No, Ainge does not need to get creative to keep the pick. I hope he trades it to help us out this year or next year with a veteran player.
This team does not need any more young projects. We are going into championship mode and need a rotation of veterans.
I find the premise of this thread completely ridiculous. We have a win now team and we need to take advantage of that and make win now moves.
Yup. In fact, even if Ainge cannot trade the pick for Evans or someone else, I’d prefer he just sell it for cash than to actually draft someone. Don’t want the pick at all regardless of if we get the laker pick or not.
Wow, this is the worst take I've seen on Celtics Blog yet. Sell a first round pick? Thats what garbage franchises do.
didn't Ainge kind of do this already? That late 1st (deyonta Davis) was traded for like a heavily protected 2nd rounder in like 20 years lol.
Yeah we had like 8 picks that year too. Good times
(Although the Yabusele and Zizic selections absolutely puzzled me at the time)
He had to stash players so he chose foreign players who would be easily stashed and yet he felt still had high upside. He literally had way to many draft picks that year.
Yet notice how he didn't just sell the picks. He kept them, made picks and didn't literally throw away an assett. The bulls sold a second to GS last draft and got rightfully smashed for the stupid move (GS drafted Bell). There's a million thing you can do with a first. Draft/Stash, Draft/d-league, draft/develop on bench, trade for future pucks, package with a player for better player. You don't throw it away for money. Even late firsts have ALOT of value in this NBA
But you do trade those picks for very good vet players who fill a void on your team, especially if you have those voids because you have 7-9 players already on rookie contracts but are vying for a deep playoff run. There comes a point where there is such a thing as having too much youth.
I disagree about the too mych youth part. I'm not trading a pick just because I have ALOT of young giys. A pick is a lottery ticket. The more you have the better the chance of winning. That said if you think you have a shot this year trading the pick us certainly defensible. Of course you could make the argument we would be moving a year early, that we aren't true contenders without Hayward. I don't know, but I trust Ainge.
Completely disagree about your stance that you can't have enough youth and ways to add on to that youth. Plain fact is youth doesn't win in the NBA and certainly not titles. This team already has too much youth because they have kept so many of the long shot lottery tickets already. This team doesn't need anymore long odds lottery tickets. It needs some proven veteran play.
I don't diagree that vets win more than youth. I just think if you are gonna trade a first your thnking should be "I want a vet to help us win, so I am willing to surredner an aseet" rather than "Well screw it this pick isnt an asset so lets just give it away." The OP i was repsonding to was willing to light an aseet on fire because we had anough young guys, he wanted to sell it not trade it for vet help. First round picks are more valuable the ever, you should never wnat to give one away because you have enough.
What this all comes down to is where you think this team is at. If we are in "win now" mode you trade the pick for help an go for it. Because you are right, vets win more than youth and the chance too win a chip trumps all. If you are in 'win later" mode you keep the pick, becasue 4 years of young guy is more valuable then 4 months of vets player who wont put you over the top. I think as soon as Hayward went down we were in "Win later" mode, but if Ainge disagrees I won't complain. The guy hasnt been wrong in like 5 years.