What Happens If We Can't Sign A Quality Free Agent

[Scintan]

The Celtics currently don't have any player who'd be a starter on any of the last 3 NBA finalist teams.  If they can't get those players via free agency, they'll need to either trade for them or to tank enough that they get them via the lottery.

Trade for one of those players right now, and you might just get lucky enough to convince the FAs of that level to join him.

[Ilikesports17]

r each player, you can stop and question "where would this player fit into the next Cs championship squad?"

Recently, I've been playing a slightly different game:

"Would this player have gotten playing time in the most recent Finals series?"

Imagine the Cavs and Warriors both get their pick of anybody on our roster.  Who breaks into the rotation on either side?

Thomas, probably.
Smart, perhaps on the Cavs if his outside shot is falling.
Zeller, maybe.
Jerebko would have played a bit.
Crowder maybe, but probably not due to poor shooting.
Bradley probably, but not sure how much.

Sullinger and Olynyk would have sat due to poor defense and general inconsistency.  Bass and Turner would sit due to lack of range and poor defensive fit. 

Would any of them have started?  Thomas or Bradley, perhaps, once Irving went down.

On a fully heathy cavs and Warriors team, nobody on the celtics starts. Because the cavs got injured and delladova was the pg, I guess Bradley would have started at pg. Decent shooter and solid defender.  Thomas wouldnt start.  Smart is great defensively but a non factor on offense.  Bradley is the only hope

I think its possible on fully healthy teams that Smart or AB starts at the 2 for Cleveland.

[A Future of Stevens]

Someone said 'I think we are all in agreement here, the time has come to stop trying to piece together a roster'. How can you say that? There is certainly no kind of agreement! There is, however, disagreement. That may be the least accurate statement I have ever seen, booo, I say, booo to you and your inaccurate and depressing blanket statement.

Yea you are right, that was a bit of a reach to say. I have been squarely in the don't tank camp, but I just don't see any other reasonable way out right now. Also do you want to continue bringing in the Brandon Bass' and Harris' of the world? I understand the need for depth, but when it can hurt the young player's ability to grow and/or stop the team from getting high level talent to compete long term with, then these "minor step forwards" could be viewed as long term step backs. Having a winning culture only matters so much when you can see a player of Lebron's caliber win two games against a winning culture with stars.

[tarheelsxxiii]

Tank

I basically asked on previously page how possible a tank is with guys on our roster that make us better. Wondering how we can shed some of these guys because I can't see Brad outright tanking.. thinking he will do his best to win with the roster he has, just like this year.

Bradley
Turner
Sullinger

Trade those guys for picks and rookie contract players.

Starting lineup of Thomas, Smart, Crowder, Olynyk, and Zeller.

Bench of Pressey, Rozier, Hunter, Young, Mickey, etc.

Even Brad can't turn that into more than 30 wins, I'll bet, unless the rookies are way better than expected.

Targets for rookie contract players? I imagine they'd be guys that aren't developing as planned or were never really expected to flourish. Could see more competitive teams looking for bench help that may be interested in our more vet guys.

[ImShakHeIsShaq]

r each player, you can stop and question "where would this player fit into the next Cs championship squad?"

Recently, I've been playing a slightly different game:

"Would this player have gotten playing time in the most recent Finals series?"

Imagine the Cavs and Warriors both get their pick of anybody on our roster.  Who breaks into the rotation on either side?

Thomas, probably.
Smart, perhaps on the Cavs if his outside shot is falling.
Zeller, maybe.
Jerebko would have played a bit.
Crowder maybe, but probably not due to poor shooting.
Bradley probably, but not sure how much.

Sullinger and Olynyk would have sat due to poor defense and general inconsistency.  Bass and Turner would sit due to lack of range and poor defensive fit. 

Would any of them have started?  Thomas or Bradley, perhaps, once Irving went down.

AB would have started for Cavs even if Irving doesn't go down, I'd bet good money on that one. All of our guys that played in the playoffs could have gotten PT on the Cavs, productive minutes for different reasons. It would be harder to place guys on GSW but AB, Smart, and IT4 would get minutes off the bench. I also think Bass could have played on both teams and gotten good minutes in the finals, he would especially be useful switching onto LBJ every now and then. That mid would be deadly on offense with so much space as it was when we had the big 3.

