Gorman: Unless Celtics Trade For Butler, Hard To Pass On Bender With No. 3 Pick

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/06/15/gorman-unless-celtics-trade-for-butler-hard-to-pass-on-bender-with-no-3-pick/




Gorman: Unless Celtics Trade For Butler, Hard To Pass On Bender With No. 3 Pick


June 15, 2016 9:59 AM



Jimmy Butler of the Chicago Bulls moves against Jae Crowder of the Boston Celtics. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)





BOSTON (CBS) — The NBA Draft is just over a week away, leading to more speculation about what the Celtics will do with the No. 3 pick.

Celtics play-by-play man Mike Gorman joined 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Toucher & Rich on Wednesday to give his thoughts on what Boston should do, and he said finding a true scoring option is Danny Ainge’s top priority this offseason. While Providence guard Kris Dunn has popped up as a potential player Boston will take, Gorman believes they’ll stay away from drafting another guard unless Ainge and company were really impressed with Kentucky guard Jamal Murray. Oklahoma scoring machine Buddy Hield is also an option, but Gorman isn’t sure how much the rest of his game fits with the C’s, or in the NBA.

If Boston keeps the third pick, Gorman says it will be hard for Ainge to pass up the opportunity to draft 17-year-old Croatian star Dragan Bender.


“If Bender comes here and has a really good workout… He is going to be very hard to pass up,” he said. “It’s hard to pass up a 7-footer with talent, especially after Kristaps Porzingis adjusted very quickly in one year with the Knicks. I still think that’s the logical pick if they don’t trade it.

“Unless they’re going to trade it for Jimmy Butler, I don’t think they’re going to trade it,” added Gorman.

Teams are starting to line up for the Bulls star forward, with the Minnesota Timberwolves reportedly entering the sweepstakes. Armed with the No. 5 pick and a slew of young talent, the Wolves could be Boston’s biggest competition for Butler — if that’s Ainge’s end game this summer.

But like before, Gorman is reluctant to give up players on the current Boston roster, worried it would mess with the chemistry the team displayed all last season. Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder would all be tough to part with, but Gorman understands you have to give up talent in order to acquire talent.

“I do [love Avery Bradley]. I find him a great kid to be around and he was NBA first team all-defense this year. His best years are still in front of him, but Butler is a quality player who makes you much better right now,” said Gorman. “But to give up the No. 3 pick and Avery is a lot, or the No. 3 pick and Crowder would be a lot.

“I’m not quick to pull the trigger on those guys because I was a first-hand witness to the chemistry this team had last year, and I would hate to potentially mess that up bringing in a six or seven year veteran,” added Gorman.

Gorman also discussed other trade options for the Celtics, and looked back on the 1986 Celtics team that is considered one of the best teams of all-time:


bob
MY NOTE:  Wow.  These are pretty strong statements from Mike Gorman. The audio is available at the link provided on top.


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There is an article on Bender at Boston Globe that I cannot access because I have reached my 5 free articles per month (I don't live in the Boston area, so why subscribe?). If someone wants to go out there and cut-and-paste it to the board that'd be great. Start a new thread, put it here, whatever...


bob


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http://www.csnne.com/boston-celtics/dragan-bender-looks-like-real-deal-if-boston-celtics-pick-him


bob


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I agree.  Bender will be selected by Danny.  Too hard to pass up a big like that.  However, he may be told to stay in Europe for another year or 2 to get more experience.  

If selected, Danny will not select Maker.   However if Bender is not taken, Danny could take a run at Maker.

Also keep an eye on Dunn, as Danny loves players like that and that sets up the Celtics to trade one of their guards.

112288

I disagree on Bender, but I strongly agree with the chemistry question as far as trades go. What message would it send to the Celtics team that the hardest working, most valuable, most loyal players can be traded off for a slight upgrade?

There have also been questions about Jimmy Butler in the Chicago lockerroom, possibly acting above the team in a way that his teammates resented.

Chemistry was a huge part of the success of the last 1.5 seasons, and an upgrade in talent but downgrade in chemistry can be a lateral move or worse.

Problem,

Danny has to get additional All Star players on the team to attract other big name free agents. It is a juggling act to line everyone up like he did with Allan and KG. The problem that magnifies and makes things more difficult is that we are missing an All Star on the team like we had in Pierce. So we have to look for 3 guys in stead of 2.

112288

arambone wrote:I disagree on Bender, but I strongly agree with the chemistry question as far as trades go. What message would it send to the Celtics team that the hardest working, most valuable, most loyal players can be traded off for a slight upgrade?

There have also been questions about Jimmy Butler in the Chicago lockerroom, possibly acting above the team in a way that his teammates resented.

Chemistry was a huge part of the success of the last 1.5 seasons, and an upgrade in talent but downgrade in chemistry can be a lateral move or worse.

What message would it send to management if the team made a move that they thought would make the team better and the remaining players had an attitude problem because of the trade? Just wondering.

swish

swish wrote:

arambone wrote:I disagree on Bender, but I strongly agree with the chemistry question as far as trades go. What message would it send to the Celtics team that the hardest working, most valuable, most loyal players can be traded off for a slight upgrade?

There have also been questions about Jimmy Butler in the Chicago lockerroom, possibly acting above the team in a way that his teammates resented.

