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Trade deadline discussion

I still think my favorite trade idea is JC for Smart. Not sure if Boston would have any interest in JC or what else we would have to include, likely a first round pick. Smart's not a very good shooter but he's still shooting better from the field than Clarkson and almost as good from 3. Obviously the perimeter defense would be a huge upgrade over JC, as would the playmaking. Smart is in the starting lineup for the Celtics and averaging 34 minutes a game, so convincing him to come off the bench could be a problem.
 
I still think my favorite trade idea is JC for Smart. Not sure if Boston would have any interest in JC or what else we would have to include, likely a first round pick. Smart's not a very good shooter but he's still shooting better from the field than Clarkson and almost as good from 3. Obviously the perimeter defense would be a huge upgrade over JC, as would the playmaking. Smart is in the starting lineup for the Celtics and averaging 34 minutes a game, so convincing him to come off the bench could be a problem.
Start him with Rudy, Don, Mike and Bojan.
 
Start him with Rudy, Don, Mike and Bojan.

That's probably what I would do. I think Smart is only like an inch shorter than Royce so that lineup wouldn't really be any smaller than our current starting 5.
 
Even if he’s getting $30M (I don’t think he is) they have a ton of ways to get under the tax that do not involve moving Hayward’s salary. I think they are would be much quicker to move on from the other players on their roster.

Their cap situation isn’t bad. A ton of room under the tax and room to work with. Should be easy to get under the tax without having to trade a franchise cornerstone. Definitely not happening this TD.
The original argument is they will do something… I stated they may not move Hayward… but it also would not surprise me if they used that chip to address the whole at center and get younger.

They will pay bridges 25-30M…. Unless he gets hurt… I’d bet large sums of money on it. That puts them at or slightly over the tax of 145M. They can waive Ish… they can waive 7M of Oubres 12 m salary… or they can move him somewhere they will pay him. But they still have a hole at center and need to replace a handful of guys… and Martin will get a nice pay bump… somewhere between 5-8M depending on how he finishes the season… they are brushing up against the tax and the rest of their core is in their early to kid 20s. It would not surprise me if his name came up in a Turner deal… it also wouldn’t surprise me if they did Oubre Washington and picks for him… but then they won’t bring back Martin… I’m simply saying there are some pieces I can see moving there.
 
I still think my favorite trade idea is JC for Smart. Not sure if Boston would have any interest in JC or what else we would have to include, likely a first round pick. Smart's not a very good shooter but he's still shooting better from the field than Clarkson and almost as good from 3. Obviously the perimeter defense would be a huge upgrade over JC, as would the playmaking. Smart is in the starting lineup for the Celtics and averaging 34 minutes a game, so convincing him to come off the bench could be a problem.
He would still get plenty of minutes and a huge role on a Championship team. Also, because it would make me happy.
 
If there’s a trade that makes sense, do it I guess. If not, let’s just ride it out and have this be the last dance for the current roster. If we get hot shooting and avoid bad matchups, it’s possible we could win with this group. I am starting to think any deadline tinkering is going to be counterintuitive and simply not enough. We aren’t just missing a perimeter defender, we are missing 3 rotation-caliber perimeter defenders.

But I’m talking about completely reworking things around Don this offseason if we don’t get past the second round. Let Ainge rework the roster nearly entirely. Everyone not named Donovan Mitchell is on the table. The roster is pretty well played out at this point and will have worn out its welcome if it sputters again in the playoffs.
 
Listening to Andy Larsen talk on his pod about Ainge today... one thing kinda stuck out... he mentioned how him and JZ don't sit together at games... then said something like "maybe they talk more in private than they do in front of people" and kinda indicated that maybe they aren't interacting with each other much.

Might just be overanalyzing things but he talked about all the power Ainge has and it is much more than DL.... made me think we are going to have a real change in some of our philosophy and some potential personnel shifts. Curious to see if he goes for the tinkering route or if he makes more sweeping changes. The more I hear people talk about him the more I think Joe Ingles may get moved... but that may just be protective instincts kicking in.
 
Listening to Andy Larsen talk on his pod about Ainge today... one thing kinda stuck out... he mentioned how him and JZ don't sit together at games... then said something like "maybe they talk more in private than they do in front of people" and kinda indicated that maybe they aren't interacting with each other much.

Might just be overanalyzing things but he talked about all the power Ainge has and it is much more than DL.... made me think we are going to have a real change in some of our philosophy and some potential personnel shifts. Curious to see if he goes for the tinkering route or if he makes more sweeping changes. The more I hear people talk about him the more I think Joe Ingles may get moved... but that may just be protective instincts kicking in.
Yeah, but he also said Ainge didnt want to work all that much.

