Players That MAY Become Available This Offseason

Yeah I’ve said we can let him go, but with a fresh influx of bigs and Jaylen back hopefully we can hide Frenchy better on defense, I can see him getting a lot of open looks playing off 2 J’s

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/rumor-dennis-schroder-looking-100-150021277.html


Rumor: Dennis Schroder looking for $100 million-$120 million contract


Kurt Helin
Wed, June 30, 2021, 8:00 AM



Mid-season, Dennis Schroder turned down an four-year, $84 million contract extension offer from the Lakers. While he denied money was the reason in his exit interview, it was pretty clear he did it because he thought he could get more from the Lakers — or some team — this offseason.

How much more? A $100 million to $120 million contract.

That according to Armin Andres, VP of the German Basketball Federation, who explained Schroder is not playing for the German National Team as it tries to qualify for the Olympics because it was too expensive for the federation to insure what Schroder wants in a new contract. (Hat tip to TalkBasket.net for finding the quote.)

“Dennis Schroeder has communicated this clearly: he wants 100, 120 million – which he will probably also get – and this sum insured cannot be insured on the normal market at the moment,” Andres said on Abteilung Basketball podcast as reported by Manuel Baraniak.

Let’s use some comparative numbers. At $100 million for four years — $25 million a season — Schroder would be making in the ballpark of what the Bucks pay Jrue Holiday or the Celtics pay Jaylen Brown. It’s hard to imagine the Lakers, or any team, wanting to pay Schroder that after his performance this past season — he averaged 15.4 points and 4.8 assists a game, struggled with his shot from 3 (33.5%), was inconsistent on both ends, and then was not a factor in the playoffs. The $84 million figure (we don’t know how much of that was guaranteed or other details) would be very similar to the contract Fred VanVleet signed with the Raptors last offseason, and VanVleet is a better player.

Still, Schroder has leverage and may get more than expected.

The Lakers are caught in what John Hollinger calls the “Bird Rights trap” with Schroder. While the Lakers may not want to pay him $20 million a season or more, if they let him walk, they would have to use their mid-level exception to replace him — and likely that is the $5.9 million tax-payer midlevel once they re-sign Alex Caruso and Talen Horton-Tucker. (In theory the Lakers could used their full $9.5 million midlevel, it depends on when guys are signed, what Montrezl Harrell does with his $9.7 million player option, among other things.) For all of Schroder’s flaws, the player the Lakers could land with the mid-level exception likely would be worse (think T.J. McConnell, Ish Smith, maybe Patty Mills).

The Lakers and Schroder can reach a deal on an extension up to Aug. 1, but the Lakers can’t offer more than the $84 million (that’s their max extension under the CBA). Schroder might want to consider a deal when he looks at the free agent market: Most of the teams with cap space (Dallas, San Antonio, Charlotte) have point guards and the ones that do not (Chicago, New York) are looking at bigger free agent names (Kyle Lowry, Spencer Dinwiddie and even Chris Paul, although he very likely stays in Phoenix). After this past season, it’s hard to imagine teams lining up to throw $100 million at Schroder.

It’s going to be a wild offseason, and watching a capped-out Lakers team try to improve the cast around LeBron James and Anthony Davis will be part of that.


Bob
MY NOTE:  I've always liked Dennis Schroder, despite that ridiculous blond streak he used to have in his hair, the same way opposing fans hate Marcus Smart but would love to have him on their team.  But is he worth $25M/year?  He's 27 years old, he'll be 28 in September.  So, seasoned but not on his back 9 yet.

I don't watch Laker ball, but wasn't point guard their most glaring hole this past season?

His first few years in the league diluted his career minutes and other /game stat averages.  His fg% however, both overall and from 3, are his fg% regardless of how many minutes he played.

Year....................mpg........fg%......3ptfg%........apg......TO/gm.......ppg
2020-2021--------32.1------43.7-----33.5----------5.8-----2.7---------15.4
Career-------------26.2------43.6-----33.7----------4.7-----2.4---------14.3


.

