What's your best-case scenario for this offseason?

[Monkhouse]

Realistic Best Case
1. Irving and Hayward are both 100% by the start of the season
2. Lebron signs with Lakers or some other western team that isn't the Rockets or Warriors (or if he stays in the East stays in Cleveland)
3. Sixers strike out in free agency and don't acquire anyone in trades (like say Leonard)
4. Smart signs for the qualifying offer
5. Baynes comes back at the MLE

Dreamland Best case
1a. James agrees to a sign and trade for Horford and Tatum
1b. Leonard and Mills are acquired for Irving, BOS 1st, filler
3. Smart re-signs on a reasonable deal, say 4 year, 40 million
4. Baynes re-signs for MLE
5. Monroe re-signs at 20% for 1 year, with a team option for year 2

What. The. !@#$?

Unbelievable. Everything Celticsclay has said about you is right. This is just awful.

[gouki88]

Realistic Best Case
1. Irving and Hayward are both 100% by the start of the season
2. Lebron signs with Lakers or some other western team that isn't the Rockets or Warriors (or if he stays in the East stays in Cleveland)
3. Sixers strike out in free agency and don't acquire anyone in trades (like say Leonard)
4. Smart signs for the qualifying offer
5. Baynes comes back at the MLE

Dreamland Best case
1a. James agrees to a sign and trade for Horford and Tatum
1b. Leonard and Mills are acquired for Irving, BOS 1st, filler
3. Smart re-signs on a reasonable deal, say 4 year, 40 million
4. Baynes re-signs for MLE
5. Monroe re-signs at 20% for 1 year, with a team option for year 2

What. The. !@#$?

Unbelievable. Everything Celticsclay has said about you is right. This is just awful.

Yeeeep!

[Moranis]

Realistic Best Case
1. Irving and Hayward are both 100% by the start of the season
2. Lebron signs with Lakers or some other western team that isn't the Rockets or Warriors (or if he stays in the East stays in Cleveland)
3. Sixers strike out in free agency and don't acquire anyone in trades (like say Leonard)
4. Smart signs for the qualifying offer
5. Baynes comes back at the MLE

Dreamland Best case
1a. James agrees to a sign and trade for Horford and Tatum
1b. Leonard and Mills are acquired for Irving, BOS 1st, filler
3. Smart re-signs on a reasonable deal, say 4 year, 40 million
4. Baynes re-signs for MLE
5. Monroe re-signs at 20% for 1 year, with a team option for year 2

What. The. !@#$?

Unbelievable. Everything Celticsclay has said about you is right. This is just awful.

what are you talking about?  You don't want the best player on the planet on this team.  I guess you don't want to win titles and compete with Golden State.

[Erik]

Realistic Best Case
1. Irving and Hayward are both 100% by the start of the season
2. Lebron signs with Lakers or some other western team that isn't the Rockets or Warriors (or if he stays in the East stays in Cleveland)
3. Sixers strike out in free agency and don't acquire anyone in trades (like say Leonard)
4. Smart signs for the qualifying offer
5. Baynes comes back at the MLE

Dreamland Best case
1a. James agrees to a sign and trade for Horford and Tatum
1b. Leonard and Mills are acquired for Irving, BOS 1st, filler
3. Smart re-signs on a reasonable deal, say 4 year, 40 million
4. Baynes re-signs for MLE
5. Monroe re-signs at 20% for 1 year, with a team option for year 2

What. The. !@#$?

Unbelievable. Everything Celticsclay has said about you is right. This is just awful.

what are you talking about?  You don't want the best player on the planet on this team.  I guess you don't want to win titles and compete with Golden State.

LeBron James decides to leave Cleveland, picks Boston, and out of the goodness of our hearts we give them a premium asset for it? Whats the matter with you?

