It may be up to the Celtics to stop the Warriors

[guava_wrench]

It looks so far like Cleveland is going to get trounced, and this Warriors all-star team is here to stay. Cleveland has no roster flexibility to improve, and neither do any other contenders really outside of the Celtics and maybe the Spurs.

If the Celtics have that offseason we've all been waiting for, and land those two great players Ainge and Wyc say we need, we could be the team to do it. Wouldn't it be ironic if Durant's run ends against the Celtics? The only other possibility I can see is if CP3 goes to the Spurs.

I guess I don't understand the salary cap.  I mean I know I don't.  We on Celtics blog spend endless hours discussing the cap and how the Celtics can afford or can't afford this guy or those two guys...gotta get rid of Bradley and KO and a bunch of others in order to add Griffin, etc...yadda yards yadda.  Meanwhile the Warriors have 2 former MVP's and two all-stars all in their prime and there's no end in sight?  Are there any cap discussions on the Warriors fan board?

I'm basically in the same boat.

My understanding is that the Warriors are able to have what they have because Curry and Klay are still on relatively inexpensive deals.

But I don't understand how GS, with basically 4 stars, is going to be able to keep it together for many years (allegedly) while Boston, which has only 1.5-ish stars (Horford is no longer at all-star level), is apparently gonna have to cut loose half the team if it wants to sign one max player in Hayward?

Is Curry expected to play for only $15-18M a season on his next deal? Is Durant gonna take far less than this year's salary of $26M on his next deal?

GS already had the players on their roster with team-friendly deals. That is why they could pick up Durant. Curry signed his deal before the MVPs. Klay and Green have well below market deals. Compare Klay to Bradley Beal. They didn't have any Horford-type deals yet. They also cut a lot of guys to get Durant, but since they are elite, they were able to sign vet replacements for cheap. Look at their roster. We have 10 players making 3m+. GS has 7. Their 9th highest paid player would be 13th highest paid on our roster, making more than only 3 players (Jackson, Green, and Mickey). Besides all the minimum contracts, the 4 all stars on GS are all significantly underpaid.

Just look at the 2 rosters and you can see what is going on.

http://hoopshype.com/salaries/boston_celtics/

http://hoopshype.com/salaries/golden_state_warriors/

Keep in mind that GS signed Durant when the cap exploded. That gave everyone cap space since rosters were filled with guys who signed deals under a smaller cap. We already have Horford signed after the cap spike for the same deal as Durant, a player who delivers far more value.

We would have to do what GS did. Renounce rights on all FAs and then pick up cheap vets chasing a ring. If no vets think we have a chance at a ring, it will be hard to pick them up cheap. By having multiple lottery picks on the roster, such as Brown, Smart, and this year's pick, we are also forced to pay significant amounts to guys not yet in their primes. GS doesn't have any such deals on their roster.

[LGC88]

I really think Silver screw up last year by not smoothing the salary cap.
On top of that, this year salary cap is 8 millions less than expected.
As a result, not only it favors GS last year but now handicap the rest of the teams.

KD, Curry can take pay-cut with champions endorsements they will receive.
Meanwhile other team have to max out any all star or great starter and overpay for role players.
The nets even struggle to overpay players.

There is obviously something wrong with the system... since NBA wants so much "parity" and failed miserably.
People compare this situation with the Heat, Lakers and Celtics super-teams. I'm sorry, they are wrong. During that time, there was competition with many 7 game series.

Now it's sweeping time. Such a joke.
As a basketball fan, I'm sad to see that. I love this sport for the competitive side of it, not the dominance of any team.

[TheSundanceKid]

It looks so far like Cleveland is going to get trounced, and this Warriors all-star team is here to stay. Cleveland has no roster flexibility to improve, and neither do any other contenders really outside of the Celtics and maybe the Spurs.

If the Celtics have that offseason we've all been waiting for, and land those two great players Ainge and Wyc say we need, we could be the team to do it. Wouldn't it be ironic if Durant's run ends against the Celtics? The only other possibility I can see is if CP3 goes to the Spurs.

I guess I don't understand the salary cap.  I mean I know I don't.  We on Celtics blog spend endless hours discussing the cap and how the Celtics can afford or can't afford this guy or those two guys...gotta get rid of Bradley and KO and a bunch of others in order to add Griffin, etc...yadda yards yadda.  Meanwhile the Warriors have 2 former MVP's and two all-stars all in their prime and there's no end in sight?  Are there any cap discussions on the Warriors fan board?

