Do nothing

[kozlodoev]

Yeah, that's a short-sighted argument to make. He didn't "play himself out of the role" and Brad didn't "yank him from that role." He literally played three games to start the season, sat out three games to recover from the minor injury, came back for six games, and then had his major injury.

Of course he did. He was the starting PG and then he wasn't. And it took less than 10 games. He lost his playmaking responsibilities long before he was dropped from the starting lineup and it had nothing to do with his injury. It literally took 3-4 games for the coaching staff to figure out he has to be paired with Thomas or Turner; and as far as I recall, it was pretty much the same scenario the year before.

[chiken Green]

Yeah, that's a short-sighted argument to make. He didn't "play himself out of the role" and Brad didn't "yank him from that role." He literally played three games to start the season, sat out three games to recover from the minor injury, came back for six games, and then had his major injury.

Of course he did. He was the starting PG and then he wasn't. And it took less than 10 games. He lost his playmaking responsibilities long before he was dropped from the starting lineup and it had nothing to do with his injury. It literally took 3-4 games for the coaching staff to figure out he has to be paired with Thomas or Turner; and as far as I recall, it was pretty much the same scenario the year before.

Played himself so far out of a role that They offered ET no contract and Had Smart as one of the players who Escorted CBS and DA to meet with one of the biggest free Agents in Todays NBA...

[BitterJim]

Yeah, that's a short-sighted argument to make. He didn't "play himself out of the role" and Brad didn't "yank him from that role." He literally played three games to start the season, sat out three games to recover from the minor injury, came back for six games, and then had his major injury.

Of course he did. He was the starting PG and then he wasn't. And it took less than 10 games. He lost his playmaking responsibilities long before he was dropped from the starting lineup and it had nothing to do with his injury. It literally took 3-4 games for the coaching staff to figure out he has to be paired with Thomas or Turner; and as far as I recall, it was pretty much the same scenario the year before.

Why stop at just losing his starting job?  He literally played himself out of the rotation in those 3 games.  Brad wouldn't even play him in a bunch of games after that.  Clearly he sucks, and shouldn't even be on the roster.

I mean, there can't be any other explanation for him missing games and losing the starting job, right?

[mmmmm]

I think Danny will try very hard to "do something" between now and next off-season, the sooner the better, to add at least one more high-priced, "star" player to his payroll.

The reasoning is he

a) needs to get all of his ducks under wing before Isaiah, Avery & Marcus all hit the end of their contracts in two years.  If he already HAS his stars on board, he can use Bird Rights to maintain control over those guys, whether he keeps them or trades them.  If he doesn't have another star on board by then, then he has to start worrying about trading their cap space for that of a big star.

b) Horford has a 4 year window during which we want to be contending.  We need one more big gun to do so.   It would be best to get that big gun now and be able to contend for all 4 years.  Next summer would give you 3 years.  After that, you've wasted half of Horford's contract.

I'm still inclined to think that Danny is working very hard, right now, on making a deal happen.   

Now, it's always possible that no deal for a star happens and we could still get lucky in that someone internally will emerge as a big star any way.   Someone like Jaylen Brown could be that rare player the is an impact player from his rookie season on.   But that is incredibly, incredibly rare and it just doesn't make sense to put all your eggs in that basket.

[kozlodoev]

Yeah, that's a short-sighted argument to make. He didn't "play himself out of the role" and Brad didn't "yank him from that role." He literally played three games to start the season, sat out three games to recover from the minor injury, came back for six games, and then had his major injury.

Of course he did. He was the starting PG and then he wasn't. And it took less than 10 games. He lost his playmaking responsibilities long before he was dropped from the starting lineup and it had nothing to do with his injury. It literally took 3-4 games for the coaching staff to figure out he has to be paired with Thomas or Turner; and as far as I recall, it was pretty much the same scenario the year before.

Why stop at just losing his starting job?  He literally played himself out of the rotation in those 3 games.  Brad wouldn't even play him in a bunch of games after that.  Clearly he sucks, and shouldn't even be on the roster.

I mean, there can't be any other explanation for him missing games and losing the starting job, right?

Of course there is. We should blame Turner, Thomas, Brad, the international situation, and Putin. Smart is a veritable playmaker savant, he's just misunderstood. Poor thing.

[BitterJim]

Yeah, that's a short-sighted argument to make. He didn't "play himself out of the role" and Brad didn't "yank him from that role." He literally played three games to start the season, sat out three games to recover from the minor injury, came back for six games, and then had his major injury.

Of course he did. He was the starting PG and then he wasn't. And it took less than 10 games. He lost his playmaking responsibilities long before he was dropped from the starting lineup and it had nothing to do with his injury. It literally took 3-4 games for the coaching staff to figure out he has to be paired with Thomas or Turner; and as far as I recall, it was pretty much the same scenario the year before.

Why stop at just losing his starting job?  He literally played himself out of the rotation in those 3 games.  Brad wouldn't even play him in a bunch of games after that.  Clearly he sucks, and shouldn't even be on the roster.

I mean, there can't be any other explanation for him missing games and losing the starting job, right?

