If we don't make the 2016 playoffs, should we think about going even younger?

[chambers]

Ok don't freak out.
Let's say our team finishes 9th or 10th in the East this season. It's unlikely, but it's possible. Say we get an injury to Isaiah or Marcus goes down like Exum for the year and we end up just missing out on the post season.

We then strike out on free agents again and there are no realistic free agent/disgruntled star options for us, with no 'Kevin Love' visits to Boston from anyone significant and nothing imminently pending like Cousins leaving Sacramento etc...
In other words, we look like team that doesn't know where it's going, and is just *hoping* to dear god that we can trade for, or sign, multiple top 20 NBA players to take us to the next level.

Would you be okay if we cleared the books of 95% of our 'veterans' over the age of 24/25?

I mean;
-Trade Bradley for a first round pick
-trade Thomas for a first round pick or young player/upside young guy.
-Trade one of Sully/Olynyk (whichever one like least) or trade both of them for a 1st rounder.
-Trade Zeller for whatever.
-End Amir Johnson's contract and send Evan Turner and David Lee to the glue factory and thank them for their time.

This is what I stated in the Bob Cousy topic, and I think it's important;this may be an option that Ainge has as a 'Plan C' if we strike out on acquiring some stars.

I do worry about being stuck in no man's land and basically relying on:

*trying to get one of our mid first round picks to become much better than their draft position.
*hoping that we can sign multiple top 20 NBA players and it basically never happening.


With our current roster, Ainge can move contracts like Amir Johnson and Jerebko around easily if the salary is needed. But looking at our roster/contracts he could also just as easily hit the reset button after 2016 if he wants to do a proper 'blow up' and let Stevens start with guys he wants to develop. The only guys we have past 2016 over the age of 24 are Bradley, Crowder, Mickey and Thomas.

If we looked pretty average this year and ended up missing the playoffs, I wouldn't be too unhappy if we just cleared the books of all our veteran players and put out a team of:

Rozier
Smart
Hunter
Crowder
Mickey

+ our Brooklyn pick rookies and our own rookies filling in the gaps.

Let Stevens coach them up and let Smart lead them and ignite that Celtic fire. We'd lose, but we'd be competitive within a few years and if were lucky and picked well, we could land one or two future top 20 NBA players.
Similarly to what Seattle/OKC did over a 4-5 year stretch. Try and create our own luck in another way (via the draft/development strategy, without the bargain veteran contracts thrown in that Ainge just has to have, but unfortunately take away time from younger players).

This is also more plausible when you think about the NBA over the next 5 seasons and how hard it is to win a championship.
You've got Lebron and Cleveland in the East for another 4-5 years, and the Wizards, Bucks, Bulls, Pistons all getting better.
You've got the toughest Western Conference we've ever seen and 3 or 4 teams that could win championships in plenty of other NBA seasons.

So for the next 5 years while we try and sign multiple stars and cross our fingers, if we do actually get lucky enough to sign one or two- they then have to lead us past Lebron/Cleveland and then whoever is good enough to come out of the West.

I mean if Brooklyn was bad enough, we could even get 3 or 4 top 10 picks or better in a two year period. How great would that be to add a cache of young hand picked draft studs to Marcus Smart, Rozier, Hunter and Young? I mean Evan Turner and Isaiah have been great Celtics, but I'd love to draft an Okafur or Towns, or Anthony Davis. You can say 'but you have to get lucky', 'they're not proven NBA players' etc...but the fact is that it requires just as much luck to land a top 10-20 NBA player via free agency/trade anyway.

Letting Brad coach and mold those guys and when Lebron, Kyrie, Love, Griffin, Curry, Aldridge/Leonard all start to decline, our guys will be just reaching their peaks.

I could definitely see that route being a back up plan for Ainge if we don't see 'Fireworks' by summer 2016. I guess it depends a lot on what the ownership group expect (they could be $$$ focused after a few poor seasons). It also depends on if Brad Stevens would be okay going for a 'reset' with him and Smart/Rozier/Hunter/Crowder at the helm.

Anyone else think Ainge has got this as a legitimate option?
Would Stevens be down with this?

[wdleehi]

No reason to trade young players for more draft picks. 


The Celtics are loaded with picks.   



The Celtics need to make moves that get them closer to adding a star. 

[chambers]

No reason to trade young players for more draft picks. 


The Celtics are loaded with picks.   



The Celtics need to make moves that get them closer to adding a star.

lol quite an ironic reply to a thread about the difficulties of simply 'adding a star'. This is a hypothetical scenario based on the period of time about 12 months from now, it could even be 24 months from now, but yeah... I hope you see my point.

