How much would rumored targets have changed 2017 playoff run for Celtics?

[Beat LA]

The Celtics were tied to Cousins, Butler, George, Ibaka, Noel, Tucker, and Melo over the course of the trade deadline season. Build your template for the expected deal and how much you think the deal would have changed our playoff fortunes.

My attempt:

Cousins: Rozier+ Nets '17 + Salary --> sweep Bulls, take Wiz in 6, lose in 6 to Cavs OR beat Bulls in 7, lose to Wiz in 5 if he is the cancer AInge thought he was

Butler: Nets '17 + Crowder--> sweep round 1, Wiz in 5, cavs defeat us in 5, 6 if Marcus pulls another game out of his ass

George: Nets '17 + Crowder + Brown or Nets '18--> sweep Round 1, Wiz in 5, Cavs in 6

Ibaka: Rozier and non-nets 1sts --> Bulls series in 5, Wiz series in 6, Cavs result not changed, but less embarassing

Noel: Non-nets protected first+Rozier --> beat Bulls in 5, Wizards in 5, Cavs result same, but much closer games. In fact its possible we steal game 5 if we had had a rim-protector during Kyrie's takeover

Tucker: handful of second rounders--> no notable change

Melo: Rozier, a non-nets pick, and salary(Amir+Zeller+Jonas?)--> Sweep Bulls, Wiz series goes 6, cavs series is much closer and probably still ends in 5, but that 5 is less of an anomoly and more of a genuinem deserved team win.

most of these are just guesses and Im definitely happy Ainge stood pat. What do you guys think?

Hey look, we agree on something, lol .

[mctyson]

In terms of beating Cleveland?  Paul George.

That's it.

[Csfan1984]

I feel Cousins, Horford, Crowder, AB and a healthy IT takes Cavs to 7 games. Cavs have no one to stop Cousins. We saw Horford be very successful in the post. Cousins would have killed them. Of course team probably gives up Smart, Brown and KO in that deal so that's a rough hit just to "maybe" win the series. I still feel Warriors would have beat that team.

[LilRip]

I guess I'm alone here. If we landed Cousins (for almost nothing), and then gutted our depth to land Butler (or George), we'd lose to Cavs in 7, but part of that would have been unfamiliarity due to lack of training camp.

I think IT-Bradley-Butler-Horford-Cousins can knock off Cavs and GSW with a full training camp. The reason I think this is because 1) only Kawhi probably guards Lebron better than Butler and 2) Cousins is a problem for both Cle/GSW.

[ederson]

No you are not 

I don't think Cousins you have changed much this season. Celtics is a system's team. It s not easy to incorporate a new player especially one who would be an important part of the team.

But next season would have been great!

[Big333223]

Tucker doesn't move the needle.

Ibaka, Melo, or Noel would've made the first two rounds a little easier, maybe taking a game off each series but maybe not even that against Washington. Same outcome against Cleveland.

Butler or George would've made the first two rounds much easier and would've made those blowouts against the Cavs more competitive but I don't think either could've gotten the team to even a game 7. 

Cousins is the most interesting because, on paper, I think that team could rampage through the East. But Cousins hasn't actually shown that he is a winner at the NBA level. He might have just poisoned that locker room.

[Csfan1984]

Does another year of maturity make Cousins a great 2018 FA target? I mean say we lose out on Hayward /Griffin, DA punts and signs Taj to AJ type contract this off season. You then have flexibility to sign Cousins and then resign IT as well as AB with their total cap holds being super low.

IT, AB, Brown, Horford, Cousins
Fultz, Brown, Porter, Yab, Zizic
Talk about rebuilding a C's dynasty