Kelly Oubre's time with GSW might be coming to an end.  They own his Bird Rights, but he wants something on the order of $20M, they are in repeater tax hell already and, presumably, Klay Thompson will be coming back.

Would you play Oubre ahead of Thompson?  Not if Thompson is healthy.  Thompson's one of the best shooters in the league.  He can, and has, single-handedly taken over games.

Would you pay Oubre that kind of money to come off the bench?  Probably not, right?

I'm not saying he should come to Boston but, as I have said many times, trades/free agent signings result in other players being let go and/or traded to make room for the inbound player and his salary and that's where Brad could come in.  He has some TPEs he could use to absorb salary (and relieve the team that'd be taking on Oubre's contract of that traded player's salary without having to take salary back), he has some fairly cheap contracts that could get eaten by the other team (e.g. Carsen Edwards, Grant Williams) if need be.

Danny was always good at working these angles, sneaking in a deal for a draft pick or a player that needs to be moved to free up cap space.  Remember, that's how we got Zeller.  He was in Cleveland, they needed to free up salary so they could bring LeBron back and Danny took Zeller and some picks to facilitate that.  I don't blame Zeller for being a back up center at best, but he was effectively free from that deal. I don't think we should set expectations too high for Brad, he is a newbie after all, but hopefully we'll see some cleverness and edge from him.


Bob


.

bobheckler wrote:Kelly Oubre's time with GSW might be coming to an end.  They own his Bird Rights, but he wants something on the order of $20M, they are in repeater tax hell already and, presumably, Klay Thompson will be coming back.

Would you play Oubre ahead of Thompson?  Not if Thompson is healthy.  Thompson's one of the best shooters in the league.  He can, and has, single-handedly taken over games.

Would you pay Oubre that kind of money to come off the bench?  Probably not, right?

I'm not saying he should come to Boston but, as I have said many times, trades/free agent signings result in other players being let go and/or traded to make room for the inbound player and his salary and that's where Brad could come in.  He has some TPEs he could use to absorb salary (and relieve the team that'd be taking on Oubre's contract of that traded player's salary without having to take salary back), he has some fairly cheap contracts that could get eaten by the other team (e.g. Carsen Edwards, Grant Williams) if need be.

Danny was always good at working these angles, sneaking in a deal for a draft pick or a player that needs to be moved to free up cap space.  Remember, that's how we got Zeller.  He was in Cleveland, they needed to free up salary so they could bring LeBron back and Danny took Zeller and some picks to facilitate that.  I don't blame Zeller for being a back up center at best, but he was effectively free from that deal.  I don't think we should set expectations too high for Brad, he is a newbie after all, but hopefully we'll see some cleverness and edge from him.


Bob


.

Sorry Bob, a big no to Oubre from my side. A lot of flash and no substance.

We have enough wings and at that price, why not keep EF and roll with the current roster?

Bob, we should give Mike Zarren props for much of Danny's wheeling and deaiing.
Re Kelly Oubre, GSW signed him before, I believe, Klayy tore his achilles, thinking they'd be making a championship run. I read an analysis that Oubre's $20M signing put GSW way over the cap into luxury tax hell, so the signing actually cost the Dubs owners $80M total!!!! I guess when you can afford a $4B arena (Bob H and I warched the Celts play there right before Covid hit, and it is spectacular), then $80M for a mediocre player is chump change.

Prakash and Worcester,

For the record I am not in favor of signing Oubre.  The only caveat is if we trade Smart, and even then I'm not so sure.  If Romeo's injury history wasn't so checkered, if he had more experience, then I'd be more willing to say a definitive 'no', but if we lose Smart then Oubre can fill that hole.

But I'd rather keep Smart and consider the ripple effects of Oubre's signing with some other team, maybe pick up one of their discards. Whomever they cut loose cannot be worse than Carsen Edwards.


