No predicting how Celtics roster will be reinvented

Bulpett: No predicting how Celtics roster will be reinvented








Celtics president Danny Ainge talks about various topics


Friday, May 1, 2015
By:  Steve Bulpett



WALTHAM — The Celtics have draft picks, salary cap space and a roster with tradable commodities. The question remains how they can use these assets to morph from grade-on-the-curve Eastern Conference playoff team to serious title contender.

There are, however, no definitive answers to be found. Not even from the guy with the launch codes.

“I mean, all we can do is guess,” said president of basketball operations Danny Ainge. “We can guess like the fans can guess, but no one really knows. Hey, I don’t know.

“There haven’t been any talks since trade deadline. Occasionally, when you have trade-deadline conversations where the trigger wasn’t pulled on certain deals, we may have some indication of players that are available or may be available. But people change their mind on players all the time.

“We just have no idea. First of all, we haven’t really discussed any trades yet, but we’ll probably start discussing trades as we get closer to the draft. But as of right now, we have no idea.”

The free agent matter may be even more nebulous.

“It’s impossible to predict,” Ainge said after his season-ending press conference yesterday. “Obviously, there’s a long list of free agents, and we’ll go after all of the top ones for sure. But we have no idea what their interest in us or what sort of salary will be in demand in so many of the cases. It’s a very unpredictable process. I’ll probably have a better feel for it the first week of July.”

Earlier as he spoke to the assembled media on the edge of the Celts’ practice court, Ainge made it clear he was not overwhelmed by the club reaching the postseason, where it received a 4-0 spanking from Cleveland.

“I feel like we need to have a busy summer, and we will have a busy summer,” he said. “Hopefully, we can get some things accomplished that we need to. I think we need to upgrade our talent level on our team, and at the same time I’m very excited about a lot of the individuals that we have. Actually, all the individuals, I thought, played the best basketball of their careers in a lot of cases. So I’m excited about the players that we have, and at the same time I feel like we’re not at the same level as a team like Cleveland. We found that out.”

Among the better free agents this summer, both restricted and unrestricted, are Marc Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge, Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard and DeAndre Jordan.

Looking at the field as a whole and how he might use the Celts’ cap flexibility, Ainge said, “It all depends. It just depends on who’s available, who you can get. And we need to use it wisely. We haven’t ever had cap space, I don’t think, in the history of the Celtics. For sure since I’ve been here. So we need to use that space wisely. We can’t just spend it just because we have it.

“I think that free agency is hard. I think it’s unlikely, but possible. We’re going to go after any and everybody that we think is a significant player to upgrade our talent roster, and I when I say upgrade our talent, you’ve got to be pretty good to upgrade our talent because we have good players. And so we’re going after all the top names on the list and we’ll see what happens.”

The Celtics have their own free agents to consider. Jae Crowder and Gigi Datome are restricted (the club can match any offer they get); Brandon Bass and Jonas Jerebko are unrestricted.

“Rather than going individual by individual, I would just say that we like all of them to some degree,” Ainge said. “Some of it’s going to be dependent on numbers and roster spots and draft and trades and everything else. So you just can’t emphatically say anything about anybody, other than I can emphatically say that we will definitely qualify Jae Crowder, which I think is pretty obvious. But other than that, the unrestricted free agents, it’s uncertain.”

It would seem that while Ainge is prepared to be very aggressive with transactions this offseason, he clearly does not want to be foolish. It’s as if he’s using the old golf adage that you can’t win a tournament on Thursday or Friday, but you can lose it with a colossal error or two.

“I think that there’s risk in the draft and there’s risk in free agency and there’s risk in trades, in any sort of deals that you make,” Ainge said. “I just think that you have to do your best of trying to find the right fit, and that’s hard. And if you’re in this business long enough, you’re going to make mistakes. We all do, and I think that you can’t be afraid of making mistakes. But it’s a challenge to do your homework and make sure that these guys are not just good players, because we know all the players that you mentioned are very good players, but sometimes it’s just not the right fit. And I think that’s an important piece of the puzzle, finding those guys that fit with the coach, with the system, with the other players on the team.

“I don’t ever feel like we can afford a mistake,” Ainge added, “but sometimes you miss and you’ve got to take the shot. And sometimes you turn the ball over when you’re try to make the right pass. . . . I don’t look at any play that we make in the organization as we can afford to take this risk. But, yeah, I’m shooting to make all of them.”

He just doesn’t know yet which ones will be open.



bob
MY NOTE:  If I didn't know better I'd say this article was written by Blakely, it's just a restatement of the obvious.    The lottery hasn't happened yet so almost half the league doesn't know what their immediate future may be, much less free agents' destinations, and of course Danny is doing his best Cheshire Cat imitation.



.

It's the third posted article carrying the quote about Danny's going after all the top names.  I'm sure he's energetically going through the process of getting up to full speed on all potentially available players.  But, try as we might, the media and fans can't replicate the moments of truth when Danny opportunistically takes advantage of opportunities on the spur of the moment.  All of us have lots of time to conjecture on possibilities; but a lot of Danny's actions (including the draft) can boil down to a 15-minute period of (1) learning of a player's availability, (2) making the right call(s), and (3) pouncing.

Sam

Just like all of the rest of the members of this board, I have some thoughts on roster changes for next year as I sit in my living room. But, if nothing else, I have complete faith that Ainge will be 1000% prepared for all that will come his way in the next few months.

If you believe in the players and the coaching staff you must also believe in the GM even if every move he makes is not perfect.

So different now from the days when basketball fans struggled to discover an infrequent mention of the NBA during the summer (aka two three days after the championship game with no such things as parades to stretch out the season.  No computer to look up rumors, and relatively few rumors in the first place.