So is Ainge taking an active position in decision making process or more a passive role? Like is he the one out there pushing deals, making calls, scouting etc, or does he just sign off on stuff and give general directives/areas of focus to the staff?

The sitting together stuff doesnt really tell me much. Does Ainge sit with others members of the basketball side of the front office? He might just be doing all this as a way to get a fat check from his alumni buddy.
 
Yeah, but he also said Ainge didnt want to work all that much.

So is Ainge taking an active position in decision making process or more a passive role? Like is he the one out there pushing deals, making calls, scouting etc, or does he just sign off on stuff and give general directives/areas of focus to the staff?
The press conference made it sound like the latter, but I could see Ainge not liking something and taking more control of the process.
 
Yeah, but he also said Ainge didnt want to work all that much.

So is Ainge taking an active position in decision making process or more a passive role? Like is he the one out there pushing deals, making calls, scouting etc, or does he just sign off on stuff and give general directives/areas of focus to the staff?

The sitting together stuff doesnt really tell me much. Does Ainge sit with others members of the basketball side of the front office? He might just be doing all this as a way to get a fat check from his alumni buddy.
I think the "load management" means less travel and less scouting. Had an old partner at a big CPA firm tell me he retired... but only from the things he didn't like doing. IDK it just seemed as though there was some potential chilliness to that relationship. I just wouldn't be surprised to see JZ take a job with another team this summer or after the trade deadline.

Guys like Ainge also say they want to take a little bit of a backseat but I guarantee he steps in and takes drives the process at some point. It might be in a DL way where the scouts agree they don't want to take a certain player and he says.... "yeah well we are drafting Udoka anyway".

It may mean nothing... its all guesswork... just thought it was something to note if future news happens.
 
JZ is gone, just like he was gone when MIL didn’t make him the guy. If he’s as good as we were hoping he was, there’s no way he’d accept being under Ainge. It’s a demotion for JZ and clear changing of the guard. Ryan is bringing in his own guys, Danny is his guy JZ wasn’t.

I suppose Elton Brand hasn’t left the Sixers…but nobody believes it isn’t Morey making the decisions there.
 
If there’s a trade that makes sense, do it I guess. If not, let’s just ride it out and have this be the last dance for the current roster. If we get hot shooting and avoid bad matchups, it’s possible we could win with this group. I am starting to think any deadline tinkering is going to be counterintuitive and simply not enough. We aren’t just missing a perimeter defender, we are missing 3 rotation-caliber perimeter defenders.

But I’m talking about completely reworking things around Don this offseason if we don’t get past the second round. Let Ainge rework the roster nearly entirely. Everyone not named Donovan Mitchell is on the table. The roster is pretty well played out at this point and will have worn out its welcome if it sputters again in the playoffs.
Great post, and it's correct. Our roster primarily is what it is. We aren't going to replace JC, Joe and Bojan with multiple great defenders who can also shoot.

Hopefully, we contend. If we fizzle out badly, it's time to end this experiment where we built around Rudy relying on his defense to support a bunch of average defending scorers around him.

Sent from my SM-A516U using JazzFanz mobile app
 
Great post, and it's correct. Our roster primarily is what it is. We aren't going to replace JC, Joe and Bojan with multiple great defenders who can also shoot.

Hopefully, we contend. If we fizzle out badly, it's time to end this experiment where we built around Rudy relying on his defense to support a bunch of average defending scorers around him.

Sent from my SM-A516U using JazzFanz mobile app
Imo we need to strike the middle ground to get the most out of Rudy and Donovan. We had a stellar defensive team, but got nowhere in the playoffs, so we swing the pendulum completely the other way and now we have a historic offensive team, whose defense is good due to one guy primarily. So if you find a way to stymie that one guy, we are very vulnerable. We need to switch some of the O for better D and narrow in on the sweet spot. But it is highly unlikely anything like this develops during the season. This is an off-season re-tool scenario.

But it depends heavily on how far we go this year. If we make it to the WCF and make a good showing there, then the plan will be different from if we get ousted in the 2nd round while we make a little-used backup look like the 2nd coming of Jordan. Then I would expect a maybe 70-80% tear-down.
 
Imo we need to strike the middle ground to get the most out of Rudy and Donovan. We had a stellar defensive team, but got nowhere in the playoffs, so we swing the pendulum completely the other way and now we have a historic offensive team, whose defense is good due to one guy primarily. So if you find a way to stymie that one guy, we are very vulnerable. We need to switch some of the O for better D and narrow in on the sweet spot. But it is highly unlikely anything like this develops during the season. This is an off-season re-tool scenario.
I agree. The Rudy/Don combo is the nucleus of a title contending team, I am fully confident of that. I don't think a rebuild is necessary. It's figuring out how to build around them properly that is key.
 
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