Of course there is. We should blame Turner, Thomas, Brad, the international situation, and Putin. Smart is a veritable playmaker savant, he's just misunderstood. Poor thing.

I was getting at the fact that he missed time due to injury, and when he came back the starting PG was playing at an all star level, but, sure, let's go with that

[chiken Green]

Yeah, that's a short-sighted argument to make. He didn't "play himself out of the role" and Brad didn't "yank him from that role." He literally played three games to start the season, sat out three games to recover from the minor injury, came back for six games, and then had his major injury.

Of course he did. He was the starting PG and then he wasn't. And it took less than 10 games. He lost his playmaking responsibilities long before he was dropped from the starting lineup and it had nothing to do with his injury. It literally took 3-4 games for the coaching staff to figure out he has to be paired with Thomas or Turner; and as far as I recall, it was pretty much the same scenario the year before.

Why stop at just losing his starting job?  He literally played himself out of the rotation in those 3 games.  Brad wouldn't even play him in a bunch of games after that.  Clearly he sucks, and shouldn't even be on the roster.

I mean, there can't be any other explanation for him missing games and losing the starting job, right?

Of course there is. We should blame Turner, Thomas, Brad, the international situation, and Putin. Smart is a veritable playmaker savant, he's just misunderstood. Poor thing.

Maybe you are right.. Maybe smart does suck. Maybe Without him we could have won 48 games, and maybe the offense might have Ranked higher than the Actual NBA champs.. Maybe the team would have managed to improve every year that he was playing instead of what actually happened..  Imagine the possibilities if we didn't have that 2nd year guy screwing everything up on offense by chucking up bad 3's..

[Beat LA]

My father said I was good at this ....😈


I think the Celtics are good at this

Sounds like the two of you have/had quite the relationship (sarcasm) .

[TheSundanceKid]

I'd prefer a trade obviously but I'd be happy to start the year as is. I think Jackson and Bentil either get moved for a future 2nd or stashed somewhere. I don't see them on the roster opening day. Keep Nader on the roster. Past that I think we either re-sign Zeller or go after a rebounding big like Henry Sims on the vet min to round out the bench.

So a roster of:
IT, Bradley, Crowder, Horford, Amir
Smart, Rozier, Brown, JJ, KO
Hunter, Young, Nader, Mickey, Sims

Just shy of $10m under the cap so very flexible for mid season trades. Very marginally shy of the salary floor. Still moving forward from last year and in a position to make a big leap forward

[trickybilly]

I love this thread. Brooklyn pick now at #4

[liam]

I just saw where we are a game out of 2nd place in the east. It looks to me like we are a win and a loss out of second place but still we are right there even after starting the year with all the injuries.

[alewilliam789]

This is the smartest thing Ainge can do.   We got Horford.  Too many players are paid huge contracts that don't necessarily improve our team or put us in position to win.  I'm excited for our team.  Isaiah, Bradley, Crowder, Amir and Horford is a formidable lineup.  I'm more excited for our bench and developing players like Rozier, Smart, Brown, jerebko and Olynyk.  the celtics have a good team.   We could use a star but I'm not willing to give up Smart or Brown to do that.  Smart in particular is getting cast aside in deals here where I don't think it's smart. Keep the nets 17 draft pick.  Unless we can add a couple stars without giving up our core, there is no reason to do that.

The Celtics are in position where they can be sitting really pretty with that 17 draft pick. I would possibly move that or the 18 for a surefire star, but no way I am giving up our core.

Smart
Brown
Isaiah
Horford

should not be traded.  Avery, Crowder and draft picks potentially to land a surefire star, but I would not move our core.

There are moves to be made to make us a better team without giving up much. We just couldn't even come close to imagining what they could be. Now if we are winning and settling in defensively then I would have no problem standing pat and signing a bought out veteran. I'm done bringing up trades because honestly it has no play in who we actually trade for. So I'm going to sit back and hang on for the ride.

[trickybilly]

a 30 year old Horford, signed here so we could Do NOTHING-?

Lol I pictured this when I read the thread title. TP for the giggles.

Gentle Reminder.

[LarBrd33]

I'm in favor of doing nothing, hoping one of the picks becomes a franchise player and seeing what happens. The only problem with that is we have too many players and at some point if we don't consolidate we're going to say goodbye to guys we wasted decent picks on.  Guys like Rozier, yabu, young, etc.  We aren't going to have roster spots for them.  We already gave up on RJ for this reason.

[trickybilly]

I'm in favor of doing nothing, hoping one of the picks becomes a franchise player and seeing what happens. The only problem with that is we have too many players and at some point if we don't consolidate we're going to say goodbye to guys we wasted decent picks on.  Guys like Rozier, yabu, young, etc.  We aren't going to have roster spots for them.  We already gave up on RJ for this reason.

And the bigger problem is that Fultz, Ball, and Smith will probably be the tier 1 guys, would you take a shot at one of them and trade away isaiah in the summer? You'd have to think about it, but Isaiah seems to be getting better and more crafty every game. It's stunning to watch..