A general manager made a move in relative secret, and the move was announced—usually counting as one of the rare news morsels about the league or a favorite team.  For the most part, salaries were withheld to the public, and locker room problems almost never became public knowledge.

The game was pretty easy to understand, without more than a fraction of the rules and strategies existing today.  Player loyalty was pretty much assumed.  As the summer dragged on (especially for non-baseball fans), rabid NBA fans gradually built up their excitement about seeing the familiar players who had come to represent something akin to members of their households.

Contrast that scenario with today, when fans (to say nothing of the media) have access to nearly as much information as is available to the general managers.  Statistics, advanced statistics, expanded statistics, metrics, and even bogus statistics. 

Years ago, one operated largely on the basis of instincts honed by primitive conditions and had to work like crazy to be truly informed about NBA basketball.  Today, people are fed so much information that they can often argue both sides of a proposition with equal alacrity.

For a chat forum, today's scenario obviously provides much more fodder for debate.  As for the enjoyment of the game, who knows?

Sam

Player loyalty was pretty much assumed. As the summer dragged on (especially for non-baseball fans), rabid NBA fans gradually built up their excitement about seeing the familiar players who had come to represent something akin to members of their households.

I hope the Celtics front office keeps at least a bit of sentimentality when they make moves this summer. It's certainly easier to root for having the near-identical roster year after year when half of them are HOFers, but every team benefits from remembering the players are human beings, and not inanimate assets.

Players respond when their loyalty is rewarded with loyalty, and chemistry takes a major hit when loyal soldiers are discarded/traded willy nilly.

Of course, that chemistry hit is smaller when the moves happen in the offseason rather than mid-season. And I think the reason the team responded so amazingly well after Rondo and Green were traded was because they knew those guys didn't really want to be here, and most/all of the guys who did want to be here stayed here. Leading to the amazing 24-12 run to end the season.

During last season, I recall Wallace hoping for Bass' sake that he got traded to a playoff team. Bass ended up getting his wish here in Boston, but he's veteran enough to not have his heart broken by not being re-signed in Boston, and especially if it happens in the summer, it won't have much/any effect on team chemistry.

Sully, being one of two guys with Green who showed attitude issues after Rondo was traded, wouldn't be the greatest chemistry loss by any means if he ends up traded during the offseason/mid-season.

If Danny amnesties Gerald Wallace, as I hope circumstances are good enough to demand, I hope he stays here as an assistant coach.

Crowder fit in so well, and worked so hard, that I, like you Sam, have a sentimental desire to see him re-signed even at 8 million per year, knowing his intangible contributions to the team outweigh his stats or even on-court performance.

Jerebko and Gigi are both solid lockerroom guys and vet leaders, so hopefully we keep at least one.

I'd have to think hard if I were Danny and Crowder got a $8M per year offer.

that's a lot of money, even if I love that Crowder does.

it certainly is fun to "play GM" especially this year. draft is yet to come, almost ANY free agent could be signed (at least cap space could be made to work), all types of trades could be considered.

Yeah, i'm such a draftnik that this doesn't even feel like the offseason. For me, the offseason is really only like Mid-July-September. After summer league and FA season and before training camp. And those are the two/three nicest months of the year, weather wise.

I've spent hours looking for information on Celtic cap space over the years with absolutely no luck. In Danny's below statement he indicates that its possible that the Celts may not have had any cap space in the past. I mention this because its been written many, many, times that the Celtics can not attract free agents to Boston. No significant cap space equals zero chance to sign up a high quality free agent.

"We haven’t ever had cap space, I don’t think, in the history of the Celtics. For sure since I’ve been here. So we need to use that space wisely. We can’t just spend it just because we have it." (quoting Danny)

swish

Rambone,

Didn't the amnesty provision expire long ago?

Sam

yeah, I got the term amnesty mixed up with stretch provision.

I may have been one of the first posters to mention how much I liked Crowder after he joined the Cs, but paying him 8 M is far too much if I were the GM.  For all that he earned our admiration this year I think that I would be much more comfortable paying him 3+ million for the next two years.  He was and will likely be a member of the second unit again next season.  That salary cap space the Cs have will disappear quite quickly if every bench player we have become attached to is to get 8 M.  Also, it is almost unheard of for any worker (player) to get an 800% pay raise in any business.

If he can put together two solid years on a 3-4 M contract I would then consider him much more worthy of something closer to 8 M for his 2018-19 (and beyond) contract.

http://www.blazersedge.com/2015/5/12/8594279/boston-media-35-40-chance-lamarcus-aldridge-will-be-a-celtic

I think Matthews is more likely than Aldridge myself.

Aldridge is from texas and if rumors of SA being interested are true, then I see him ending up there.


Matthews had an achilles injury this year and might not be able to start the season though, so that needs to be considered as well.

but Matthews and Monroe...yeah I could see that I suppose.

Rambone,

Actually, my reasons for wanting Crowder to stay around have nothing to do with sentimentality.  I'm easy, but I'm not two months easy.  I just see him like (and I may be unintentionally stealing a line from Bob Heckler here) a Swiss Army Knife (client of mine) with all sorts of tools—one of the most multi-faceted Celtics contributors in a long time.

At this point in his career, he has many of the same attributes that John Havlicek had as the same point in his career.  I would never suggest they have/had comparable ability levels—just a similar breadth of skills.  Each was/is capable of playing three positions (John 1, 2, 3 and Jae 2,3,4).  Each made/is making his early reputation very largely through defense.  Each showed/shows a knack for getting points when the Celtics most need them.  Each steals/stole more balls than a San Quentin lifer.  Each led/leads by example but is relatively taciturn outwardly (with the possible exception of the next time Jae faces the Cavs).  Whatever popularity each achieved/achieves was/is predicated, first and foremost, on appreciation of his fearless energy output.

Sam