The current Celtics roster has remarkable parallels to the 2006-2007 team: Lots of young players, and some of them have good upside potential. Each team has one all-star to build around.
What I've done here is to list all players on each team with 3 years or less of experience. (Please note I limited it to 9 players from each team, leaving out Kevin Pinkney and Allan Ray from the 06-07 team and John Holland from the 15-16 team.) Other than draft picks, this is what Danny has/had to work with in making trades. We all know about what he did in the summer of 2007. Most Celtics fans would be very happy if he could do that again in the summer of 2016.
I know some folks will be critical of me leaving out draft picks as assets. Selecting Jeff Green was a key step in acquiring Ray Allen. Likewise, the NJ pick this year is going to be key, no doubt. However, I just thought this would be a good starting point to discuss the young talent now and then, in a comparative way.
Another angle worth discussing here is head-to-head starting fives. Here are my choices:
Rondo, West, Gomes, Jefferson, Perkins. 6th man=TAllen
vs.
Rozier, Smart, Crowder, Sullinger, Olynyk. 6th man= Zeller
As much as I LOVED Al Jefferson especially at the time, I give the edge to the current roster in a pickup game. Better defense and better shooting.
Have at it, campers.
Not to nitpick, but Sullinger, Zeller, Crowder, and Perk all have/had 4 years of experience. My guess is you're using something like basketball-reference.com which shows their experience coming into the season, and they've now completed the season. Also Sullinger and Zeller are free agents so they're not assets.
I think the 2007 assets had more value by far, mostly because the team was bad so they all got tons of minutes and the ability to demonstrate their skills. Leon Powe had the least experience, and played in 63 games averaging over 11mpg. With the 2016 "assets" you have 4 players who've played fewer games all averaging under 10mpg.
Big Al showed 3 straight years of improvement and was only 22. His stats in '07 were much better than 26 year old Crowder.
Ryan Gomes showed 2 straight years of improvement, same with Gerald Green. Gomes had 9 20+ point games in '07, Green had 15 20+ point games, including a 30+ point game for each. Gomes had a triple double and several double-doubles.
Tony Allen was in the middle of a breakout 3rd year and averaging 19ppg, 6rpg, 3apg, 3spg from the middle of December right after he became a starter until he went down an injury (13 game run).
Delonte West had shown steady improvement since his rookie year, had 8 20+ point games, including a 30+ point game.
Rondo showed a lot of promise, taking the starting spot from Telfair by the end of the year, and having put up multiple 20+ point games, 10+ rebound games, and 10+ assist games (though not at the same time).
And Perk and Telfair were still highly touted projects who had come straight from high school, both having some big games too.
So in 2007 you had a group of young guys, who all had shown several flashes of brilliance, but hadn't been in the league long enough to demonstrate if it was an upward trend, a plateau, or a fluke.
On the other hand, the 2016 assets have either shown too much or nothing at all. Sullinger and Olynyk both look like they've plateaued, neither showing much improvement over the last 3 years. If you traded Sullinger after year 2 when he made big statistical strides, he'd have much more value, but now after year 4 with 3 straight years of flat/declining stats (as well as no more rookie deal), he's lost a lot of that value. same with Zeller whose showed he'll never be more than a 3rd string Center. While Rozier, Young, Hunter, and Mickey have all showed nothing.
2007 - all showed enough to get you excited, but not enough to know for sure what you might be getting. You knew everyone was an NBA player though.
2016 - except for Crowder and Smart, showed too much or nothing at all. Not even sure if several of the guys are NBA players.
Poll
Topic: Stacking up the Celtics current LIVE assets against 2006-07 (Read 2350 times)