2019-20 Boston Celtics Season

Why is it preposterous? You get a decent backup to play the Kanter role, A young cost controlled piece who fits Tatum and Brown’s timeline, and salary flexibility in a year.

Looking up Leonard's issue, it's his tendon in his knee. It stretches and needs rest to go back to normal. Even when he has flare ups he can play through it, like last year's playoffs at a crazy high level. Also Josh Hart had it and there is a surgery to fix it when it gets really bad.

Arthritis is much different and his kind which is caused by loss of cartilage, basically causing inflammation due to bones rubbing is the hardest to manage. It only gets worse and flare ups can get bad. Just look at his first one. He missed a bunch of time and then came back and wasn't close to himself. Then he got four months off and came back looking much better. Every person is different, we'll see how it goes. Yet he basically just got the one treatment that helps cartilage and a bunch of down time. So I don't see how he gets healthier. It's more like hoping we can keep him at the level we just had. You can't regrow or replace cartilage, his knee will never be close to 100% again.

So I'd limit his minutes and games going forward because every flare up just does more damage and they just get worse and worse.

The Celtics are not trading Kemba, like there's absolutely 0 chance of that happening so there's not even any point debating it. Hayward for a big would be nice though, I still would like Kevin Love more than Randle.

Love is not a great defender, but he's much better than Kanter. He's probably a better defender than Julius Randle too. And the thing is, he could score on Bam. Bam would have to be mindful of him and not just play help defense. That's the main thing we lack, a scoring big man. Defensive big men who are productive on offense is much harder to come by and we're not getting that with Hayward's expiring contract. At least I can't think of anyone.

Kanter can't score from more than a feet away from the hoop. Love would space the floor. I admit that Love's defense is iffy at best, but I think he can be decent surrounded by good defenders. Being coached by Brad and not by the legion of imbeciles that runs the Cavs since the dawn of mankind would also help. Part of that is wishful thinking, but I'm not sure how much more you can get out of Hayward. Saw that Myles Turner thing in the other thread and really, if Danny is able to pull that off he should get a goddamn statue.

You have to take Bam out of the paint, he's an awesome help defender. The Kanter logic applies to Embiid, but for Bam I'd try to get him to cover more ground. I think the opposite about that Cavs team, they were so poorly coached (and got where they got, which speaks volumes to the talent on that squad) that guys had basically no idea where to be on the floor. I don't think Love is a good defender, but I do think he may not be unplayable.

Hayward looked like a dad playing at the local Y in the playoffs, he had a good year and all but there are so many health questions. Turner is an awesome defender, I don't think PER applies to him all that well. He did have a below average year, but he can be productive and he's crazy young. Maybe I'm underrating Hayward and overrating Turner, but man I'd like that trade very much.

How does Love do that? You think they'll just keep Bam on Love if he's parked at the three point line? I don't, nevermind when they play zone. You should go watch some tape on Love lately, I think you are thinking about Love the guy who was on the T Wolves like ten years ago. You thought Horford was soft, you really want no part of Love. You want a big who can match up against Bam and we have a guy named Robert Williams that's just like him.

Don did you think we couldn't score in the paint? Bam hurt us more with cuts and rim running on offense more than D. Love just makes that five times worse. The most important position for D is center because it limits the easiest shots. It's why Gobert is #1 every year and why Theis was #2 this year. I also don't get making this so much about Bam, like do you think the Heat are the team to beat for the next 3-5 years? I certainly don't, that was just a hot team that was playing crazy good were the bubble seemed to help them. No home court helped them. Gotta build a team to take on the league, not just Bam.

You can't look at numbers with that Cavs team because they made all those trades. Yet they had LeBron, Thompson, Hill, Smith, Nance who are all good defenders. I thought they played very well given they had guys like Love playing. Now there offense was a crazy mess.

Yeah you can't judge Hayward based on a few games when he rushed back from injury. That's not fair and he'll be better next year. I get Turner because he can play D, not Love. I'd rather just play Hayward over Love. He'll give you the same offense and likely better D even with you being crazy small.

The Heat could be very good for a very long time. Herro and Nunn are rookies, Bam is crazy young, there's Robinson too. I look at the East and what do I see? I see Giannis leaving Milwaukee, Philly with a god awful roster, Indiana being mediocre forever, the Nets with cancer Kyrie and post injury KD possibly being washed up. There's us, Miami and Toronto IMO, all the rest is up in the air.

The Heat got away with playing 2 to 3 bad defenders against the Celtics by sitting in a zone all game, and then were rested for crunch time. 

You can’t do that with LeBron and AD on the court. LeBron will tear apart a zone and AD will destroy you on the boards.

Boston had favorable matchups against the Heat, they just didn’t take advantage.

I don’t think Boston gets destroyed by the Lakers at all, fwiw. Also I think the Heat shooting 31 % from three in game 1 was likely an aberration. Would have been nice against the Celtics though..