Don't underestimate what our guys could do with a lot of top talent around them. They would fit in with roles more suited to their skills. You are looking at them in the context of how they play without guys like LBJ, Irving, Curry and Klay's talents making it easier for them (what they are as Celts), some of our guys would do very well on the very good teams, every player in the league not named LBJ needs the right group around them though, he is the only person (blegh) who could slot into all positions and do it very well if he had to.

[Ilikesports17]

r each player, you can stop and question "where would this player fit into the next Cs championship squad?"

Recently, I've been playing a slightly different game:

"Would this player have gotten playing time in the most recent Finals series?"

Imagine the Cavs and Warriors both get their pick of anybody on our roster.  Who breaks into the rotation on either side?

Thomas, probably.
Smart, perhaps on the Cavs if his outside shot is falling.
Zeller, maybe.
Jerebko would have played a bit.
Crowder maybe, but probably not due to poor shooting.
Bradley probably, but not sure how much.

Sullinger and Olynyk would have sat due to poor defense and general inconsistency.  Bass and Turner would sit due to lack of range and poor defensive fit. 

Would any of them have started?  Thomas or Bradley, perhaps, once Irving went down.

AB would have started for Cavs even if Irving doesn't go down, I'd bet good money on that one. All of our guys that played in the playoffs could have gotten PT on the Cavs, productive minutes for different reasons. It would be harder to place guys on GSW but AB, Smart, and IT4 would get minutes off the bench. I also think Bass could have played on both teams and gotten good minutes in the finals, he would especially be useful switching onto LBJ every now and then. That mid would be deadly on offense with so much space as it was when we had the big 3.

Don't underestimate what our guys could do with a lot of top talent around them. They would fit in with roles more suited to their skills. You are looking at them in the context of how they play without guys like LBJ, Irving, Curry and Klay's talents making it easier for them (what they are as Celts), some of our guys would do very well on the very good teams, every player in the league not named LBJ needs the right group around them though, he is the only person (blegh) who could slot into all positions and do it very well if he had to.

Keep in mind Speights Livingston Barbosa and David lee played pretty good minutes for Golden State and the Celtics bench was an advantage over the cavs bench even when the cavs were healthy.

[Smokeeye123]

The answer is my profile picture

[PhoSita]

Targets for rookie contract players? I imagine they'd be guys that aren't developing as planned or were never really expected to flourish. Could see more competitive teams looking for bench help that may be interested in our more vet guys.

Tricky question.  Trying to think of the answer myself.

Let's give it a go.


Bradley and Turner for Rodney Hood and Trevor Booker

Sullinger for Terrence Ross

Just a couple of stabs in the dark.

[A Future of Stevens]

Targets for rookie contract players? I imagine they'd be guys that aren't developing as planned or were never really expected to flourish. Could see more competitive teams looking for bench help that may be interested in our more vet guys.

Tricky question.  Trying to think of the answer myself.

Let's give it a go.


Bradley and Turner for Rodney Hood and Trevor Booker

Sullinger for Terrence Ross

Just a couple of stabs in the dark.

I like the first deal. However, one of my friends is a Raptors fan, and he told me that Ross has a little bit of Green is his game. Namely that one game he dropped 51, then was right back to averaging his 9 ppg. Also he has the huge length and athleticism just like Green, he just tends to disappear. Although he probably would be a step up from future 300 pound mayor McCheese

[hodgy03038]

Targets for rookie contract players? I imagine they'd be guys that aren't developing as planned or were never really expected to flourish. Could see more competitive teams looking for bench help that may be interested in our more vet guys.

Tricky question.  Trying to think of the answer myself.

Let's give it a go.


Bradley and Turner for Rodney Hood and Trevor Booker

Sullinger for Terrence Ross

Just a couple of stabs in the dark.

