2019 Celtics Offseason Thread

Here’s a good article:

www.theringer.com/nba/2019/6/26/18758828/boston-celtics-free-agency-nikola-vucevic-kemba-walker


The more I think about it, I do think Vucevic is a better fit than Kemba Walker for the development of Brown and Tatum. However, I don’t want either. Like UMass has pointed out, I don’t want a center who needs to play 30 minutes a night if they don’t have lineup versatility. Like I mentioned, I really don’t want anyone who requires 15+ shots a night. Neither player fits what this team should be trying to do which is build around Tatum and Brown as your top options.

Which brings me back to this; it’s the best i can come up with and unfortunately it’s highly highly unlikely because you’re dealing with restricted free agents:

1. Sign Brogdon for 24m per year (sub max but close and a definite over pay but only chance of the Bucks not matching - they probably still will but at least you hurt them financially in the future)

2. Sign Thomas Bryant starting at what’s left over which should be just over 10m a year. This exceeds teams MLE money so you should just be competing with teams with cap space; it also exceeds slightly what the Wizards could offer. However, he does fall under the Gilbert Arenas rule so I’m not even positive we can offer him that much in the first year. If not, would they get crazy and pay him 5-6m the first 2 years then jump his salaries in 3 and 4 to the 18-20 range to scare off the Wizards?

The point is finding guys who fit that aren’t ball dominant. I’m a no thank you on both Kemba and Vucevic but I’ll quickly get excited if they signed either.

So here are some scenarios I see:

D. Russell ($24M) + $10M center or two TBD (people say Looney might get $13M?).
Brogdon ($24M) + $10M center TBD two TBD.
Randle ($24M) + Rozier or $8M point guard
Vucevic ($24M) + Rozier or $8M point guard
Kemba ($33M) + min center
Rozier + 2x $12M players

As a team, the Vucevic + Rozier makes the most sense, but for chemistry I really do like Kemba. I worry Randle doesn't solve the size issue since we'd still need a true 5 for significant minutes.

Is there a facilitator point guard available I'm not thinking of? Rubio I guess, but doesn't seem like Celts are in play.

Defense is going to be a big problem for this team under any of these scenarios unless $10M buys a 30min defense-first center. Horford was key to the entire team defense and Vuc/Randle will be a huge downgrade. Wing defense should be great still with Tatum/Brown/Smart/Hayward.

A few veteran centers that should be cheap Joakim Noah, Tyson Chandler, Robin Lopez, and likely not an option but I love his D Jordan Bell who is restricted.

Noah looked and played like the old Noah last year and is likely a veteran minimum guy. Lopez is still a quality defender and rebouder.

I worry about Bell, had a few issues on the Warriors. Yet that's why you can likely get him. He's still a good defender, rebounder, and most importantly he plays team ball and can really pass. He's had stretches were he looked awesome.

You should have an advantage over a bunch of teams also offering similar contracts in that you can offer playing time if you don't get better players.

Gotta love rumor season because Dallas can't sign Horford and Walker.

The numbers I'm seeing get us to 34 million yet that includes Semi and Theis cap hold. Like you could get slightly higher, but it really does nothing and would open up a ton of roster spots. Also looks like you'd have 1.3 million to sign Edwards to a long-term deal so you get his bird rights instead of a two year minimum deal.

This is a fun scenario:


www.masslive.com/celtics/2019/06/how-the-boston-celtics-can-get-aggressive-sign-two-big-free-agents-and-be-a-trade-deadline-player.html

Seriously I'd rather play Robert Williams 30 minutes a night than signing any of those guys (except Bell). We need to improve at the big man position, not downgrade it.

And is his role any clearer with Grant Williams added to the mix? If you're starting Hayward/Brown/Tatum as your 3 Wing/Swing players (along side a ball handler and a big) then Ojeleye and Williams are in competition for the same spot in the rotation. If GWill is starting, then he's in competition with 1 of the 3 (likely Hayward, until he proves otherwise).

To get to 34, you need to renounce ALL free agents. You CAN keep Semi's non-guaranteed contract, however.

In my other reply, I mentioned needing part of the Room Exception to sign Edwards. As you suggest here, if you end up under the cap after signing FAs, you'd have that money to put towards Edwards. Exception could be used on Bigs in that case.

Looking at some of the mechanics involved in Houston's pursuit of a sign-and-trade for Jimmy Butler and I've come to the conclusion that C's trading for Clint Capela CAN'T make sense if it's on the heals of signing Kemba using our cap space. Why?

As @dangercart lays out, Houston can't get room to sign Butler while Paul is on the books and moving him is unlikely. Which is why they are pursuing S&Ts for him. On their end, they really need to move Capela and Gordon out (because they'd be hard capped via the S&T) and even then it's a little tight. Moving Tucker makes it cleaner. Certainly, however, you don't any 2 of those guys to Philly for Butler is probably too much to have to give up.

So what Houston will want to do is trade each of those guys into space, while getting future draft picks in return. Then they can some subset of those picks (maybe it's the best 1 as Ryan suggests) and move it to Philly as part of the deal for Butler.

That's where Boston comes in. To get both Walker and Capela, they'd have to sign Kemba to a max and then move out salary to get Capela. But Houston doesn't want that salary so they'd have to ship out what they received from Boston to Philly (and, assuming the deal would include Smart or Brown plus others I doubt Boston would want to do that).

However, if Boston DOESN'T get Kemba (or use a significant amount of that cap room), they'd qualify as a team that could just take Capela into their cap space and give up a pick. Keeping Rozier would keep you in the game as well as CC would still fit into the 24M in room including TR's cap hold.

Probably doesn't make a lot of sense.

That being said, IF Kemba were to choose Boston, I DO wonder if they'd look to use Brown to get a big man (haven't even looked at who that could be). I love Brown but part of the allure is the contract. A contract which will could Zach Lavine like next year. And if he's still trying to find his offense with Kemba and Tatum higher on the pecking order and he's in the next grouping of tertiary scorers, are we going to HATE that contract and is it better used in a trade?

Cart WAY before the horse, I grant you. Probably just have stopped with Houston mind dump.