Baynes: “We couldn’t find a way to play as a team”

https://www.celticsblog.com/2019/5/27/18641294/baynes-we-couldnt-find-a-way-to-play-as-a-team-celtics-beat-podcast-celtics-aron-nba-kyre-irving



Baynes: “We couldn’t find a way to play as a team” - Celtics Beat Podcast



Boston’s back-up big man joins Adam Kaufman and takes us inside the Celtics’ fragile locker room...



By CLNS_Nick@CLNS_Nick May 27, 2019, 8:43am EDT


By Evan Valenti


Column composed By Evan Valenti for CLNS and CelticsBlog




Aron Baynes sounds like a guy that wants to come back next season. The Australian chatted with CLNS’ very own Adam Kaufman on this week’s Celtics Beat.

“I love Boston. Boston’s been great to me. My family is comfortable here” said the Celtics big man. “I have to have a chat with Danny and Brad in the next couple of weeks. Want to see what their thoughts are as well. If everything lines up I’d still love to come back.”

“My heart is still in this…I want to add to the Celtics legacy,” he concluded.

If I had to guess I would say that it’s likely that All of Australia is on the Celtics next year. Moreover I believe Danny Ainge recognizes what Baynes brings to the table, both on and off the court. His impact often goes unnoticed, and it was hard to see this year because he was injured so often. However, make no mistake about it: The Celtics are a better team with him on the floor.

Baynes: “We couldn’t find a way to play as a team”

It’s frustrating to hear because this is one of the most talented Celtics teams we’ve had in a while. Adam said it best in the beginning of the podacst. Everyone was penciling them in the NBA Finals and playing Golden State well before the first tip-off of the entire season. The expectations were sky high and Boston came up well short. But why?


“I definitely think that Brad’s system is great. I’m a big believer in what Brad wants us to do. I’ve seen how good of a coach he is. I’ve seen how much he enhances guys abilities when they are playing for him,” Baynes said.

“I think there were sometimes where we didn’t buy into his system fully and that hurt us. Because when did, when we live within Brad’s system both offensively and defensively we look really good and we did the right things,” he concluded.

I don’t think these quotes are really shocking to anyone who watched the team this year. There seemed to be a disconnect at times with guys on the floor. And Aron is right. When things went well they REALLY went well. But it was obvious at the end of the year that not everyone bought in. Everyone can speculate who those players were, but ultimately it falls on the entire team, including Stevens.



bob



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Not looking like it will be an easy sign for Baynes or even Theis. Maybe they will look around for another center, but unless we are getting Davis, the players out there are not impressive. The one thing working against Aron is his high injury rate. I love the guy but I don't know where this will lead

RosalieTCeltics wrote:Not looking like it will be an easy sign for Baynes or even Theis. Maybe they will look around for another center, but unless we are getting Davis, the players out there are not impressive. The one thing working against Aron is his high injury rate. I love the guy but I don't know where this will lead

I didn’t read his comments that way. Seems to me that there’s a good chance he’s back whether he opts out or not. With early bird rights, Cs should be able to offer up to full mid-level. Same with Theis who is a restricted FA.

Baynes' statement about not being able to play "as a team" certainly sounds like what I would think that most every team member would say following this past season. From just watching many games, this thought was more than obvious to me. I know that watching this team was no where as much fun as watching our teams in the past few seasons.

It now becomes Ainge's job to figure out why this team that played so well together in the playoffs two years ago and make necessary personnel changes so that the Cs will be better in 2019-20.  He needs to get input from his head coach, too.

Stevens needs to very much be a part of this discussion because as much as he has done in Boston since arriving, he did not handle this issue very well this year.  He either needs to step up and take care of ego players or admit to Ainge that he cannot handle certain guys, and that these guys need to go somewhere else or the Cs need a new head coach.

Remember when Rondo was on the team? Rondo praised Stevens in the beginning, then decided he wanted to do things his way. It wa pretty obvious to me that Danny had the chance to trade Rondo (of course he did not want to pay him either) and Stevens agreed with no fight to let Rondo go.

I don't think Baynes would get much more with the MLE than he gets by opting in.

on the other hand using the MLE on him limits Danny from signing another vet player.

we have  "early Bird" rights on Theis which limits what we can pay him I think.

] The Early Bird Exception allows teams to sign their free agent for up to the greater of (i) to 175% of his prior salary or (ii) 104.5% of the average player salary. The Non-Bird Exception allows teams to sign their free agent for up to 120% of his prior salary.


$2.4M  would be 175% of this years salary

average NBA salary  is around $6.3M

https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/players.html

so if I read that correct Boston can offer Theis UP to $6.3M ?

Maybe Baynes would fall in this category as well, if he opts out. I believe we would have his early bird rights then.

we do have to remember that even if Irving leaves we are still OVER the cap and have to use exceptions or trades to add any players.
This is the reason I feel that if Irving does leave, it will be more likely that Ainge tries to keep both Rozier and Morris here. Finding same level replacements with the MLE and vet minimum deals may be difficult.

If Irving needs, the search for someone who will give us the points we are losing will start. I do not believe there is that much faith that Terry Rozier will provide that offense night in or night out.
The scoring droughts that they had at times during games which led to them playing from behind needs to be addressed. This lack of scoring killed them in alot of games. I am hoping that Hayward comes back next year and provides the Celts with the play they expected of him. This is not the answer though, They need a good ball handling, scoring guard that they can rely on.

I think retaining Baynes, while developing a couple of young bigs, would be a good move.

Unfortunately, Rosalie is right; Baynes' tendency to get injured will limit what is wise to pay him.

I hope something can be worked out to keep him here one more year. Especially if the team drafts a couple of forwards.

Baynes will be back. He is a very important part of this team.

Baynes is smoother than Terry but, reading between the lines, he seems to be saying very similar things.