[Moranis]

Realistic Best Case
1. Irving and Hayward are both 100% by the start of the season
2. Lebron signs with Lakers or some other western team that isn't the Rockets or Warriors (or if he stays in the East stays in Cleveland)
3. Sixers strike out in free agency and don't acquire anyone in trades (like say Leonard)
4. Smart signs for the qualifying offer
5. Baynes comes back at the MLE

Dreamland Best case
1a. James agrees to a sign and trade for Horford and Tatum
1b. Leonard and Mills are acquired for Irving, BOS 1st, filler
3. Smart re-signs on a reasonable deal, say 4 year, 40 million
4. Baynes re-signs for MLE
5. Monroe re-signs at 20% for 1 year, with a team option for year 2

What. The. !@#$?

Unbelievable. Everything Celticsclay has said about you is right. This is just awful.

what are you talking about?  You don't want the best player on the planet on this team.  I guess you don't want to win titles and compete with Golden State.

LeBron James decides to leave Cleveland, picks Boston, and out of the goodness of our hearts we give them a premium asset for it? Whats the matter with you?

Why does Cleveland facilitate a sign and trade if they don't get anything of value?  They would just tell Boston to f-off because Boston can't sign him outright.  It has nothing to do with goodness of hearts, it has to do with the simple reality that unless Boston gives up value, then Boston can't sign and trade for James. 

[Erik]

Realistic Best Case
1. Irving and Hayward are both 100% by the start of the season
2. Lebron signs with Lakers or some other western team that isn't the Rockets or Warriors (or if he stays in the East stays in Cleveland)
3. Sixers strike out in free agency and don't acquire anyone in trades (like say Leonard)
4. Smart signs for the qualifying offer
5. Baynes comes back at the MLE

Dreamland Best case
1a. James agrees to a sign and trade for Horford and Tatum
1b. Leonard and Mills are acquired for Irving, BOS 1st, filler
3. Smart re-signs on a reasonable deal, say 4 year, 40 million
4. Baynes re-signs for MLE
5. Monroe re-signs at 20% for 1 year, with a team option for year 2

What. The. !@#$?

Unbelievable. Everything Celticsclay has said about you is right. This is just awful.

what are you talking about?  You don't want the best player on the planet on this team.  I guess you don't want to win titles and compete with Golden State.

LeBron James decides to leave Cleveland, picks Boston, and out of the goodness of our hearts we give them a premium asset for it? Whats the matter with you?

Why does Cleveland facilitate a sign and trade if they don't get anything of value?  They would just tell Boston to f-off because Boston can't sign him outright.  It has nothing to do with goodness of hearts, it has to do with the simple reality that unless Boston gives up value, then Boston can't sign and trade for James.

Marcus Morris? Another low first round pick(s)? Would they rather let LeBron walk for nothing or get picks (doesn't matter where they are.. they're in full rebuild mode) and fantastic asset in Marcus Morris who is basically well worth is contract (easily tradable). Why do you have to give them literally our best asset to "take on" Horford's contract, which is a joke in itself because Horford is worth his contract as well?

[Phantom255x]

Realistic Best Case
1. Irving and Hayward are both 100% by the start of the season
2. Lebron signs with Lakers or some other western team that isn't the Rockets or Warriors (or if he stays in the East stays in Cleveland)
3. Sixers strike out in free agency and don't acquire anyone in trades (like say Leonard)
4. Smart signs for the qualifying offer
5. Baynes comes back at the MLE

Dreamland Best case
1a. James agrees to a sign and trade for Horford and Tatum
1b. Leonard and Mills are acquired for Irving, BOS 1st, filler
3. Smart re-signs on a reasonable deal, say 4 year, 40 million
4. Baynes re-signs for MLE
5. Monroe re-signs at 20% for 1 year, with a team option for year 2

What. The. !@#$?

Unbelievable. Everything Celticsclay has said about you is right. This is just awful.

what are you talking about?  You don't want the best player on the planet on this team.  I guess you don't want to win titles and compete with Golden State.