They basically have a 3-4 year window before they have to move someone, they'll probably move Thompson for depth before his contract expires

[JOMVP]

It looks so far like Cleveland is going to get trounced, and this Warriors all-star team is here to stay. Cleveland has no roster flexibility to improve, and neither do any other contenders really outside of the Celtics and maybe the Spurs.

If the Celtics have that offseason we've all been waiting for, and land those two great players Ainge and Wyc say we need, we could be the team to do it. Wouldn't it be ironic if Durant's run ends against the Celtics? The only other possibility I can see is if CP3 goes to the Spurs.

I guess I don't understand the salary cap.  I mean I know I don't.  We on Celtics blog spend endless hours discussing the cap and how the Celtics can afford or can't afford this guy or those two guys...gotta get rid of Bradley and KO and a bunch of others in order to add Griffin, etc...yadda yards yadda.  Meanwhile the Warriors have 2 former MVP's and two all-stars all in their prime and there's no end in sight?  Are there any cap discussions on the Warriors fan board?

Well, it was kind of a perfect storm of things to happen all at once for this to happen. The cap blew up after they locked in Steph, Klay, and Draymond to modest deals. They signed those deals too before they as players really blew up as well. They had the room to fit Durant and fill holes with cheap players.

What I will be confused about is really how they keep it together in the future. Unless the owner of the Warriors wants to pay close to 50-100 million extra in luxury tax. Are Curry and Durant going to take that deep of a paycut to retain Iguodala and Livingston? I doubt it. If they dont have to part ways with Klay Thompson then there is something fishy going on there.

[obnoxiousmime]

I really think Silver screw up last year by not smoothing the salary cap.
On top of that, this year salary cap is 8 millions less than expected.
As a result, not only it favors GS last year but now handicap the rest of the teams.

KD, Curry can take pay-cut with champions endorsements they will receive.
Meanwhile other team have to max out any all star or great starter and overpay for role players.
The nets even struggle to overpay players.

There is obviously something wrong with the system... since NBA wants so much "parity" and failed miserably.
People compare this situation with the Heat, Lakers and Celtics super-teams. I'm sorry, they are wrong. During that time, there was competition with many 7 game series.

Now it's sweeping time. Such a joke.
As a basketball fan, I'm sad to see that. I love this sport for the competitive side of it, not the dominance of any team.

It's not Silver's fault. The player's union didn't want "smoothing" and I can understand that. Unfortunately this has been the result.

The best players are always going to be able to take pay cuts due to their endorsements. Some stars (like the Spurs stars) just take discounts even though they don't have any endorsements. Tom Brady's cheap deal has been a big benefit to the Patriots in maintaining depth.

Due to the timing of their rebuild, the Celtics didn't really have any stars besides Isaiah signed up long term to "old cap" cheap deals. They were keeping players on short-term deals, saving their future flexibility for when a star became available. When the spike hit it helped the good teams who already had stars on long-term deals signed up because they could add another piece. The teams that were pinching pennies and saving cap space for a run at a top guy like Durant were hurt by the spike.

Even if Golden State wasn't in the picture, I think the timing was a little off. Last year's team didn't have Isaiah jumping to 29 ppg. It didn't get the no 1 seed. It didn't make it out of the first round. It didn't have the first overall pick, it had the 3rd pick in a draft where the first two players were considered a tier above the rest. I can totally understand, even with the addition of Horford, Durant looking at that team and thinking it wasn't an upgrade from staying an extra year with the Thunder.

Anyway, that was our chance at contending the next few years. Durant is a step above anybody else we could acquire, and now he's on the team that was already much better than us.

[Csfan1984]

Trade Fultz, and Crowder for LeBron lol

[CFAN38]

It looks so far like Cleveland is going to get trounced, and this Warriors all-star team is here to stay. Cleveland has no roster flexibility to improve, and neither do any other contenders really outside of the Celtics and maybe the Spurs.

If the Celtics have that offseason we've all been waiting for, and land those two great players Ainge and Wyc say we need, we could be the team to do it. Wouldn't it be ironic if Durant's run ends against the Celtics? The only other possibility I can see is if CP3 goes to the Spurs.

1st its one game Lebron will make a series out of this.

2nd short of trading for A Davis and PG the Cs are not amassing the talent in this off-season to be on the level of the Cavs let along the Warriors.

