Hey OP... You cant straight up ignore the fact that without Horford there is no option to get Hayward/Grffin or Paul.
Horford was a top 5 player in the playoffs this past season, he's a huge part of the reason anyone wants to sign with us. So OP, what do you have to say about that? Can you address this simple fact.
You can can straight up ignore that fact simply for this, no Horford you'd have max money for two players. If we didn't sign Horford to a deal. So then guess what you'd have both Griffin and Hayward. Hayward looked at Boston as soon as we signed Stevens as our couch.
Horford a Top 5 player in this playoffs that's a joke. Here's a list of better players in playoffs this season.
1. James
2. Irving
3. Durrent
4. Curry
5. Leonard
6. Wall
7. George
8. Westbrook
9. Harden
10. Thomas
11. Green
12. The Greek Freak
13. Thompson
14. Love
The playoffs can be tricky for comparisons because each individual plays different numbers of games and against different opponents. All you can really say is how a player did in the games he played against the opponents he faced.
In the Bulls series, Horford was definitely the best player on either team. He had the highest GmSc average of any player, accrued the most Win Shares and at the highest rate. He had the highest scoring efficiency and the highest assist rates and of the players with at least 100 minutes had the 2nd highest defensive rebounding rate.
In the Wizard series, he was second or third behind Isaiah (who was clearly the best player in that series) and Wall in most offensive categories, but still had the edge over those guys in some (he led that series again with an unreal scoring efficiency of 77.6%!!!) and overall had a fantastic series.
His CLE series was forgettable, as it was for all the Celtics.
I dunno if I would say he was 'top 5' because it's really hard to compare to how other players performed in other series. And the simple existence of Lebron, Durant and Leonard automatically mean it would only take two other names to bump him out of the top 5.
But he was definitely one of the top two Celtic players in the playoffs and the Celtics made it to the ECF. That counts for quite a lot, imho.