[max215]

Too many variables to say. It greatly depends upon why we miss the playoffs, where the Brooklyn and Dallas picks end up, etc.

[chambers]

Too many variables to say. It greatly depends upon why we miss the playoffs, where the Brooklyn and Dallas picks end up, etc.

well let's ignore the Brooklyn/Dallas picks.
Let's just say we finish 9th in the East and the only disgruntled star option remains in Sacramento. Do we just keep our team of role players while trying to draft top 5 talent with picks between 15-20 for the next few years?

What's our plan for the post Lebron/Durant/Clippers/Warriors era?

[indeedproceed]

No reason to trade young players for more draft picks. 


The Celtics are loaded with picks.   



The Celtics need to make moves that get them closer to adding a star. 

This. The Celtics need to make moves that bring them closer to star caliber talent. With the caveat that the talent could be 'young' or 'old', as long as they're in their prime and elite talent, nobody cares.

[slamtheking]

Too many variables to say. It greatly depends upon why we miss the playoffs, where the Brooklyn and Dallas picks end up, etc.

well let's ignore the Brooklyn/Dallas picks.
Let's just say we finish 9th in the East and the only disgruntled star option remains in Sacramento. Do we just keep our team of role players while trying to draft top 5 talent with picks between 15-20 for the next few years?

What's our plan for the post Lebron/Durant/Clippers/Warriors era?

can't ignore those picks. 

personally, I think the C's will miss the playoffs this year -- 9th or 10th in the East is where I think they'll end up.  They're better than last year but so are a number of other teams in the East.

C's will end up with 3 picks next year - I think they'll all be lottery picks to boot.

I think Lee and Turner are gone after this season if not traded at the deadline.  Jerebko will likely not have his contract picked up for next year either.  Depending on how Amir fits in this season, I could see him cut loose as well --> whole point of signing him to a very overpriced contract is that he suspects that second year won't be picked up.

no desire to see this team get younger for the sake of getting younger.  I want to see them get better.  If that involves relying on picks to do so, whether for trade or keeping, that's fine.  I think the reliance on the draft as the primary way to add talent will end up coming up short in achieving the goal of becoming a contender

[max215]

Too many variables to say. It greatly depends upon why we miss the playoffs, where the Brooklyn and Dallas picks end up, etc.

well let's ignore the Brooklyn/Dallas picks.
Let's just say we finish 9th in the East and the only disgruntled star option remains in Sacramento. Do we just keep our team of role players while trying to draft top 5 talent with picks between 15-20 for the next few years?

What's our plan for the post Lebron/Durant/Clippers/Warriors era?

But we can't ignore such an integral part of our future. The Nets picks, and to a slightly lesser extent, the Mavs pick, are everything in this scenario.

Edit: Our plan should be to be opportunistic. When the opportunity to acquire elite talent arises, be it through the Draft, trades, or free agency, our top priority should be to remain ready.

[Who]

Imagine having those future Brooklyn and Mavs picks + multiple top 5 picks of our own.

... and the draft opportunities and/or trade opportunities that together they would bring.

[max215]

Too many variables to say. It greatly depends upon why we miss the playoffs, where the Brooklyn and Dallas picks end up, etc.

well let's ignore the Brooklyn/Dallas picks.
Let's just say we finish 9th in the East and the only disgruntled star option remains in Sacramento. Do we just keep our team of role players while trying to draft top 5 talent with picks between 15-20 for the next few years?

What's our plan for the post Lebron/Durant/Clippers/Warriors era?

can't ignore those picks. 

personally, I think the C's will miss the playoffs this year -- 9th or 10th in the East is where I think they'll end up.  They're better than last year but so are a number of other teams in the East.

C's will end up with 3 picks next year - I think they'll all be lottery picks to boot.

I think Lee and Turner are gone after this season if not traded at the deadline.  Jerebko will likely not have his contract picked up for next year either.  Depending on how Amir fits in this season, I could see him cut loose as well --> whole point of signing him to a very overpriced contract is that he suspects that second year won't be picked up.

no desire to see this team get younger for the sake of getting younger.  I want to see them get better.  If that involves relying on picks to do so, whether for trade or keeping, that's fine.  I think the reliance on the draft as the primary way to add talent will end up coming up short in achieving the goal of becoming a contender

Just wondering, where do you see the picks ending up? If we go by last year's standings and draft order, then the 10th and 11th seeds in the East got the 10th and 9th picks respectively. Say the Nets and Celtics finished 10th and 11th and the Mavs are the 11th seed in the West. That would give us the 9th, 10th, and 12th picks. That would be a massive infusion of talent, and those are fairly conservative estimates for how bad the Nets and Mavs could be IMO.