This is why I believe DA will hold off on any crazy short sighted moves and allow the youth to build to the future. If Fultz is the star many of us hope he can be and the Jaylen develops the Cs may be able to construct the roster that challenges the Warriors in 3-4 years. 

[Surferdad]

It looks so far like Cleveland is going to get trounced, and this Warriors all-star team is here to stay. Cleveland has no roster flexibility to improve, and neither do any other contenders really outside of the Celtics and maybe the Spurs.

If the Celtics have that offseason we've all been waiting for, and land those two great players Ainge and Wyc say we need, we could be the team to do it. Wouldn't it be ironic if Durant's run ends against the Celtics? The only other possibility I can see is if CP3 goes to the Spurs.

1st its one game Lebron will make a series out of this.

2nd short of trading for A Davis and PG the Cs are not amassing the talent in this off-season to be on the level of the Cavs let along the Warriors.

This is why I believe DA will hold off on any crazy short sighted moves and allow the youth to build to the future. If Fultz is the star many of us hope he can be and the Jaylen develops the Cs may be able to construct the roster that challenges the Warriors in 3-4 years.

It very well could go down this way.  If so, many of us C's fans need to acknowledge that the "Horford/IT era" may just be a bridge to the future championship foundation, not a core that the Celtics will build on for a near-term run.  The turning point to moving to this longer-term strategy was the inability to attract KD last off-season to make a Big-3 of KD/IT/Horford.  Danny got close though (got a meeting).

[CFAN38]

I really think Silver screw up last year by not smoothing the salary cap.
On top of that, this year salary cap is 8 millions less than expected.
As a result, not only it favors GS last year but now handicap the rest of the teams.

KD, Curry can take pay-cut with champions endorsements they will receive.
Meanwhile other team have to max out any all star or great starter and overpay for role players.
The nets even struggle to overpay players.

There is obviously something wrong with the system... since NBA wants so much "parity" and failed miserably.
People compare this situation with the Heat, Lakers and Celtics super-teams. I'm sorry, they are wrong. During that time, there was competition with many 7 game series.

Now it's sweeping time. Such a joke.
As a basketball fan, I'm sad to see that. I love this sport for the competitive side of it, not the dominance of any team.

It's not Silver's fault. The player's union didn't want "smoothing" and I can understand that. Unfortunately this has been the result.

The best players are always going to be able to take pay cuts due to their endorsements. Some stars (like the Spurs stars) just take discounts even though they don't have any endorsements. Tom Brady's cheap deal has been a big benefit to the Patriots in maintaining depth.

Due to the timing of their rebuild, the Celtics didn't really have any stars besides Isaiah signed up long term to "old cap" cheap deals. They were keeping players on short-term deals, saving their future flexibility for when a star became available. When the spike hit it helped the good teams who already had stars on long-term deals signed up because they could add another piece. The teams that were pinching pennies and saving cap space for a run at a top guy like Durant were hurt by the spike.

Even if Golden State wasn't in the picture, I think the timing was a little off. Last year's team didn't have Isaiah jumping to 29 ppg. It didn't get the no 1 seed. It didn't make it out of the first round. It didn't have the first overall pick, it had the 3rd pick in a draft where the first two players were considered a tier above the rest. I can totally understand, even with the addition of Horford, Durant looking at that team and thinking it wasn't an upgrade from staying an extra year with the Thunder.

Anyway, that was our chance at contending the next few years. Durant is a step above anybody else we could acquire, and now he's on the team that was already much better than us.

I do place blame on Silver and for that matter Stern. They should have seen this coming. I have no issue with super teams as long as there is some competitive balance. Its only 1 game and I think the Cavs turn it around but the fact that a team lost only 1 game in the east lead by one of the greatest players ever was beat that bad is telling. Had durant stayed with the Thunder or gone to any team other then the Warriors or Cavs we as fans would have been treated to a 4 elite team league (Cavs, Warriors, Spurs, Durant (thunder or Cs) with each team led by a clear MVP candidate. Behind those 4 teams we would have had the current playoff parity. That would have made for a very healthy balance for years. My coping out of the challenge and joining the Warriors Durant  threw off the league for years.

[SHAQATTACK]

Trade Fultz, and Crowder for LeBron lol

lebron does not want to be coached and told what to do......spoiled beyond help.    He has to have a YES man coach he can control.

Lue is a buddy and not much of a coach to Lebron.