Bob


.

bobheckler wrote:Prakash and Worcester,

For the record I am not in favor of signing Oubre.  The only caveat is if we trade Smart, and even then I'm not so sure.  If Romeo's injury history wasn't so checkered, if he had more experience, then I'd be more willing to say a definitive 'no', but if we lose Smart then Oubre can fill that hole.

But I'd rather keep Smart and consider the ripple effects of Oubre's signing with some other team, maybe pick up one of their discards.  Whomever they cut loose cannot be worse than Carsen Edwards.


Bob


.

Bob, I much appreciate all of your posts and generally tend to agree with them as well. But I think I've pointed out before, Romeo's injury history is not exceptional. Since joining the Cs I believe he's had two injuries. A wrist that needed surgery and a knee sprain. Unfortunately surgery does take time to heal--ask Jalen--but it's still just one injury. The thumb injury and subsequent surgery that kept him out when he came to the Cs was from a full year before, when he was a frosh at IU and he played with that injury for that whole year. So Boston agreed or even decided he needed to get the surgery and knew that when they drafted him. But two injuries since he joined two years ago doesn't seem exceptional. I think a number of players on the team have had as many or more injuries in the last two years. Of course, having said that, I'm sure he will break every bone in his body come summer camp. But for now, he's not that bad.

atcross wrote:

bobheckler wrote:Prakash and Worcester,

For the record I am not in favor of signing Oubre.  The only caveat is if we trade Smart, and even then I'm not so sure.  If Romeo's injury history wasn't so checkered, if he had more experience, then I'd be more willing to say a definitive 'no', but if we lose Smart then Oubre can fill that hole.

But I'd rather keep Smart and consider the ripple effects of Oubre's signing with some other team, maybe pick up one of their discards.  Whomever they cut loose cannot be worse than Carsen Edwards.


Bob


.

Bob, I much appreciate all of your posts and generally tend to agree with them as well. But I think I've pointed out before, Romeo's injury history is not exceptional. Since joining the Cs I believe he's had two injuries. A wrist that needed surgery and a knee sprain. Unfortunately surgery does take time to heal--ask Jalen--but it's still just one injury. The thumb injury and subsequent surgery that kept him out when he came to the Cs was from a full year before, when he was a frosh at IU and he played with that injury for that whole year. So Boston agreed or even decided he needed to get the surgery and knew that when they drafted him. But two injuries since he joined two years ago doesn't seem exceptional.  I think a number of players on the team have had as many or more injuries in the last two years. Of course, having said that, I'm sure he will break every bone in his body come summer camp. But for now, he's not that bad.  

Cross,

So, a torn thumb ligament in November, 2018. Wrist in 2019. Knee in 2020-2021. That's 3 injuries, two that required surgery, in 3 years.

Romeo has played a grand total of 653 minutes in 50 since joining the Celtics two years ago. Aaron Nesmith has played 669 minutes in 46 games in his sole rookie season and, as you know, Nesmith couldn't get on the court for most of the year.


Bob


.

bobheckler wrote:

atcross wrote:

bobheckler wrote:Prakash and Worcester,

For the record I am not in favor of signing Oubre.  The only caveat is if we trade Smart, and even then I'm not so sure.  If Romeo's injury history wasn't so checkered, if he had more experience, then I'd be more willing to say a definitive 'no', but if we lose Smart then Oubre can fill that hole.

But I'd rather keep Smart and consider the ripple effects of Oubre's signing with some other team, maybe pick up one of their discards.  Whomever they cut loose cannot be worse than Carsen Edwards.


Bob


.

Bob, I much appreciate all of your posts and generally tend to agree with them as well. But I think I've pointed out before, Romeo's injury history is not exceptional. Since joining the Cs I believe he's had two injuries. A wrist that needed surgery and a knee sprain. Unfortunately surgery does take time to heal--ask Jalen--but it's still just one injury. The thumb injury and subsequent surgery that kept him out when he came to the Cs was from a full year before, when he was a frosh at IU and he played with that injury for that whole year. So Boston agreed or even decided he needed to get the surgery and knew that when they drafted him. But two injuries since he joined two years ago doesn't seem exceptional.  I think a number of players on the team have had as many or more injuries in the last two years. Of course, having said that, I'm sure he will break every bone in his body come summer camp. But for now, he's not that bad.  