LeBron James decides to leave Cleveland, picks Boston, and out of the goodness of our hearts we give them a premium asset for it? Whats the matter with you?

Why does Cleveland facilitate a sign and trade if they don't get anything of value?  They would just tell Boston to f-off because Boston can't sign him outright.  It has nothing to do with goodness of hearts, it has to do with the simple reality that unless Boston gives up value, then Boston can't sign and trade for James.

So Lebron to Houston isn't a possibility either. No way Cleveland does a sign and trade and take back Anderson's contract. Unless Capela is included they don't do it.

I'd consider Smart S&T, Morris, Yabusele and 2 future picks.

If they want a max player on our team or Jaylen or Tatum, they can kick rocks.

How often do sign and trades involve the team acquiring said-player to give up multiple PREMIUM assets anyways??

[Moranis]

Realistic Best Case
1. Irving and Hayward are both 100% by the start of the season
2. Lebron signs with Lakers or some other western team that isn't the Rockets or Warriors (or if he stays in the East stays in Cleveland)
3. Sixers strike out in free agency and don't acquire anyone in trades (like say Leonard)
4. Smart signs for the qualifying offer
5. Baynes comes back at the MLE

Dreamland Best case
1a. James agrees to a sign and trade for Horford and Tatum
1b. Leonard and Mills are acquired for Irving, BOS 1st, filler
3. Smart re-signs on a reasonable deal, say 4 year, 40 million
4. Baynes re-signs for MLE
5. Monroe re-signs at 20% for 1 year, with a team option for year 2

What. The. !@#$?

Unbelievable. Everything Celticsclay has said about you is right. This is just awful.

what are you talking about?  You don't want the best player on the planet on this team.  I guess you don't want to win titles and compete with Golden State.

LeBron James decides to leave Cleveland, picks Boston, and out of the goodness of our hearts we give them a premium asset for it? Whats the matter with you?

Why does Cleveland facilitate a sign and trade if they don't get anything of value?  They would just tell Boston to f-off because Boston can't sign him outright.  It has nothing to do with goodness of hearts, it has to do with the simple reality that unless Boston gives up value, then Boston can't sign and trade for James.

So Lebron to Houston isn't a possibility either. No way Cleveland does a sign and trade and take back Anderson's contract. Unless Capela is included they don't do it.

I'd consider Smart S&T, Morris, Yabusele and 2 future picks.

If they want a max player on our team or Jaylen or Tatum, they can kick rocks.

How often do sign and trades involve the team acquiring said-player to give up multiple PREMIUM assets anyways??

Cavs will be in the luxury tax and thus can't sign and trade for a player, thus they can't acquire Smart.  The only way Boston could create the salary needed to acquire James is by including Horford (or Hayward).  In the scenario I posed, Boston would have James, Leonard, Hayward, and Brown (along with Morris and Smart) for the 3 wing positions.  There just aren't enough minutes to go around.  Now sure, if you'd rather include Brown instead of Tatum, that works just fine for me, but I'd rather have kept the guy that could play and guard SG's then the guy that couldn't from a team construction stand point. 

Houston can take back some crappy salary from the Cavs, like JR Smith, which makes it more likely a trade situation.  Boston can't really do that.  But yeah, that is the biggest impediment to James ending up in Houston because they either have to acquire by a sign and trade or lose Capela, Ariza, etc. and basically gut their team. 

[GreenShooter]

Find a scorer off the bench (Will Barton, Tyreke Evans-type).
Trade Rozier in Gerald Henderson-type deal (either in a package for a top pick this year or straight up to a team that overvalues him at this time).
Keep Smart on a one year deal.
Find another big (whether it's through free agency or through the draft, if a deal into the lottery is made). Bamba or Carter would be ideal pick-ups in a trade-up scenario.
Keep Baynes.

