No Brinks truck for IT could be why Ainge stood pat at deadline

[drogbagarnett]

Nobody mentioned this (or I haven't seen it anywhere so far) but one of the reasoning behind standing Pat might have been for us to really assess the value of some of our players who have been playing extremely well recently (KO, Young, Smart, etc) before giving them huge money soon... and that is especially true with IT...

He has been playing like a top 3 super star for the past 2 months, is that sustainable and what we should expect going forward or on the other hand would he crash back to earth soon. and not be worth that max contract he was gunning for..?

My theory is if you bring a Paul Georges or Jimmy Butler next to him right now, most likely we end up playing great with a deep playoff run but you won't know for sure the real intrinsic value of IT as a stud who can take you to ECF and is worth a Max contract. With such help IT could ask for a maximum contract next year because his whole year would have been brillant highlighted by the super human effort over Dec-Feb and the help at the deadline that pushed us to the ECF...

same thing would apply for the other players listed above whose limitations would be covered by a Butler or PG13 and deep playoff run, which will consequently make them ask for tons of money to Danny... Danny should want to pay those who can show their intrinsic value without any additional help right now and not pay everybody because we ended up being a contender thanks to JB or PG13...

Standing Pat allow us to keep our players back to Earth when contract negotiations comes around. All Danny would do is showing them 4th quarter of the Toronto or Chicago game, or the recent ATL game for example instead of them showing how well they were playing already before any superstar additions...

I think this is an underrated reason for us doing no trades at the deadline. We are not winning the title this year so let's keep long term costs low on negotiations with our players like KO, young, smart and IT...
and give ourselves room to keep everybody on the team or add a good ring chaser big or more help after adding our PG, or JB or Hayward or other star...

Of course if our current players show us in this year they are capable of maintain that excellent playing level that got us here (which I doubt without no help...)  than we can happily max out whoever truly deserves it and get in luxury tax territory if needed... But not before putting them to the test!!
Danny is smart!!!

[jmen788]

I was in the camp of thinking we must trade IT and not max him out, but it's impossible because he is now the face of the franchise and we'd look awful doing that... but now that he's running his mouth in the media saying he wants to keep his options open & he would love to play for the Lakers... let's just trade him this offseason.

[blink]

I was in the camp of thinking we must trade IT and not max him out, but it's impossible because he is now the face of the franchise and we'd look awful doing that... but now that he's running his mouth in the media saying he wants to keep his options open & he would love to play for the Lakers... let's just trade him this offseason.

can someone provide a quote / link to the IT comments about the lakers?  was that recently?

[Rosco917]

I was really disappointed in his comments about playing in LA. I don't give a Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline.e how his dad is a fan of the Lakers either. You keep info like that to yourself. The Celtics gave him the opportunity to be the main cog on this team. Nobody else did that. He should be saying "I bleed green"

I really hope we're not gonna have a problem here, where this contract stuff begins playing out in the media.

[jambr380]

I was in the camp of thinking we must trade IT and not max him out, but it's impossible because he is now the face of the franchise and we'd look awful doing that... but now that he's running his mouth in the media saying he wants to keep his options open & he would love to play for the Lakers... let's just trade him this offseason.

can someone provide a quote / link to the IT comments about the lakers?  was that recently?

Two of the first three posts in this thread...credit to rondohondo

http://forums.celticsblog.com/index.php?topic=89589.0

Some not so good stuff from our star. Hard to disagree with jmen right now...but only for a superstar return.

[cltc5]

Some of us have been wanting to trade IT, but ya know we love rondo no matter the issues staring you in the face 

[Boris Badenov]

I was in the camp of thinking we must trade IT and not max him out, but it's impossible because he is now the face of the franchise and we'd look awful doing that... but now that he's running his mouth in the media saying he wants to keep his options open & he would love to play for the Lakers... let's just trade him this offseason.

can someone provide a quote / link to the IT comments about the lakers?  was that recently?

Two of the first three posts in this thread...credit to rondohondo

http://forums.celticsblog.com/index.php?topic=89589.0

Some not so good stuff from our star. Hard to disagree with jmen right now...but only for a superstar return.

I don't get it. He said he was a fan of the Lakers before he got to the C's, and then the Lakers passed him over multiple times. He sounds more bitter about them than us.

The free agency stuff was standard "best for my family" patter. No one ever says anything different in that position. What's he supposed to say, "I plan to leave millions of dollars on the table because I love Danny Ainge soooooo much!"

[jmen788]

I was in the camp of thinking we must trade IT and not max him out, but it's impossible because he is now the face of the franchise and we'd look awful doing that... but now that he's running his mouth in the media saying he wants to keep his options open & he would love to play for the Lakers... let's just trade him this offseason.

can someone provide a quote / link to the IT comments about the lakers?  was that recently?

Two of the first three posts in this thread...credit to rondohondo

http://forums.celticsblog.com/index.php?topic=89589.0

Some not so good stuff from our star. Hard to disagree with jmen right now...but only for a superstar return.

I don't get it. He said he was a fan of the Lakers before he got to the C's, and then the Lakers passed him over multiple times. He sounds more bitter about them than us.

The free agency stuff was standard "best for my family" patter. No one ever says anything different in that position. What's he supposed to say, "I plan to leave millions of dollars on the table because I love Danny Ainge soooooo much!"

That's why it's sad that it seems like he's begging the Lakers. And all I'd like is he doesn't do this through the media - this is a very bad sign.

[Ogaju]

Player contracts are always a problem. We have too many overachieving players on subpar contracts for this not to be a problem going forward. When I posted this months ago I was shouted down. Well, here we go.