Cross,

So, a torn thumb ligament in November, 2018.  Wrist in 2019.  Knee in 2020-2021.  That's 3 injuries, two that required surgery, in 3 years.

Romeo has played a grand total of 653 minutes in 50 since joining the Celtics two years ago.  Aaron Nesmith has played 669 minutes in 46 games in his sole rookie season and, as you know, Nesmith couldn't get on the court for most of the year.


Bob


.

How much of his time out was due to Covid?

atcross wrote:

bobheckler wrote:

atcross wrote:

bobheckler wrote:Prakash and Worcester,

For the record I am not in favor of signing Oubre.  The only caveat is if we trade Smart, and even then I'm not so sure.  If Romeo's injury history wasn't so checkered, if he had more experience, then I'd be more willing to say a definitive 'no', but if we lose Smart then Oubre can fill that hole.

But I'd rather keep Smart and consider the ripple effects of Oubre's signing with some other team, maybe pick up one of their discards.  Whomever they cut loose cannot be worse than Carsen Edwards.


Bob


.

Bob, I much appreciate all of your posts and generally tend to agree with them as well. But I think I've pointed out before, Romeo's injury history is not exceptional. Since joining the Cs I believe he's had two injuries. A wrist that needed surgery and a knee sprain. Unfortunately surgery does take time to heal--ask Jalen--but it's still just one injury. The thumb injury and subsequent surgery that kept him out when he came to the Cs was from a full year before, when he was a frosh at IU and he played with that injury for that whole year. So Boston agreed or even decided he needed to get the surgery and knew that when they drafted him. But two injuries since he joined two years ago doesn't seem exceptional.  I think a number of players on the team have had as many or more injuries in the last two years. Of course, having said that, I'm sure he will break every bone in his body come summer camp. But for now, he's not that bad.  

Cross,

So, a torn thumb ligament in November, 2018.  Wrist in 2019.  Knee in 2020-2021.  That's 3 injuries, two that required surgery, in 3 years.

Romeo has played a grand total of 653 minutes in 50 since joining the Celtics two years ago.  Aaron Nesmith has played 669 minutes in 46 games in his sole rookie season and, as you know, Nesmith couldn't get on the court for most of the year.


Bob


.

How much of his time out was due to Covid?

Cross,

I don't know, but the injuries are COVID unrelated, and that's what I was focusing on. I believe I remember there was some overlap between him coming back from his injury this year and COVID. He was expected back but then got setback because of COVID contact tracing. That was only about 10 days or so, until the NBA protocol was fulfilled. So maybe half of that was injury and half was COVID?

Even if he was COVID-free he wasn't getting many minutes because his injuries cost him conditioning and game rhythm.


Bob


.

Bob, this was from a comment of yours on another post of mine regarding injuries. I had forgotten about the one game due to concussion protocol. But looking at the other players I just don't see RL as being exceptionally fragile in comparison to others, such as JB or RWIII. I also have to wonder if the wrist injury was promoted by him playing for a year with the thumb injury. And I disagree about surgery. An injury is an injury. Whether it requires some long term therapy or some procedure is more the luck of the draw than inclination of the player. Look at how many games Smart and Walker missed and yet there was no surgery.

Sorry. Can't seem to figure out how to paste an image. Here's the link:
https://twitter.com/ChrisForsberg_/status/1391908896403562496/photo/1

atcross wrote:Sorry. Can't seem to figure out how to paste an image. Here's the link:
https://twitter.com/ChrisForsberg_/status/1391908896403562496/photo/1

Cross,

Click on the pic, it'll open to a photo/1 format.  Right click on the photo/1 format and pick 'open in a new tab' and it'll open into a jpeg.  Then, finally, right-click on the jpeg and choose 'copy image address'.

Thanks for finding this graphic.




