2016 Boston Celtics Offseason Thread

Boston can be wrong, just like any other team, and they have chosen the wrong player before in the 1st round when it was fairly obvious at the time. It's more than ok to question it all 3 first round picks.

Danny is a good (or better) GM, he crushes trades frequently, but hes' not a good drafter. I think it's his most glaring weakness.

The good far outweighs the bad with him, but he hasn't been great in the draft. 

Yes it is lottery protected so the Clippers have to make the playoffs. Last night the station I was viewing said protected to the first 8 picks. We'll see. I think the stockpile of draft picks first seen as assets ultimately worked to our relative disadvantage because we had to get rid of some.

Also I think the C's were guilty for 2 years leading people to believe/expect that "fireworks" were going to occur. When they didn't, it was an understandable downer.

Finally, Trader Danny has done pretty well in the market and I think that dampens some the desire to "deal" with him.

Let's go year by year on who he actually drafted and kept, since that's what my point has been.

2003: traded for better players he didn't draft
2004: very good draft
2005: solid
2006: traded for better players he didn't draft
2007: drafted a player to trade
2008: terrible
2009: they didn't have picks, so it's a nothing draft
2010: real good
2011: really bad
2012: average
2013: average
2014: Smart was the right player at the time and now, Young was a miss with obvious better players available
2015: too soon to be concrete but not impressive
2016: too soon to be concrete but really low marks from several sources


Like I've been saying, his trades are usually really good but I'm not counting those for drafting for other teams. Since he didn't make the pick, the other team(s) did. Should he get credit for that? I'm not so sure.

3 trades that turned out well, not his picks. 
2 good drafts.
4 solid/average drafts.
2 below average drafts.
2 bad (or looking that way without enough time) drafts.

I don't think he's been good in the draft. He's clearly not the worst in the league, but it's a weakness of his. I bet he's about average during the draft, but his strengths of trading/cap gymnastics push him up towards the top of his profession.

Yea if Warriors didn't take Jones at 30.  Best comp for Yabusele that I've heard is Larry Johnson, which you can easily see.

tjb.... Rather than quote all your posts ill consolidate here:

1. No one said you couldn't question or be disappointed what I did say was it's foolish to say they could have traded down and still gotten Brown. I won't state why again but if you can't understand that fact I don't know what to say other than you just don't have a grasp yet of the reality of the draft and trade world I guess... Hate on the pick all you want it's fine, just don't use that as part of your reasoning.

Also regarding your draft analysis, I can't b sure, but it seems like you are counting players Ainge drafted as being drafted by other teams. You are either doing this because you weren't old enough to actually see those drafts and are just looking at historic records or because again you don't have an understanding of how the draft works. For example Davis will always show as he was "drafted by the Celtics then traded to Memphis" - but in reality Memphis made that pick. Trades like this don't technically become official right away like in football so teams draft for the other squad. It doesn't mean the Celtics made those picks. Rondo was drafted by Ainge he didn't trade for him after another team picked him.

The more I watch Brown clips and see the team around him at Cal, the more I like the pick. His jumper looks pretty smooth, he's excellent in transition, has a 7'0 wing span to go along with elite athleticism, looks like he's really smart with his change of pace and has good burst going to the basket, and he has a really good feel around the basket on floaters/runners and such. Also got to the line at an elite level as a freshman in college. Give him good coaching, better spacing, and someone else to help create good looks for him and he should look much better. Plus there are all the reports of him being a really smart dude, academically interested and all that, which I have to see as a plus honestly, even if there were those reports that he didn't interview well- can't imagine the celtics didnt do their due diligence in that regard.

On the other picks, I absolutely hated the Davis trade, but in a vacuum, I don't know that the overall value of dealing the picks themselves was bad- it stung for me because it was Davis specifically, not because I thought that it was bad value based on the picks themselves. I think the clips keep their core together, but realistically they are probably on the playoff bubble in two years- Doc has shown very little aptitude as a GM and that core is aging, but I'm not sure if i see Blake or Chris Paul leaving without something unexpected happening, and the west appears to be getting weaker below the very top

Now that the draft is over the next dates of interest are:

6/30 - Qualifying offers due to Sullinger, Zeller and Datome (yes, we still have his rights)

7/3/16 - Contracts for Johnson and Jerebko become guaranteed.


While I am wary of offering Sully a big deal (as most seem to be), I think he gets the QO for sure. If they can work out a trade, that's probably best. If he gets a big offer, let him walk. If they acquire an upgrade, let him walk (rescind the QO if no offer sheet). Basically, if no other replacement is found and he doesn't get a big offer, let him take the QO for a year (rare, but it can happen). I wouldn't want to set more than a 50/50 chance he's with the team.

I really don't see Zeller getting an offer. Sure, he's probably the closest thing we have to a C (Sully, Johnson and Olynyk are more PFs that sometimes play in the middle), but I'm not sure that's a big deal right now. For what he provides, I'm not sure he's worth the QO but maybe it depends on other moves.

Not sure how it works with Datome. Do they have to give him a QO given that he's playing overseas? He seems to always keep in touch with Boston via Social Media (so he'd make for a nice "break in case of emergency" option). Not sure what will (or needs to) happen. Either way, it's probably not a real impact on the 16-17 team.

Johnson is the closest thing Boston has to a rim-protector. That's not saying a lot but, still, he provides value (6.2 WAR last year). Even if you upgrade his starting spot, backup bigs are going to get paid so 1 year at $12Mn??? We may see worse this offseason. Unless you use his salary in a trade, do you keep him and, hopefully, move him to the bench (assuming an upgrade)? I suppose you could not pick up the contract and then try to sign him back (but, again, that would probably cost you as much money - even if spread out over multiple years - if not more). Not sure what the call is here.

I like Jerebko but I think he's gone. Absent any other moves, I think they'd still want to give his minutes to Mickey.

Phase 1 is complete. Let's see what Phase 2 brings.

I want to bring back Sully and Johnson. Sully gets a QO for sure. The question for him is what type of deal will another team offer and how much Celtics will be willing to pay. I know most on this board want Sully gone, but his advanced numbers are just about the same as Johnson and he's 24.

Zeller and Jerebko I think are gone. Really don't care either way, but we need room for rookies. I also think Young is gone.

Good points here. Both will be underpaid for what the market standard will be. They still provide more value than what they're paid at this point. 

Seems like an easier decision. 


I wonder what the backcourt rotation will look like this year. Lots of young guys available for minutes.

But Thompson is a better player and was paid prior to the cap jumping, not after. So I'm not sure if that is a clean comparison.

Regardless, Sullinger was valuable, not sure if he is part of the future or not. Likely depends on final cost and other moves.

And Thompson was a birds rights signing on a championship contending team that was against the cap. If they lost him they couldn't replace him. Situations couldn't be more different. When you are against the cap and a contender and you have bird rights to useful players u go over the cap to sign them no problem. If your owners are winners that is.