[blink]

I was in the camp of thinking we must trade IT and not max him out, but it's impossible because he is now the face of the franchise and we'd look awful doing that... but now that he's running his mouth in the media saying he wants to keep his options open & he would love to play for the Lakers... let's just trade him this offseason.

can someone provide a quote / link to the IT comments about the lakers?  was that recently?

Two of the first three posts in this thread...credit to rondohondo

http://forums.celticsblog.com/index.php?topic=89589.0

Some not so good stuff from our star. Hard to disagree with jmen right now...but only for a superstar return.

Why is IT even bringing up another team at this point?  That is sad.  These things are a two way street though, if IT isn't going to commit long term to wanting to be a Celtic, then we have other options.  Not sure how serious all this is, but it isn't what we want to hear as fans.  Thanks for the link!

[blink]

Player contracts are always a problem. We have too many overachieving players on subpar contracts for this not to be a problem going forward. When I posted this months ago I was shouted down. Well, here we go.

Well especially with IT.  He has way outplayed his contract and will want to have his next contract even out the playing field, I understand.  I am just not sure if we should be giving it to him.  I would mind giving a max level contract for 3 years.  I don't want a huge 5 year deal for IT though.

[TheSundanceKid]

I was in the camp of thinking we must trade IT and not max him out, but it's impossible because he is now the face of the franchise and we'd look awful doing that... but now that he's running his mouth in the media saying he wants to keep his options open & he would have loved to have played for the Lakers... let's just trade him this offseason.

Fixed it for you. Nothing wrong with what he said. I imagine Pierce felt that way too once upon a time... He turned out ok

[Neurotic Guy]

I wonder if Isaiah's name ever came up in trade talks for JB or PG.  My guess is the answer is no. Of course DA wouldn't have offered him, but would Chicago or Indiana have inquired about him?  My guess is that no one wants to build around a 5'8" scorer.  And no one wants to spend  more than 25% of their cap space on him. 

I'd like to see DA package him to a rising team with excess young talent or to an established team that wants a spark plug 6th man -- in exchange for young talent / draft picks.

Noel and Philly's Laker pick might have been a starting point for an interesting swap.  We take a step back but gain assets  to build for the post-Horford era.  Sadly, I am afraid that expending 60M on IT and Al is a recipe for failure.

[CroCorvus]

Yeah, I saw his comments about the Lakers and keeping his options open, and that doesn't concerne me too much. He played his ass off for that current contract and that's ok. If he want a max contract I would be fine with Danny passing on that and trading him in the off season. But I get what you are saying, and this three signs are pointing that could be the case and DA's long-term plan:

1. The Celtics standing pat at the trade deadline (in other words: we know we are not contending right now but in the next couple of years, so we give this team a chance and see what happens. There's a very good chance this team get's past first round and maybe even second round (if Toronto stays at fourth spot), get some experience to our youngins and then deal with it later. That way DA's going to see with what pieces he builds his contender. Is it with or without IT as teh main guy). 

2. Wyc's comments about needing TWO great/superstar players on this team (in other words; I doubt the management and owners are building the next contender in a way as Warriors did with four superstars. I believe it will be next Big three. That way Wyc maybe indicates the team are more leaning to Horford being the first part of the next Big three then IT...).

3. IT comments about future.... (what it means; this could be the nuss product of the previous two, so IT is positioning himself for the next contract, saying indirectly (because he doesn't want to disrespect the organisation and his teammates), being good teammate....).

Maybe the Celtics have already indicated to IT that this is it. We trade for you, we knew you could play, we gave you a chance and you way out performed your current contarct and all expectations (including yours). We wanted you to be our Lou Williams off the bench but due to some circuimstances, you ended getting to be our main offensive weapon. We knew this, we knew you could score, but we didn't plan this IT all star thing, it just happend. All praise to you IT, but we just doesn't see you here long-term as a main guy, a max guy who can lead us to Banner 18.
So, we will let this group of guys go finish the season, go in to the playoffs and see what happens. If you play extremely well, if you go in the Eastern conference finals and lose to the Cavs in 6 or 7, OK we will consider it carefully and plan our next step and strategy. Look IT, you have deserve it, you have been the best player on a team that almost got to the Finals, so we will trade out most valuable assets and give you the next superstar so that you, Al and him can contend in next few years. Of cours, you will get your max....
Otherway around, we lose in first or second round, DA sees all deficiencies with this team and says to hell with it, we are sticking to our strategy of contending long term, so he starts to looking for a trade parter for IT. Of course he will try to trade him to a team who wants him, who wants to extend him, so he trades him basically for 50 cents, but that's ok.
When comes june/july, we pick our next PG of the future, along with Smart, Jae, Jaylen and Horford, we sign Hayward and go from there. Another 50 win team oozing with potential long-term...
 

[Smartacus]

I read this a bit differently, mainly that IT is giving Danny an out.

It's pretty clear that if we use the 2017 Brooklyn Pick we'll be coming away with a 5 star prospect at lead guard. IT has 2 options in that case he can either admit that he was never really that good and accept a bench role and lesser contract once the new player is ready to take charge or he can cuss out the Celtics management until they feel the need to trade him to a team where he will be the undisputed starter.

What these comments are is something in between. IT recognizes that the writing is on the wall sooner rather than probably he or Celtics management were hoping and is both praising the Celtics organization for giving him the opportunity and betting on himself that he is absolutely worth his contract and that he'll have to keep his options open for him and his family.

The Lakers comment may have only been so that people could unattach themselves from him easier when the time comes for the trade. Trading away the MVP Candidate face of our franchise and all around good guy who helped recruit Horford seems unfathomable. Trading away a self professed Laker fan who is only interested in his contract is a bit more palatable.

Danny and IT are so close I would not put it pass the 2 of them to have collaborated on what IT would say to save the franchise's face while also making sure IT ends up in the ideal situation. If he get's traded I'd wish him nothing but the best.