Chemistry was a huge part of the success of the last 1.5 seasons, and an upgrade in talent but downgrade in chemistry can be a lateral move or worse.

What message would it send to management if the team made a move that they thought would make the team better and the remaining players had an attitude problem because of the trade?  Just wondering.

 swish

The players wouldn't need to develop an attitude problem for any chemistry issue to have an effect. Players giving 96% effort through 82 games, rather than the 100% they seemed to give last year.

The Butler-led Bulls didn't even make the playoffs last year, but I bet most people predicted them to be better than the tied-for-3rd-best-record-in-East Celtics.


Think about the Perkins trade as an example. On paper the Celtics improved with Jeff Green, but the team was demoralized.

I haven't looked into Butler's rumored demeanor with his Bulls teammates, but I just think Gorman is always correct when he talks about chemistry year after year. Gorman has a high social intelligence. Me, not so much.

I still feel like kickin Dannys fockin ass

It is a good thing that Gorman is not in charge on making the picks.

When you are able to draft high lottery picks over a short period of time you can build a team into a contender along with some free agent signings and some advantageous trades.  So that great young talent can develop into allstar quality talent.

The Celtics have a high pick this year and probably 2 more coming from Brooklyn.  This is a very unique situation because the Celtics have already established themselves as a playoff team.  No tanking...

I am very skeptical that Boston should leverage that very rare opportunity by trading these high end draft picks.  We will need to move some picks but I am hoping that we keep #3 this year and play it by ear in subsequent years.

Dboss

dboss wrote:It is a good thing that Gorman is not in charge on making the picks.

When you are able to draft high lottery picks over a short period of time you can build a team into a contender along with some free agent signings and some advantageous trades.  So that great young talent can develop into allstar quality talent.

The Celtics have a high pick this year and probably 2 more coming from Brooklyn.  This is a very unique situation because the Celtics have already established themselves as a playoff team.  No tanking...

I am very skeptical that Boston should leverage that very rare opportunity by trading these high end draft picks.  We will need to move some picks but I am hoping that we keep #3 this year and play it by ear in subsequent years.  

Dboss

Unfortunately, the chances of that #3 pick becoming Darko are about as good or better than that player becoming Steph Curry. If Danny can trade the pick for a young, proven player with several years of team control without trading any of the key players on the team, then it makes sense to me to do it. I'd rather have a 100% shot at having Butler on the team for the next few years than a 25% shot that the player drafted might become as good as Butler in 2-3 years.

I do agree with the sentiment that the Celtics are already a pretty good team, and trading the current starters for marginal upgrades isn't worth it. For example, trading AB and #3 for Butler. Butler is a better player, but the difference between the two isn't going to be enough to get the Cs to the ECF. If that kind of trade is made, it would have to be for someone who would really be a huge upgrade, such as Cousins over the current crop of centers.

cowens/oldschool wrote:I still feel like kickin Dannys fockin ass

cowens

Over the last few years you have made it quite clear that you strongly disagree with the Perkins trade for Green. Setting hindsight aside, there are some major factors that went into Danny's decision to trade Perk on 2-24-11.

* At the time that O'Neal went down with his wrist injury on 2/1/11 the team record with Shaq in the lineup was 27-9 for a .750% and the team overall record was 41-15 for a .732%. Those are championship numbers.
* The injury was not considered to be season ending - but did turn out to be, with the exception of the 5 minutes he played in the last game of the year. Sometimes the medical staff gets it wrong - and leaves an opening for 2nd guessing.
* The team was having a great year with Shaq at the center position, and with the big 3 getting along in years, Danny looked to the future and chose Green over Perk as the better player to build around, especially due to the fact that 2 super star front court players were entering into the twilight years of their careers. Absolutely nothing to do with chemistry that year.
* Center Nenard Kristic was also obtained in the Perk trade to back up Shaq.


swish

swish wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:I still feel like kickin Dannys fockin ass

 cowens

 Over the last few years you have made it quite clear that you strongly disagree with the Perkins trade for Green. Setting hindsight aside, there are some major factors that went into Danny's decision to trade Perk on 2-24-11.

 * At the time that O'Neal went down with his wrist injury on 2/1/11 the team record with Shaq in the lineup was  27-9 for a .750% and the team overall record was 41-15 for a .732%. Those are championship numbers.
 * The injury was not considered to be season ending - but did  turn out to be, with the exception of the 5 minutes he played in the last game of the year. Sometimes the medical staff gets it wrong - and leaves an opening for 2nd guessing.
 * The team was having a great year with Shaq at the center position, and with the big 3 getting along in years,  Danny looked to the future and chose Green over Perk as  the better player to build around, especially due to the fact that 2 super star front court players were entering into the twilight years of their careers. Absolutely nothing to do with chemistry that year.
 * Center Nenard Kristic was also obtained in the Perk trade to back up Shaq.


  swish
 

 

yeah I really cherished watching that team play, to see Shaq and KG next to each other was beautiful to watch, a young Shaq KG and Pierce frontline would have given the original Big 3 all they could handle, as that team with the older Shaq still kicked ass and Shaq said he never had played on a team with more talent and a great group of guys. I remember when Perk came back and backed up Shaq and we had a great winning match up vs Lakers.....if only the playoffs could have started right then.