Bob
MY NOTE:  So, 13 games missed for COVID and post-COVID conditioning.  1 game missed for concussion protocol.  That's 14 games missed due to non-injury related stuff (gonna cut him some slack on the concussion, since that's not about his fragility.  You get hit in the head and get woozy, you got hit in the head and get put into concussion protocol.  Period).  He missed 36 games from right wrist surgery.  The season was 72 games long.  36 games is half the season.  Even in a normal 82 games season 36 games missed is a lot.  That would mean a maximum of 46 games of availability.


.

worcester wrote:Bob, we should give Mike Zarren props for much of Danny's wheeling and deaiing.
Re Kelly Oubre, GSW signed him before, I believe, Klayy tore his achilles, thinking they'd be making a championship run. I read an analysis that Oubre's $20M signing put GSW way over the cap into luxury tax hell, so the signing actually cost the Dubs owners $80M total!!!! I guess when you can afford a $4B arena (Bob H and I warched the Celts play there right before Covid hit, and  it is spectacular), then $80M for a mediocre player is chump change.

Just one correction: Oubre was traded for using the injury exception created by Klay's injury. An injury exception allows you to trade for players that are in the final year of their contract.

The Warriors are in a luxury tax hell. Oubre's contract was around $15M and it cost the Dubs around $70M including luxury tax. They are in luxury tax again this year and their tax multiplier will go up even more.

Regarding Langford being injury prone, yes, he has been injured and missed a lot of games. However, injuries are not figuring into my concerns about him. I am quite bullish about what he may do this year.

I think everyone here is high on Langford , Pritchard , and Nesmith. Nesmith especially, in my case. I don't see that liking those guys's future potential means we don't need more vets, if affordable, off the bench, and I certainly don't see liking them as a reason to trade Smart. Re-signing Fournier seems a logical move , to me. Some of the same folks who want to ditch Smart, complain about Fournier's defense , and consider that a reason to let him go. Change for change's sake doesn't appeal to me. There are no perfect basketball players. The biggest criticism of last year's team, besides Steven's stagnant offense and a bench full of toddlers and one trick ponies , was a lack of passion, so , by all means, get rid of Smart, our most passionate player and longest tenured veteran. When Williams , and yes, Langford , aren't getting lost on defense, I expect they'll be excellent defenders. At times, they are now. The idea that either Langford or Nesmith can step into Smart's role immediately is downright ludicrous, though.Trading 27 year old Marcus for a 30-plus year old point guard who requires the ball in his hands makes even less sense, IMO. Let's see what Madar can do, and buy out his contact , if necessary, or pick up a pass first guy , like sataransky, who won't cost much in players or cap space.

I have flip flopped on resigning EF several times and will likely flip flop again.

I am back on the do not sign him wagon.

The Celtics should keep their powder dry. That means no EF and no extensions for RW and MS.

Until the Celtics get a really really good PG, they are not going anywhere.

Coach Ime may have something to say about this as will BS.

dboss wrote:I have flip flopped on resigning EF several times and will likely flip flop again.

I am back on the do not sign him wagon.  

The Celtics should keep their powder dry.  That means no EF and no extensions for RW and MS.  

Until the Celtics get a really really good PG, they are not going anywhere.

Coach Ime may have something to say about this as will BS.

dboss,

I'd love to hear gyso weigh in on this, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that NOT resigning Evan Fournier does NOT free up his salary cap space.  If that's true then resigning him is a no-brainer.  If he gets traded after that, well, that's that.


Bob


.

bobheckler wrote:

dboss wrote:I have flip flopped on resigning EF several times and will likely flip flop again.

I am back on the do not sign him wagon.  

The Celtics should keep their powder dry.  That means no EF and no extensions for RW and MS.  

Until the Celtics get a really really good PG, they are not going anywhere.

Coach Ime may have something to say about this as will BS.

dboss,

I'd love to hear gyso weigh in on this, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that NOT resigning Evan Fournier does NOT free up his salary cap space.  If that's true then resigning him is a no-brainer.  If he gets traded after that, well, that's that.