[saltlover]

Realistic Best Case
1. Irving and Hayward are both 100% by the start of the season
2. Lebron signs with Lakers or some other western team that isn't the Rockets or Warriors (or if he stays in the East stays in Cleveland)
3. Sixers strike out in free agency and don't acquire anyone in trades (like say Leonard)
4. Smart signs for the qualifying offer
5. Baynes comes back at the MLE

Dreamland Best case
1a. James agrees to a sign and trade for Horford and Tatum
1b. Leonard and Mills are acquired for Irving, BOS 1st, filler
3. Smart re-signs on a reasonable deal, say 4 year, 40 million
4. Baynes re-signs for MLE
5. Monroe re-signs at 20% for 1 year, with a team option for year 2

What. The. !@#$?

Unbelievable. Everything Celticsclay has said about you is right. This is just awful.

what are you talking about?  You don't want the best player on the planet on this team.  I guess you don't want to win titles and compete with Golden State.

LeBron James decides to leave Cleveland, picks Boston, and out of the goodness of our hearts we give them a premium asset for it? Whats the matter with you?

Why does Cleveland facilitate a sign and trade if they don't get anything of value?  They would just tell Boston to f-off because Boston can't sign him outright.  It has nothing to do with goodness of hearts, it has to do with the simple reality that unless Boston gives up value, then Boston can't sign and trade for James.

So Lebron to Houston isn't a possibility either. No way Cleveland does a sign and trade and take back Anderson's contract. Unless Capela is included they don't do it.

I'd consider Smart S&T, Morris, Yabusele and 2 future picks.

If they want a max player on our team or Jaylen or Tatum, they can kick rocks.

How often do sign and trades involve the team acquiring said-player to give up multiple PREMIUM assets anyways??

Cavs will be in the luxury tax and thus can't sign and trade for a player, thus they can't acquire Smart.  The only way Boston could create the salary needed to acquire James is by including Horford (or Hayward).  In the scenario I posed, Boston would have James, Leonard, Hayward, and Brown (along with Morris and Smart) for the 3 wing positions.  There just aren't enough minutes to go around.  Now sure, if you'd rather include Brown instead of Tatum, that works just fine for me, but I'd rather have kept the guy that could play and guard SG's then the guy that couldn't from a team construction stand point. 

Houston can take back some crappy salary from the Cavs, like JR Smith, which makes it more likely a trade situation.  Boston can't really do that.  But yeah, that is the biggest impediment to James ending up in Houston because they either have to acquire by a sign and trade or lose Capela, Ariza, etc. and basically gut their team.

The Cavs could take back Smart if he were paid around $17 million.  That’s not the problem.  The problem, as I’ve been saying since last off-season, is that because of the base-year compensation rule, Smart’s salary is next to impossible to use in a sign-and trade, because from the Celtics’ perspective his salary only counts as half when determining how much they trade back.  So if the Cabs overpaid Smart a little and have him $17 million next year, it would only count as tho the Celtics were sending out $8.5 million.  Even if the Cavs made room to give Smart the max in Phantom’s proposal, the Celtics still wouldn’t be sending out enough to bring back James.  They couldn’t even afford Otto Porter.

Please, everyone, stop sending out Smart in sign-and-trade deals.  Phantom, I know I’ve made this correction to you before.

[GreenShooter]

With all the Lebron to Boston talk.....where are we sending Kyrie in this scenario? I'm not really asking. It's just rhetorical.

Let's kill the Lebron talk. Not because he's really, really good but because of reality.

[Somebody]

With all the Lebron to Boston talk.....where are we sending Kyrie in this scenario? I'm not really asking. It's just rhetorical.

Let's kill the Lebron talk. Not because he's really, really good but because of reality.

Easy. We send Kyrie back to Cleveland along with Smart to match salaries for Bron. Makes the most sense. Don't see why we should move our premium youngsters in Brown or Tatum, there is value in homegrown superstars.