I like the first deal. However, one of my friends is a Raptors fan, and he told me that Ross has a little bit of Green is his game. Namely that one game he dropped 51, then was right back to averaging his 9 ppg. Also he has the huge length and athleticism just like Green, he just tends to disappear. Although he probably would be a step up from future 300 pound mayor McCheese

Sullinger for Ross is RIDICULOUS!

[KG Living Legend]

Tank

I basically asked on previously page how possible a tank is with guys on our roster that make us better. Wondering how we can shed some of these guys because I can't see Brad outright tanking.. thinking he will do his best to win with the roster he has, just like this year.

When brad sees how awful this roster is and bails for the ncaa, tankkng will be a piece of cake.

Larbrd, I know you don't really mean that, Stevens is in this for the long hall I think he will coach here for 10 to 20 years of we choose to keep him that long.
 If your smart like Stevens you realize that coaching the Celtics is a rare opportunity that he gushed about when hired, he also Loves a good challenge, and this is a long term challenge.
 

[Moranis]

The Celtics currently don't have any player who'd be a starter on any of the last 3 NBA finalist teams.  If they can't get those players via free agency, they'll need to either trade for them or to tank enough that they get them via the lottery.

Trade for one of those players right now, and you might just get lucky enough to convince the FAs of that level to join him.

That isn't entirely true, I mean Mario Chalmers, Matthew Delledova, and Iman Shumpert were starters on Finals teams.  I feel comfortable saying either Isiah Thomas and/or Avery Bradley would be starting ahead of those guys.  Sullinger or Olynyk probably starts over Rashard Lewis as well.  Let us also not forget Mike Miller started 4 of the Heat's 7 games in their win over San Antonio as well with Haslem starting the other 3.  Again I think Sullinger or Olynyk is starting those games (maybe even a guy like Bradley). 

[mef730]

Question: Let's say we open up roster and say everyone is for sale, make your best offer.

We have, arguably, 3 or 4 players who could be the 5th best player on a top team. A few who would be a great 6th man. And some others. What, exactly, do we think we're going to get for these players?

If there's anything we've learned from this last draft, its that quality > quantity. Nobody's going to trade us somebody who has the potential to be an A player for anyone we could sell them, and even teams that are willing to trade us a first-round draft pick for a guy like Thomas or Bradley who can come off the bench are unlikely to end up giving us a draft pick worth something. Heck, it sounds like Ainge was willing to give away the shop to move up seven spots in the draft and still couldn't pull it off with what we had to offer. Nobody's gonna say, "Okay, I'll trade you my guy with star potential for Turner, Olynik and another body." They don't want these guys any more than we do.

I was one of the proponents to get in the playoffs last year. I loved watching that team play in the second half of the season (versus the first half, when I couldn't give tickets away), but I dramatically overvalued what people were willing to pay for future (or even current) draft picks. From a pure outcome point of view, I'd be kidding myself if I said that still thought we were better off making the playoffs.

Mike

[PhoSita]

What, exactly, do we think we're going to get for these players?

Young, cheap players who haven't worked out or shown much yet.  Picks slated to fall in the mid-to-late 1st or early to mid 2nd.

The idea is to clear out the roster to create playing time for younger guys who may develop into something more than journeymen, and engineer downward for this upcoming season to make a higher pick more likely.

[PhoSita]

The Celtics currently don't have any player who'd be a starter on any of the last 3 NBA finalist teams.  If they can't get those players via free agency, they'll need to either trade for them or to tank enough that they get them via the lottery.

Trade for one of those players right now, and you might just get lucky enough to convince the FAs of that level to join him.

That isn't entirely true, I mean Mario Chalmers, Matthew Delledova, and Iman Shumpert were starters on Finals teams.  I feel comfortable saying either Isiah Thomas and/or Avery Bradley would be starting ahead of those guys.  Sullinger or Olynyk probably starts over Rashard Lewis as well.  Let us also not forget Mike Miller started 4 of the Heat's 7 games in their win over San Antonio as well with Haslem starting the other 3.  Again I think Sullinger or Olynyk is starting those games (maybe even a guy like Bradley).

I'm not so sure about any of that, given the premium the teams you mentioned placed on playing really good defense, rebounding the heck out of the ball, and placing seasoned, reliable shooters with size around Bron.