Bob


.

That is probably true but to me it is a no brainer not to sign him.  Freeing up cap space is a process that usually involves letting several contracts expire.  For example, no EF this year and no MS or TT next year plus several other let go guys and in a year and the Celtics will have the money to go after a star.  I am not saying that is what they should do but the money could be there if that is the plan 12 months from now.

The Celtics have 2 allstar quality wings.  EF is also a wing.  We have 2 wings in the wings in Nesmith and Langford.  I would bet that one of them will take a big leap so I am not going to keep EF.  

If Boston signs EF they will definitely be a tax payor and they still will not be a championship contender because they are still missing that all important floor general.

In sum, I like the direction we are going in but realistically we probably cannot get back to the top contender in the East this upcoming season. There are a lot of balls in the air to juggle. I think we will get a clearer picture this summer. If TT plus is moved for a starting quality PG it would prove that Boston will seek to address their missing pieces now.

Bob,

There's no powder to keep dry.  I've posted multiple times why that seems to be the case.

Throwing away the good while coveting the perfect is not a good practice, in any field of endeavor.

Smart teams start out by taking care of what they can directly control.  Signing Fournier and trying to extend Smart and RobW is just that.  Just because we sign them to new contracts doesn't mean we have to keep them for the length of the contract.  Once we have some middle to heavy contracts in hand, we can now trade away players with adequate salary that are "good" for a player that many deem to be "great".

Thinking someone is going to hand us some top end perfect PG for our junk at the end of the bench is not rational thinking.  We have a perfectly good PG already, Marcus Smart. Dumping salary now when we are already thisclose so that we can get that third star in a couple seasons is a losing bet.

Thinking that we don't need Fournier because we have Langford and Nesmith is likewise not rational thinking.  Wishful thinking, perhaps.   Those two guys are not ready to step into a game at crunch time.  We need some vets to add to our kiddie korps.

Evan Fournier is a vet.  He is a shooter.  Playing with the two J's, he has basically been made to be a spot-up shooter.  He can perform that role quite nicely, but when either of the J's go to the bench, he has so much more game to offer.  He has, in the past, shown to be a great driver and finisher at the hoop.  His presence on the team also allows us to better monitor the J's minutes during the regular season.

Building good NBA teams is hard, keeping fans happy is impossible. This is not a total rebuild, it is more of a fill in the holes kind of thing.

gyso wrote:Bob,

There's no powder to keep dry.  I've posted multiple times why that seems to be the case.

Throwing away the good while coveting the perfect is not a good practice, in any field of endeavor.

Smart teams start out by taking care of what they can directly control.  Signing Fournier and trying to extend Smart and RobW is just that.  Just because we sign them to new contracts doesn't mean we have to keep them for the length of the contract.  Once we have some middle to heavy contracts in hand, we can now trade away players with adequate salary that are "good" for a player that many deem to be "great".

Thinking someone is going to hand us some top end perfect PG for our junk at the end of the bench is not rational thinking.  We have a perfectly good PG already, Marcus Smart.  Dumping salary now when we are already thisclose so that we can get that third star in a couple seasons is a losing bet.

Thinking that we don't need Fournier because we have Langford and Nesmith is likewise not rational thinking.  Wishful thinking, perhaps.   Those two guys are not ready to step into a game at crunch time.  We need some vets to add to our kiddie korps.

Evan Fournier is a vet.  He is a shooter.  Playing with the two J's, he has basically been made to be a spot-up shooter.  He can perform that role quite nicely, but when either of the J's go to the bench, he has so much more game to offer.  He has, in the past, shown to be a great driver and finisher at the hoop.  His presence on the team also allows us to better monitor the J's minutes during the regular season.

Building good NBA teams is hard, keeping fans happy is impossible.  This is not a total rebuild, it is more of a fill in the holes kind of thing.

                                                                                     I'm with you

gyso wrote:Bob,

There's no powder to keep dry.  I've posted multiple times why that seems to be the case.

