Poll: Who would go Full Hinkie mode If you were the Boss.

[greece66]

I think a lot of people are overlooking and underrating the contributions and leadership of Tayshaun Prince.  Sure, he wasn't here for long, but that was the turning point, in terms of victories, imo, as we really came together, especially on defense, as a unit after he showed up.  Isaiah kept that momentum going, but he didn't start it.

True that. Prince was great.

His FT% was incredible.

I actually wanted us to keep him.

I think he felt (not without reason) somehow offended that we traded him.

Players that made lot of millions during their career and get sensitive when they get traded... I will think about empathizing with them when I'll have a bit of free time in my life (I'm a very busy person btw).
I like Prince too, but I'll do this trade over an over again. Gigi one year and Jerebko 2 or 3 years as Celtics is something that makes me happy as a fan. Just love those type of players that fit right in and embrace the Celtics culture.

Agreed, with hindsight the trade was the right thing to do.

I'm not saying I feel sorry for him or anything.

My point was that IMO he gave it all for the short time he was here and he deserves some credit for it.

[PhoSita]

I dunno, would we have been significantly worse had we kept Prince instead of Jerebko?

If we had cut Bass (or gave him away for nothing), it would just have been some combination of Zeller/KO/Crowder/Jerebko (or Prince) getting more playing time, which wouldn't have moved the needle that much.

We would have been significantly worse if we had waived Prince and Bass at the deadline instead of trading or keeping them.

Bass and Jerebko were both very significant parts of the playoff push.  If you replaced their minutes with KO, Turner, or Crowder, I think the team would have been significantly worse, particularly defensively.  That likely would have been enough for the Celts to lose a few of the exceedingly close games they won toward the end of the season.


Anyway, it's all conjecture, but it stands out to me because unlike the Isaiah Thomas move, trading Prince for pieces instead of waiving him and keeping Bass seemed to have no significant benefit aside from keeping the team in the playoff hunt.

[Beat LA]

I think a lot of people are overlooking and underrating the contributions and leadership of Tayshaun Prince.  Sure, he wasn't here for long, but that was the turning point, in terms of victories, imo, as we really came together, especially on defense, as a unit after he showed up.  Isaiah kept that momentum going, but he didn't start it.

Agree.  Prince was good in his time here, however short.  Made a bigger impact than Jeff Green.

I'm not suggesting Prince wasn't useful, I'm suggesting that exchanging Prince for a couple of rotation players on expiring deals instead of just waiving him, combined with holding onto Bass, helped the team stay in the playoff hunt even though it didn't do much in terms of adding future assets.  It was purely a win-now thing.

I wasn't saying that you were implying that he wasn't important or whatever (how's that for a double negative? ), I just wanted to make sure that people didn't forget about him, especially when talking about IT as if he was the sole reason why our season 'turned around.' 

Btw, while I still don't understand why Ainge was ever in win-now mode, why trade Prince when he was an expiring, himself?  That way the kids get a great babysitter and he at least gives us more financial flexibility after the season.

[saltlover]

I dunno, would we have been significantly worse had we kept Prince instead of Jerebko?

If we had cut Bass (or gave him away for nothing), it would just have been some combination of Zeller/KO/Crowder/Jerebko (or Prince) getting more playing time, which wouldn't have moved the needle that much.

We would have been significantly worse if we had waived Prince and Bass at the deadline instead of trading or keeping them.

Bass and Jerebko were both very significant parts of the playoff push.  If you replaced their minutes with KO, Turner, or Crowder, I think the team would have been significantly worse, particularly defensively.  That likely would have been enough for the Celts to lose a few of the exceedingly close games they won toward the end of the season.


Anyway, it's all conjecture, but it stands out to me because unlike the Isaiah Thomas move, trading Prince for pieces instead of waiving him and keeping Bass seemed to have no significant benefit aside from keeping the team in the playoff hunt.

It consolidated two smaller trade exceptions into one larger one.  Which didn't end up mattering much, but it existed as a tool if needed, and flexibility has been a driving force of this rebuild.  Could Ainge have then released Jerebko and Datome?  Sure.  But they were there, so might as well get a look at players you've found interesting in the past.  Also, releasing players costs you Bird rights of players over the summer, which again reduces your overall options. 

Furthermore, it creates an expectation that you'll release a player in a future year, lowering the value of future players on the trade market.  This is also true from a financial aspect -- Prince's agent thought he could hold out on giving up money in a buyout until after the trade deadline, and then his client would get both more money (rest of year contract plus what he was owed by Celtics minus a little bit) and team choice.  Instead he was traded to a team he didn't want to go to that missed the playoffs.

All of these are small reasons, to be sure, but they are all legitimate, and collectively have benefit beyond on-court results.

[crimson_stallion]

I dunno, would we have been significantly worse had we kept Prince instead of Jerebko?

If we had cut Bass (or gave him away for nothing), it would just have been some combination of Zeller/KO/Crowder/Jerebko (or Prince) getting more playing time, which wouldn't have moved the needle that much.

We would have been significantly worse if we had waived Prince and Bass at the deadline instead of trading or keeping them.

Bass and Jerebko were both very significant parts of the playoff push.  If you replaced their minutes with KO, Turner, or Crowder, I think the team would have been significantly worse, particularly defensively.  That likely would have been enough for the Celts to lose a few of the exceedingly close games they won toward the end of the season.


Anyway, it's all conjecture, but it stands out to me because unlike the Isaiah Thomas move, trading Prince for pieces instead of waiving him and keeping Bass seemed to have no significant benefit aside from keeping the team in the playoff hunt.

Based on advanced stats, which you may or may not put faith in (gotta add that disclaimer every time now lol) the trio of Olynyk/Turner/Crowder should be no worse than the duo of Bass/Jerebko.

Statistics suggest that Olynyk was a huge positive for us, while Turner and Crowder were about neutral (very slightly negative).  Likewise Jerebko was a huge positive, but Bass was negative.

Likely not much difference, to be honest.