If... if the celtics sign hayward and fultz...i see bradley and crowder getting traded...
I'll say it again here:
Trading Avery Bradley to sign Gordon Hayward might be a slight upgrade at best, and possibly a negligible move at worst. Everyone is substantially underrating how good Avery is.
People on this blog have to stop considering what Bradley, IT, or Smart will make for salary in 2018/19. That has no bearing on what this team does this summer. Ainge stated this clearly in the Herald article posted here yesterday. And even if you want to consider it, a strong argument could be made that having Avery at ~$20M is a better value than Hayward at ~$30M.
Additionally, people have to stop considering Fultz as a reason to trade Bradley off the roster. Fultz will be a 19 year-old rookie who has never competed against pros. Bradley is a better player than him right now. If Fultz is drafted by the Cs, he is not going to start, he is not going to play 20+ minutes, and he might not even be the 7th or 8th guy on the court.
The Celtics are in an amazing position given the fact that they can have talents like Jaylen Brown and (potentially) Markelle Fultz on their team - possible franchise cornerstones - and yet these guys have to earn their playing time behind Bradley and Crowder. If and when Brown and Fultz take on major roles and become starters, it will fully earned, where they prove they are clearly better players.
So if I can have just one thing for the remainder of the summer, until next season, I would hope it would be the end of the "Trade Bradley" and/or "Trade Crowder" threads.
Point of fact, we don't have to stop considering anything. What the team salary structure looks like in 2018/2019 has a HUGE impact on what any team does in 2017/2018. Any team that isn't considering 2,3,4 years down the road is a badly run organization.
No, it does not. Ainge - the guy who runs that team, which is a very well run organization - agrees with me. There is absolutely zero need to trade Avery Bradley now because he will be a free agent in one more season. Same with IT. Same with Marcus.
This idea that you have to trade pending free agents because you don't want to lose them for nothing is interesting in a league with a salary cap that requires teams to take back matching salaries. Letting people walk away does not require that. It isn't ideal but it isn't the end of the world, and it may just be that is the resolution for both Bradley and IT.
And, point of fact, fans do not need to consider player salaries and tax implications, either now or in the future. Again, Ainge agrees with me. I just sat through a whole season listening to people complain about Horford's salary. Why? I have no idea. It is not like the 95% of Celtics fans who are at home watching the team play are paying these salaries. So why do we care if Horford or IT are max players? Why do we care if Wyc & Co. pay the luxury tax? What exactly is everyone worried about?
All I care about is the team getting better.
Ahhh, it seems I misunderstood your post. My apologies. You're right, if the team is fine with letting a guy walk then there is no need to trade a guy. The fact that there might be a luxury tax crunch in 2018/2019 doesn't mean we HAVE to trade Avery or Smart. In many cases it is prudent to trade a guy before free agency to get something for him, but in the Celtics case where we already a boat load of assets keeping him to better our chances at a long playoff run probably helps the team more (experience for young players, free agent attraction) then getting a mid round pick for Bradley.
I do stand by my statement that teams absolutely consider the following year when planning the current. In a cap/tax league it matters. Otherwise you get into situation like the trail blazers are now when you are massively in the tax for a mediocre team you cant improve.
As for why fans should care about the financials, its because it effects team building and our chances of getting good in the future. We care about what Horford is worth (HE IS WORTH THE MAX AND MORE) because if he's not worth the max then we just used one of our max slots on a guy who is not good enough to help us win a title. That hamstrings the team. We care about the luxury tax because although we don't pay it, it may very well effect the construct of the team and the teams ability to win a title in the future. Fans should absolutely care about the money aspect of it (and do).