[Moranis]

Realistic Best Case
1. Irving and Hayward are both 100% by the start of the season
2. Lebron signs with Lakers or some other western team that isn't the Rockets or Warriors (or if he stays in the East stays in Cleveland)
3. Sixers strike out in free agency and don't acquire anyone in trades (like say Leonard)
4. Smart signs for the qualifying offer
5. Baynes comes back at the MLE

Dreamland Best case
1a. James agrees to a sign and trade for Horford and Tatum
1b. Leonard and Mills are acquired for Irving, BOS 1st, filler
3. Smart re-signs on a reasonable deal, say 4 year, 40 million
4. Baynes re-signs for MLE
5. Monroe re-signs at 20% for 1 year, with a team option for year 2

What. The. !@#$?

Unbelievable. Everything Celticsclay has said about you is right. This is just awful.

what are you talking about?  You don't want the best player on the planet on this team.  I guess you don't want to win titles and compete with Golden State.

LeBron James decides to leave Cleveland, picks Boston, and out of the goodness of our hearts we give them a premium asset for it? Whats the matter with you?

Why does Cleveland facilitate a sign and trade if they don't get anything of value?  They would just tell Boston to f-off because Boston can't sign him outright.  It has nothing to do with goodness of hearts, it has to do with the simple reality that unless Boston gives up value, then Boston can't sign and trade for James.

So Lebron to Houston isn't a possibility either. No way Cleveland does a sign and trade and take back Anderson's contract. Unless Capela is included they don't do it.

I'd consider Smart S&T, Morris, Yabusele and 2 future picks.

If they want a max player on our team or Jaylen or Tatum, they can kick rocks.

How often do sign and trades involve the team acquiring said-player to give up multiple PREMIUM assets anyways??

Cavs will be in the luxury tax and thus can't sign and trade for a player, thus they can't acquire Smart.  The only way Boston could create the salary needed to acquire James is by including Horford (or Hayward).  In the scenario I posed, Boston would have James, Leonard, Hayward, and Brown (along with Morris and Smart) for the 3 wing positions.  There just aren't enough minutes to go around.  Now sure, if you'd rather include Brown instead of Tatum, that works just fine for me, but I'd rather have kept the guy that could play and guard SG's then the guy that couldn't from a team construction stand point. 

Houston can take back some crappy salary from the Cavs, like JR Smith, which makes it more likely a trade situation.  Boston can't really do that.  But yeah, that is the biggest impediment to James ending up in Houston because they either have to acquire by a sign and trade or lose Capela, Ariza, etc. and basically gut their team.

The Cavs could take back Smart if he were paid around $17 million.  That’s not the problem.  The problem, as I’ve been saying since last off-season, is that because of the base-year compensation rule, Smart’s salary is next to impossible to use in a sign-and trade, because from the Celtics’ perspective his salary only counts as half when determining how much they trade back.  So if the Cabs overpaid Smart a little and have him $17 million next year, it would only count as tho the Celtics were sending out $8.5 million.  Even if the Cavs made room to give Smart the max in Phantom’s proposal, the Celtics still wouldn’t be sending out enough to bring back James.  They couldn’t even afford Otto Porter.

Please, everyone, stop sending out Smart in sign-and-trade deals.  Phantom, I know I’ve made this correction to you before.

well that is another problem with Smart, I didn't know, but Cleveland will be in the luxury tax if they either sign James or trade him, so they can't acquire a player that is signed and then traded to them anyway.  Even without that Smart problem. 

[Moranis]

With all the Lebron to Boston talk.....where are we sending Kyrie in this scenario? I'm not really asking. It's just rhetorical.

Let's kill the Lebron talk. Not because he's really, really good but because of reality.

I had him going to the Spurs for Leonard.

[GreenShooter]

With all the Lebron to Boston talk.....where are we sending Kyrie in this scenario? I'm not really asking. It's just rhetorical.

Let's kill the Lebron talk. Not because he's really, really good but because of reality.

I had him going to the Spurs for Irving Leonard.

I definitely missed the "dreamland scenario".