Griffin AND Hayward

[smiggity]

Trade 1: BOS/ATL/UTAH

Boston receives: Gordon Hayward
Atlanta receives: Avery Bradley; Minnesota 2016 and 2017 2nd round picks
Utah receives: Marcus Teague; Jonas Jerebko; James Young; Bos 2016 1st round pick

Trade 2: BOS/LAC

Boston receives: Blake Griffin; C.J. Wilcox (for salary)
LAC receives: Jae Crowder; Jared Sullinger; David Lee (for salary); Brooklyn 2016 1st round pick (unprotected); Dallas 2016 1st round pick; future Memphis 1st round pick (Memphis pick is delivered two years after Grizzlies fulfill obligation to Denver. Pick is protected 1-11 in 2017; 1-13 in 2018; 1-9 in 2019; 1-7 in 2020, unprotected in 2021)

Boston's new rotation:

Thomas/Rozier
Smart/Hunter
Hayward/Turner
Griffin/Johnson/Mickey
Olynyk/Zeller

2016/17 Free Agency: Make a run at Durant

These moves comply with the CBA according to ESPN's Trade Machine.

[CsBanner18]

My only concern is that we'd be gutting our team defense by trading away Crowder & Bradley.

I would try my best to keep Crowder. We're already giving up the Brooklyn pick, Dallas pick, MEM pick, etc in your proposal as well as a decent replacement in Sully at PF.

Maybe involve a 3rd team in the BOS-LAC deal to get the Clippers a decent 3 & D SF? Or how about Turner?


I'd prefer a lineup of:

IT4/Rozier
Hayward/Smart/Hunter
Crowder/???
Griffin/Johnson/Mickey
Olynyk/Zeller

[slamtheking]

seems a bit much for Griffin.  3 firsts (including this year's Nets pick), Sully and Crowder (Lee can be argued as an asset as well).  Not to mention he's out for a while and no guarantee the hand heals properly.

I also think the Hayward deal is a bit much but I'm not as high on him as others are.  I don't see much of an upgrade over Crowder to justify that deal.  A little better on offense but not as good on D.

also, by the time those deals went through, C's cupboard is pretty much bare of anything valuable to trade.  no 2016 pick so the 2017 swap has to be kept and then it's just pretty much the 2018 Nets pick.  We still have a load of second rounders but those won't get you a whole lot these days.

[smiggity]

slamtheking and CsBanner18:

You both make good points. I have a few responses, though.

First, I constructed the trade proposals to reflect the maximum I would give up for the two players involved. That seems to me the only way a deal would get done. Obviously, I would prefer to keep Crowder (and Bradley and the picks for that matter), but you've got to give to get. I don't think the Celtics should let the prospect of losing Crowder, who is a very good player, prevent them from obtaining Griffin, who not that long ago was a top-5 MVP candidate and is still young-ish.

Second, although I agree that Crowder and Bradley have been the two biggest contributors to the Celtics #2 ranked defense, I credit the Celtics' success on that end of the floor more to Stevens' system. I also believe that Smart will make huge leaps forward in his defensive impact in the next couple years, which will mitigate against the loss of Bradley, in particular. Moreover, although Griffin and Hayward might not be at the same level, they are still plus defenders.

Third, the whole point of collecting trade assets is to use them for something like this. Even though the Celtics wouldn't have the same flexibility moving forward, they have to find a way to consolidate. And even under this scenario, the Celtics still get the potential infusion of high-end talent from the 2017 and 2018 Nets picks, which could be quite high.

Fourth, I expect Griffin and Hayward, along with IT4 and Smart, would draw the interest of free agents looking to win. For example, if KD is looking for a new team this summer, it's hard to imagine many better landing spots for him to earn a ring (without joining Steph's or Lebron's teams) than the Celtics. Other upper tier players like Horford might also be gett-able under this scenario.

Bottom line: I agree it is a lot to give up. In fact, it is the most I would give up. But it's hard to turn 10 dimes into a dollar. And high end talent wins championships. So I would do it.

[the_gunner]

First of all I really like the idea of trading for Griffin and Hayward, but I think it's frustrating not to know how available the two guys are.

If Griffin is not in trouble in LA, then I don't think that Clippers would trade him almost no matter what we offer them, but if they are getting fed up with him after the latest incident, then I think we could make them an interesting deal.

I also think that it is really interesting if it's true that Utah is really looking to trade Hayward for picks and expiring contracts, as they want to sign their young players the next few years.

Another interesting thing is, if it's true, that it looks like Heat, 76'ers and the two LA-teams are interested in Lee. http://www.inquisitr.com/2750158/nba-trade-rumors-david-lee-demanding-boston-celtics-move-him/#SwUxRicbxZmxzx6y.99

The straight up trade would be
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=j2zfyl9 giving up some picks to Jazz(I cannot figure out how much it will take, but not too much, due to the situation with the salary problems in Utah)

and if Jazz would prefer another player instead of Lee, then we could also facilitate that. This would be one way to do it. We should tade some picks as in the earlier trade.
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=jlu997m

I think Clippers would do it because if they are really interested in Lee, then they would be really high on both Sullinger and Amir.

If we make this trade the playoffs would be interesting, and I think we will have some more building blocks for our future championship team.

I like Sullinger a lot and wouldn't like to trade him, but I believe that he fits better on a Clippers team who are playing in a slower tempo than we are, which will make him a monster. The same goes for Amir.