospect players in Rozier, Mickey, Hunter and Young, that's 12 roster spots lmao and with only one lottery player.
That's why I still lean toward saying no, but if you were to get that call, you don't immediately hang up the phone. You mull it, ask to sleep on it, toil on it, then say no.
I would trade Harden for all their 1st. The trick is to draft well. We're talking Jamal Murray, Taurean Prince, Wade Baldwin, Domantas Sabonis .
Boston might be willing to sell #23. This is a historically weak draft and could see them not wanting to have three guaranteed first round contracts going forward. Boston could draft and stash an Euro instead.
Eh I don't think Morey would need a night to sleep on that deal. What Boston does have is Marcus Smart, the rights to swap with Brooklyn for 2017, and Brooklyn's 2018 1st. So Marcus Smart + the 3rd, 16th and 23rd pick's and then Brooklyn's 2017 swap as well as Brooklyn's 2018 1st That's a deal might be a deal i'd sleep on or consider.
The Rockets wouldn't trade James Harden to the Celtics for anything Boston could realistically offer.
The Sixers or Lakers would probably give you the #1 or #2 pick for Harden. The Lakers might give you Russell + the #2 (either Ingram or Simmons) for Harden. Russell obviously has a long way to go, but played better as the season went on, and just turned 20. It's still hard to see the rockets agreeing to that, since you are basically saying we are 3 years away, and you don't know who you'd end up with at #2 and you might prefer Simmons, or Ingram - I couldn't make a choice between the two at this point - AND because with all of that, neither of them seem like the next Lebron or AD or KAT. But they do both appear to have potential to be multiple time all-stars. #2 pick, #32, Russell, Lou Williams for Harden... At least isn't laugh out loud crazy. And then there's the Sixers, who'd likely trade you the #1 and heck maybe even one of Okafor, Embiid or Saric for Harden.
Exactly.. because the line in this draft is clearly the top two. I'm personally a pretty big fan of Jamal Murray's upside, but the #3 pick isn't enough. Even if they threw in all the future picks owed to them by the Nets, etc, it just doesn't seem like enough. And that's a problem for them. It might net them DeMarcus at this point, since the Kings can only roll with him for so long. And I think Brad Stevens would be fantastic for Cousins, but even with great coaching it isn't clear that Cousins is a winner. And, the Kings are probably hoping Joeger gives them that great coaching to keep Cousins. The Celtics desperately needed to be in the top 2.
The Celtics have a lot of assets, good contracts for young and interesting role players, ton of picks...Ainge has done a terrific job, but imo they lack talent, and that's why i'm not sure they will be a front runner with top players in free agency, they absolutely need to trade for at least one all star first, than they may have a good chance. But one problem they have is this, they lack talent, and to me this may screw them in some potential trade talks since not every team values a good pick better or at the same level than a good prospect or a proven player, so they may need to find the right partner to be a front runner, cause if the other team prefers a good prospect, teams like the Lakers, Sixers will be ahead of them.
I agree, as today Lakers and Sixers are better trade partners in any potential scenario. A good thing to keep in mind is also that Ainge is a smart guy (although i'm sure he would kinda be ok to overpay for a superstar like Harden), not that easy to screw him, but the Lakers and Sixers...that's another thing, both teams have a "meh" ownership/front office, i'm sure Morey would be able to rape them pretty hard... The Lakers after Kobe retirement...chance to sign a SG from LA like Harden...enough said. For the Sixers this would be perfect too, Colangelo won't lose the chance to trade for a superstar few months after Hinkie sacking so they can show quickly how much better than Hinkie they're...
If I were Boston I'd use #3 to draft my favorite player. Then I'd trade 16, 23, 31 and Smart to the Nets for Lopez or Thaddeus Young. Draft at 35, stash the other picks.
Yep. You'd have good leverage with both teams. And heck, you should, Harden was #2 in MVP voting last year and still was #9 this year, with a "bad" year and is still just 26... and on a pretty good contract for two more years. With the Lakers in particular, they'd potentially give up "more" - meaning the #2, Russell, #32 and even more ... whatever that means - Randle, future picks, whatever - because of what would be a likely true belief they could then lure more FAs to sign there. Of course, for the Rockets, you are really betting on the upside of Russell and either Simmons/Ingram at that point. You have to really really think they'll pan out. Even with Harden, not sure the 76ers would be quite the same FA destination... but they're issue is they're so front-court heavy and the top 2 picks this year are front-court heavy. The best fit for them is clearly Ingram, but if they truly believe Simmons is better it puts them in a bit of a pickle... and if a Harden becomes an option, you have to think they bend pretty far to balance out that roster. It's fun to think about, even though there is no way it happens. The Rockets would undeniably be a lotto team team year and Les has been so consistently against that. But as a fan who appreciates realism, I think the task to championship today is much harder than it seems. As foolish as the KD dreams might have once been, they at least seemed like they had a chance. Its really hard to see KD coming to Houston at this point. So now we're banking on a free agency class of Conley, Horford, Batum, etc.? Even with all three of those signing on, you might still be a 5 seed... that's how top heavy the west is. If all teams are healthy most of the year, GSW, Spurs, OKC (with Durant), LAC are all super formidable. So its fun to dream about the alternative scenario a bit.
Yep. Anyway, assuming Durant is not coming (at this point i'm with you), since we have to deal with Les, i think our goal is just to strengthen the team while keeping the best flexibility possible...i know someone don't want to hear this, but summer 2017 may be another huge opportunity for us...if Durant signs for one year he'll be available, Griffin, Paul, Hayward, Gallinari...George and Cousins in their last year (so there's a chance they can ask for a trade)...