[Hemingway]

It depends I guess. If we miss the playoffs but had a lot of injuries, but nothing lingering and we still like our core maybe we run it again. If it looks like we will be worst the year after even w/o injuries maybe we trade guys.

[TheTruthFot18]

DA is one the smartest GM's in the league. I'm sure he has more than a "plan A" and "plan B". Teams that are not contending by default need more backup plans since they have the most unpredictable seasons (ex. 2014-15 Celtics).

Whether we get to the 2nd round or finish 12th in the East, we still have the same options financially and with FA's. 

[chambers]

Too many variables to say. It greatly depends upon why we miss the playoffs, where the Brooklyn and Dallas picks end up, etc.

well let's ignore the Brooklyn/Dallas picks.
Let's just say we finish 9th in the East and the only disgruntled star option remains in Sacramento. Do we just keep our team of role players while trying to draft top 5 talent with picks between 15-20 for the next few years?

What's our plan for the post Lebron/Durant/Clippers/Warriors era?

But we can't ignore such an integral part of our future. The Nets picks, and to a slightly lesser extent, the Mavs pick, are everything in this scenario.

Edit: Our plan should be to be opportunistic. When the opportunity to acquire elite talent arises, be it through the Draft, trades, or free agency, our top priority should be to remain ready.

I mean ignore the picks because there are no guarantees with them. We're hoping they'll get us in the lottery with at least one of them, but they could be #16 to #21 for all we know. We know at the very least we can pick two guys somewhere between 10-24 depending how lucky we get, so we'll add them to our asset pool.
With those picks, and no pending free agents/stars on the horizon, do you draft both picks and start fresh- wipe off all the garbage salary like Jerebko, Turner and then start clearing our solid assets like IT and Amir Johnson, Olynyk, Bradley etc...

[chambers]

Too many variables to say. It greatly depends upon why we miss the playoffs, where the Brooklyn and Dallas picks end up, etc.

well let's ignore the Brooklyn/Dallas picks.
Let's just say we finish 9th in the East and the only disgruntled star option remains in Sacramento. Do we just keep our team of role players while trying to draft top 5 talent with picks between 15-20 for the next few years?

What's our plan for the post Lebron/Durant/Clippers/Warriors era?

can't ignore those picks. 

personally, I think the C's will miss the playoffs this year -- 9th or 10th in the East is where I think they'll end up.  They're better than last year but so are a number of other teams in the East.

C's will end up with 3 picks next year - I think they'll all be lottery picks to boot.

I think Lee and Turner are gone after this season if not traded at the deadline.  Jerebko will likely not have his contract picked up for next year either.  Depending on how Amir fits in this season, I could see him cut loose as well --> whole point of signing him to a very overpriced contract is that he suspects that second year won't be picked up.

no desire to see this team get younger for the sake of getting younger.  I want to see them get better.  If that involves relying on picks to do so, whether for trade or keeping, that's fine.  I think the reliance on the draft as the primary way to add talent will end up coming up short in achieving the goal of becoming a contender

So lets assume that we don't have a trade for a star or no free agency prospects. It's draft night and we have to either draft with these picks or use them to move up.

Do you think it's possible that we just press reset? And how would you feel if we did reset?

Say draft night 2016 and we've only got:

Avery signed age 25 next season
Thomas signed age 27 next season
Crowder age 25 next season
Olynyk age 24 for one season remaining on rookie deal.
Smart age 22 next season
Rozier age 22 next season
Young age 20 next season
Hunter age 22 next season
Mickey age 21 next season

2016 picks:
Brooklyn pick 2016
Dallas pick 2016
Celtics pick
2017 picks:
Brooklyn rights 2017
Celtics pick 2017
2018 picks:
Brooklyn pick 2018
Celtics pick 2018

eg Draft someone with Dallas pick. Combine our 12th pick+Brooklyn #10 for a move into the top 5 .
Stink for a year and get another good pick.
 Or Draft 3 guys with all those picks and then take advantage of our 'youth' by finishing 12th in the Eastern Conference, having our own pick in the top 5, and a Brooklyn pick that could be top 10 again.

Keep Crowder to play SF and build up his trade value and keep his work ethic in the locker room with Smart for the new guys to learn from.

[HomerSapien]

The biggest thing that matters to me about the upcoming season is how Smart plays. If he looks like a building block at PG and we finish 10th - I still feel good about what we are building. If not, then it feels more like a discouraging step.

I really feel like the rest of the roster's fate depends largely on circumstances. Who is playing well, have any other players started to establish themselves from our group of early 20's kids, etc.

This year, I'm trying to not get carried away with how far into the championship building process we are. We were ahead of the curve LY, but that doesn't mean we don't still have a long way to go.