All in -- get Horford and Howard idea

[action781]

This would be done in two separate deals, but for simplicity:

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=zzzagu7

We also send the 2016 Brooklyn pick to ATL and the 2018 Brooklyn pick to HOU.

I know people don't want to trade away those building blocks of the future, but the point of building blocks is to build a contender.  I think this deal already ensures one.

A little snapshot at our depth, while rotations would be tightened in playoffs:

Smart/IT4
Bradley/Hunter
Jae/Jerebko
Horford/Kelly
Dwight/Zeller

We'd only have something like $40 mil guaranteed next season before Horford and Dwight, so we could even be able to overpay them with our bird rights when they look for their next contract this offseason without going into luxury tax.

I think this team would be a contender for a solid 4 year window with this crew.  The clear top defensive team in the league.  Also, we wouldn't be *completely* mortgaging our future as we have all of our own draft picks left (including the '17 brooklyn swap) and the dallas pick plus some others.  When you already have a good team in place and no positions of desperation in place is when you can often strike on some of those non-elite draft positions like San Antonio typically does.  There's no promise these Brooklyn picks won't yield us some Jan Vesely or Tristan Thompson or Anthony Bennett.  We know what this deal is giving us and like I said I think it's a 4 year contender.

I like the defensive-minded identity Boston has been establishing and I think this deal would build on it rather than tear it down, which I think is an underrated aspect of trades.

[JohnBoy65]

This would be done in two separate deals, but for simplicity:

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=zzzagu7

We also send the 2016 Brooklyn pick to ATL and the 2018 Brooklyn pick to HOU.

I know people don't want to trade away those building blocks of the future, but the point of building blocks is to build a contender.  I think this deal already ensures one.

A little snapshot at our depth, while rotations would be tightened in playoffs:

Smart/IT4
Bradley/Hunter
Jae/Jerebko
Horford/Kelly
Dwight/Zeller

We'd only have something like $40 mil guaranteed next season before Horford and Dwight, so we could even be able to overpay them with our bird rights when they look for their next contract this offseason without going into luxury tax.

I think this team would be a contender for a solid 4 year window with this crew.  The clear top defensive team in the league.  Also, we wouldn't be *completely* mortgaging our future as we have all of our own draft picks left (including the '17 brooklyn swap) and the dallas pick plus some others.  When you already have a good team in place and no positions of desperation in place is when you can often strike on some of those non-elite draft positions like San Antonio typically does.  There's no promise these Brooklyn picks won't yield us some Jan Vesely or Tristan Thompson or Anthony Bennett.  We know what this deal is giving us and like I said I think it's a 4 year contender.

I like the defensive-minded identity Boston has been establishing and I think this deal would build on it rather than tear it down, which I think is an underrated aspect of trades.

Only issue I have with this scenario is the following: In 4 years where are we? Start all over again?  We wouldn't have the flexibility we have now if that were to happen. I think Danny wants to build a team that'll be around a little longer than 4 years.

[action781]

^I think JohnBoy brings up a good question.

4 years from now Marcus Smart is 25 years old, Avery Bradley is 29, Kelly Olynyk is 28 -- all in the primes of their career.  We have other young talent on our roster that are not given up in these trades like James Young, Hunter, Mickey, and Rozier which we need to develop.  We also get to swap picks with Brooklyn in '17 and have all of our own draft picks plus a few others sprinkled in. 

I think where we are in 4 years lies on Danny and the coaching staff to draft well, develop talent, and make the right moves just like they have over the past 2 years.  We'd have to bomb all of the above pretty badly to be left with nothing 4 years from now.