How would you feel about this offseason:
- Lottery pick to New York, Carmelo Anthony to Cleveland, Kevin Love to Boston
- Trade most of our remaining 2016 picks to move up in the lottery for Jakob Pöltl at 9, 10 or 11 (probably whatever pick is right ahead of the Jazz). Use our remaining second rounders on draft-and-stash players.
- Sign Dwight Howard
- Resign Evan Turner
I think you would be fire as a GM in a few years and you would not get past CLE. Love does not play D.
Just as Thomas' defensive deficiencies are partially masked by our ability to put Bradley or Smart on our opponent's best guard, the same will hold true in our front court by pairing Love with Dwight Howard, one of the top 3-5 defensive big men in the league. Howard is able to neutralize any team's best offensive big man, so our only concern of seeing Love dominated would be when an opponent has two great offensive big men. How many teams have two truly dominant offensive big men? The answer: Us if we obtain Love and Howard, and the LA Clippers if Griffin returns to his former self (fortunately, in all likelihood we would only have to face the Clips twice next year).
Like Thomas, Love is still an all-star by virtue of his offensive play. In fact, Love tosses gorgeous outlet passes and is the best stretch 4 in the league when he is at his best, which I think can happen more consistently under the tutelage of Coach Brad Stevens compared to Coach LeBron James.
Last but not least,
Howard and Love are the number one and two active NBA players in career rebounds per game, so we will be absolute "Chairmen of the Boards" as both players would be the most prolific rebounders in Celtics history since Dave Cowens and Bill Russell before him. I salivate thinking of all the second-shot opportunities and missed opportunities that are fixed with putbacks/alley-oops, not to mention all of the defensive stops (almost more than anything, I hate consistently giving up offensive rebounds, particularly when we are not giving up good looks by virtue of a stellar perimeter defense).
Dominant rebounding combined with excellent shooting in the paint can more than compensate for our below average shooting percentages outside of the paint if those woes continue, which I think will not be the case given another year of improvement for our current corp combined with Love's shooting outside of the paint (unfortunately, adding Jimmy Butler while subtracting Avery Bradley, our lottery pick and someone else would not have the same effect).
I really cannot see any other trade scenario where we are able to trade our lottery pick straight-up for an all-star, but if someone else sees a scenario where we can add two all-stars to our roster this off-season without losing anything other than our lottery pick, I am all ears. I am particularly enamored with the idea of going against the grain by having an all-star front court rather than trying to compete offensively with the likes of the Warriors' impeccable back court (for example, Butler and Thomas <<< Curry and Thompson and it is not even close).
Topic: Idea: GO BIG With An All-Star Front Court in 2016 (Read 2024 times)