Remaining Offseason Moves that would benefit the Celtics (Beat LA)

[Smartacus]

Contrary to what many might have people believe we have not lost the Lakers pick yet.

Until those ping pong balls drop the Lakers are a team who turned away quality players like Paul George in the short term to preserve their 2018 cap space.  They are putting their franchise in the hands of a talented but flawed rookie, a raw sophomore coming off a historically bad shooting season and a slow footed Center who has always been the candidate for most likely to suffer a season ending injury for being just too tall and big.

KCP is talented but lacks killer instinct and shot surprisingly poorly from 3 last season. They lost Nick Young who stole them a few games last year. Randle could be good or he could just be an old school big in the wrong era. Who is a Lopez Randle front court going to guard?

There's plenty that could happen between now and the end of the season that drops the Lakers to 1 of the 5 worst teams and that includes a couple of moves to solidify some of their competition at the bottom.

There are 3 moves still left to be decided in the race for the bottom...

1. Kyrie is traded to the Suns. If Kyrie Irving gets traded to the Suns they not only will have a player several tears above anyone on the Lakers but one that has had his winning mentality trashed in the media, it's possible he'll just be looking to rain fire on the league this season. Kyrie to the Suns could take one of the teams penciled in to be worse than LA and turn them into a playoff contender... Or at least better than the Lakers.

2. Nerlens figures it out with the Mavs. Dirk Nowitski. Rick Carlise. Dennis Smith Jr. Harrison Barnes. The Mavs have a solid mix of youth and experience and are a Nerlens Noel signing away from solidifying a core that IMO should have no problem beating LA.

3. Atlanta's too big to fail. The Atlanta Hawks may have lost Millsap and Hardaway Jr. but they have the bones of a playoff contender, a system that keeps everyone in line, a promising rookie of their own in John Collins and a coach that probably cares about his career record after leading teams to 50+ win seasons.

I've heard people say when talking about the Lakers "Oh well their clearly better than Atlanta and Chicago, look what happened to them." With Atl I'm not so sure. With Atlanta it's not necessarily moves that still could happen but more that some of their Offseason moves panning out. Resigning Muscala, bringing in Dedmon/Illyasova/Babbit, continued improvement from Taurean Prince, Bazemore, and Schroeder. This roster is a tough out on any given night things might not be so Showtime in Lakerland with a gassed roster come game 50.

[Surferdad]

Agree on the Suns (if they get Kyrie) and maybe the Mavs, but disagree on Atlanta. I think they are going to be bad.

[Irish Stew]

Agree on the Suns (if they get Kyrie) and maybe the Mavs, but disagree on Atlanta. I think they are going to be bad.

This. Atlanta roster looks like an expansion team. What might help them is playing night after night against mediocre to bad EC teams.

[timpiker]

Agree on the Suns (if they get Kyrie) and maybe the Mavs, but disagree on Atlanta. I think they are going to be bad.

This. Atlanta roster looks like an expansion team. What might help them is playing night after night against mediocre to bad EC teams.

I think I agree w u guys.  I think Kyrie going to PHX would be real good news.

[chiken Green]

I live in Atlanta.. They have there eyes on the top of this years draft..  They want a franchise player to build around.

[CelticsElite]

Atlanta is in the east where there are equally bad teams. Some of these bad teams will split their losses with wins against fellow bad teams

[moiso]

Agree on the Suns (if they get Kyrie) and maybe the Mavs, but disagree on Atlanta. I think they are going to be bad.

This. Atlanta roster looks like an expansion team. What might help them is playing night after night against mediocre to bad EC teams.

I knew they would be bad but I just looked at the roster.  It really does look like an expansion team.  They look Nets bad.

[chambers]

Agree on the Suns (if they get Kyrie) and maybe the Mavs, but disagree on Atlanta. I think they are going to be bad.

This. Atlanta roster looks like an expansion team. What might help them is playing night after night against mediocre to bad EC teams.

I knew they would be bad but I just looked at the roster.  It really does look like an expansion team.  They look Nets bad.

They are going to be bad but should be a tier above the Nets/Bulls considering their returning players and coach Bud. Buldenhozer is probably worth an extra 8 or 10 wins a year at least.