Throwing away the good while coveting the perfect is not a good practice, in any field of endeavor.

Smart teams start out by taking care of what they can directly control.  Signing Fournier and trying to extend Smart and RobW is just that.  Just because we sign them to new contracts doesn't mean we have to keep them for the length of the contract.  Once we have some middle to heavy contracts in hand, we can now trade away players with adequate salary that are "good" for a player that many deem to be "great".

Thinking someone is going to hand us some top end perfect PG for our junk at the end of the bench is not rational thinking.  We have a perfectly good PG already, Marcus Smart.  Dumping salary now when we are already thisclose so that we can get that third star in a couple seasons is a losing bet.

Thinking that we don't need Fournier because we have Langford and Nesmith is likewise not rational thinking.  Wishful thinking, perhaps.   Those two guys are not ready to step into a game at crunch time.  We need some vets to add to our kiddie korps.

Evan Fournier is a vet.  He is a shooter.  Playing with the two J's, he has basically been made to be a spot-up shooter.  He can perform that role quite nicely, but when either of the J's go to the bench, he has so much more game to offer.  He has, in the past, shown to be a great driver and finisher at the hoop.  His presence on the team also allows us to better monitor the J's minutes during the regular season.

Building good NBA teams is hard, keeping fans happy is impossible.  This is not a total rebuild, it is more of a fill in the holes kind of thing.

gyso

You know it is ok to comment to me directly given that you are using some of my comments to respond to bob.  Anyways, I see no need to do that so I am responding to you directly.

There are different ways to go about this.  Correct me if I am wrong but if Boston does not sign Fournier they may be able to stay under the tax line this coming season.  

This team is hell bent on improving and that is a good thing but they are not looking to be a 4th or 5th place team that is also a tax payor.  That is the rationale in not signing EF.  How many messages do the owners need to send before fans understand the bottom line.  

In case you did not notice, basketball is a two way sport.  EF's feet on defense are velcroed to the floor.   But all you talked about was his offense.   That is another reason to keep the powder dry on resigning Fournier.  As far as MS and RW are concerned, Boston can still wait until next year to resign them.  

It is difficult to really evaluate what YOY improvement can be achieved by young guys.   But, I am pretty confident that Nesmith in particular will be a regular rotation guy.  As a matter of fact I would not be surprised if he becomes a starter next year.  

The Celtics can sign Fournier but they also could have resigned GH and AH when they became FA but they wanted too much $$$.   Having Bird rights is great if you are in a situation where you will resign a guy no matter what.  I think EF is a luxury that the Celtics cannot afford.  As good as he is on offense he is equally inept on defense.

Marcus has been on this team longer than any current player.  I have yet to see any evidence that he is an everyday starting quality PG.  Yes he can play some point but if you consider that the Celtics went in a different direction multiple times it tells me that Marcus may not be the answer to run this team.

I have been watching a lot of quality PG's during the playoff and I can flat out say that MS is not in the same league with them in terms of running an offense.   The competition at PG around the NBA is pretty damn impressive. Therefore we need a really good PG more than we need to resign the Evan Fourniers of the World.

Lonzo Ball

So dboss, are you saying that there are potential trades where you will trade Marcus Smart to get a quality point guard?  I understood yes.

I like Smart and in the absence of a good move, there should be no hurry to trade him.  I also think that there will be a number of teams ready to do the trade dance this off season.  Warriors, Blazers, Wizards and Celts seem obvious to me.  Then there is the Kawhi unknown.  Will there be a deal that will make real good sense for the Celts?

Regarding EF, is he a better defender than Kemba?  If yes, then why not run a line up of Smart, EF, JT, JB and Al?  I can see the ball moving with this lineup and the scoring will be terrific.  Defense will not be shabby.  This seems to be a really good option.

Well thankfully we won’t play Kemba and Frenchy on defense at the same time ever. They play different positions, but I think Frenchy is one of the worst wing defenders in the league; overall his defense is probably worse than Kemba’s. AN and RL sure add to the defense as opposed to hurt it like Frenchy.