[chilidawg]

Who thinks we've lost the Lakers pick?

[CelticsElite]

Who thinks we've lost the Lakers pick?

no one rational lol

[Bucketgetter]

I actually like ATL 1-3 (Schroder, Bazemore, Prince). A lot of defense, and 2 solid shooters next to Schroder who will be unleashed next year. However they just have nothing at the big man position. They lost Milsap and Howard and got nothing back for them. They’ll be really bad but I think it will be good for them as they will be able to almost surely get a franchise big after just 1 year of tanking (Bagley, Porter, Ayton, or Bamba).

[moiso]

I actually like ATL 1-3 (Schroder, Bazemore, Prince). A lot of defense, and 2 solid shooters next to Schroder who will be unleashed next year. However they just have nothing at the big man position. They lost Milsap and Howard and got nothing back for them. They’ll be really bad but I think it will be good for them as they will be able to almost surely get a franchise big after just 1 year of tanking (Bagley, Porter, Ayton, or Bamba).

That might be the worst big 3 in the league.  Not sure how you can think highly of them as a group.  Shcroeder should have a very high scoring breakout year, but the other two just aren't very good.  Bazemore is a shooter who shot worse than the NBA average from the field and from 3.  Prince may develop but he's not a good player yet.

[Bucketgetter]

I actually like ATL 1-3 (Schroder, Bazemore, Prince). A lot of defense, and 2 solid shooters next to Schroder who will be unleashed next year. However they just have nothing at the big man position. They lost Milsap and Howard and got nothing back for them. They’ll be really bad but I think it will be good for them as they will be able to almost surely get a franchise big after just 1 year of tanking (Bagley, Porter, Ayton, or Bamba).

That might be the worst big 3 in the league.  Not sure how you can think highly of them as a group.  Shcroeder should have a very high scoring breakout year, but the other two just aren't very good.  Bazemore is a shooter who shot worse than the NBA average from the field and from 3.  Prince may develop but he's not a good player yet.

I didnt say as a big 3, I said it as point guard, shooting guard, small forward. I just really like their fit together and I am personally high on Schroder. Prince and Bazemore bring good defense and spot up shooting. Also I say I like it compared to 1-3 of the Nets and Lakers, not compared to actual good NBA teams.

[byennie]

Wow, I think I just realized that Atlanta is the worst team in the league. Schroder, Bazemore and Prince all are useful players, but they're a TERRIBLE group of starters.

Schroder is an average starter at PG... 18 & 6 with lots of turnovers and below average defense. He'll have some good offensive nights, but nothing special in a league of guards gone wild.

Bazemore is a role player turned below-average starting SG.

Prince is a rookie with a lot of defensive promise, who has a chance to be the best of this bunch, but that's a gigantic IF. He'll get murdered by the better SFs.

These guys paired with Ilyasova & Dedmon as *starters*? Yikes.

The only way Atlanta wins even 25 games is if these guys gel and play hard. The talent level is incredibly low.

[moiso]

I actually like ATL 1-3 (Schroder, Bazemore, Prince). A lot of defense, and 2 solid shooters next to Schroder who will be unleashed next year. However they just have nothing at the big man position. They lost Milsap and Howard and got nothing back for them. They’ll be really bad but I think it will be good for them as they will be able to almost surely get a franchise big after just 1 year of tanking (Bagley, Porter, Ayton, or Bamba).

That might be the worst big 3 in the league.  Not sure how you can think highly of them as a group.  Shcroeder should have a very high scoring breakout year, but the other two just aren't very good.  Bazemore is a shooter who shot worse than the NBA average from the field and from 3.  Prince may develop but he's not a good player yet.

I didnt say as a big 3, I said it as point guard, shooting guard, small forward. I just really like their fit together and I am personally high on Schroder. Prince and Bazemore bring good defense and spot up shooting. Also I say I like it compared to 1-3 of the Nets and Lakers, not compared to actual good NBA teams.

Yeah, I understand that but I think that 1-3 is horrible compared to the Lakers top 3 and on par with any 3 from the Nets.