Did the Boston Celtics ‘master the Deal Zone’ at the 2022 NBA trade deadline?

jrleftfoot wrote:Here are all the ratings of the Spurs trade I could find in the sports media: Kevin Pelton, ESPN-A(-)Zack Harper, The Athletic-A(-);Jack Maloney-CBS Sports-B+;Rick Odonnell, SB Nation -A(-) Don Favale, Blecher Report-B; Michael Pina-Sports Illustrated-A(-). Bunch of idiots, I suppose.

At first I hated the trade, after researching White, and seeing him play with us recently and acquiring Theis, I like all the moves. White is a very good complimentary player that can do it both ends and play both guard spots. We don’t have to develop him, Pop already did that for us. Crafty and versatile are 2 words I could use for him.

jrleftfoot wrote:Here are all the ratings of the Spurs trade I could find in the sports media: Kevin Pelton, ESPN-A(-)Zack Harper, The Athletic-A(-);Jack Maloney-CBS Sports-B+;Rick Odonnell, SB Nation -A(-) Don Favale, Blecher Report-B; Michael Pina-Sports Illustrated-A(-). Bunch of idiots, I suppose.

Those grades look like the report card my parents wanted me to come home with. I never failed to earn a couple other letters, for inclusion's sake, I guess.

cowens/oldschool wrote:

Ktron wrote:https://youtu.be/XTLBMybG7CI

Yeah I am really gonna miss JRich, loved his tenacity both ends, a real fast energy player that meshed well with 2 J’s and Smart. I’m convinced Pop did the trade to finally develop some of his picks, he’s got Vassell, Walker, the vet Dougie Mcbuckets, some kid Primo; he needed more PT for Vassell and Walker, 2 former 1st round picks. The sweetener was the picks, this looks to be the type of trade that helps both teams as we needed point depth and help for Smart with the Schroder situation being a rental.

Romeo may be glued to the bench with all these young 2-3’s already ahead of him, plus JRich. Life isn’t fair, shame he couldn’t do more with his opportunity in Boston, now he’s on his own, hopefully he can still find his niche and not be another Josh Jackson….time to man up.

I was and still is a Josh Richardson guy. Really liked what he did for us and as you can tell, the guy had and still does have a great attitude about all of this. I sense his true sincerity and wish him much success.

Romeo did talk as well. He appeared stunned over everything that just occurred but not bitter. I wish him the best as well.

I get the concern that we didn't bring in shooting - that was our obvious immediate need. However, I also get that 1) there may not have been a good deal for bringing in shooting; 2) there is a bigger picture; and 3) there are many paths to building a contender. Regarding point one, I suspect Tatum's shooting will eventually regress to the mean (i.e. improve), and Jaylen's as well. Also, I think part of the problem is that asking the J's to run the offense and create for others is not going to work. I hope I'm wrong, but while both are great scoreos, neither seems to have that facilitator skill innately. It may have been asking too much. This brings us to points 2) and 3). By bringing in another guy who can handle and distribute, it could really open up the game for the Js. Imagine either J having the ball and breaking down the defense, and then passing to a guy like White, Smart, or even Al or Rob, who can then take advantage of the broken defense and make a secondary pass to get an easy bucket. I like the idea of surrounding the J's with great passers. We might not even need a third star. In fact, it seems that in most 3-star teams, one of the stars has a diminished role, which means he can't necessarily play like the star he is even though he is getting star money. I suppose one could argue that Jaylen is on a non-star contract, but I still want to get the most out of him. I like Brad and Ime's vision of this D-oriented team that will allow the J's to trive. Finally, Brad has a lot of good guys on good contracts, so if he changes his mind, he has tradable players if a star becomes a available.

Caveat to my previous post - I don't think Brad/management thinks we are a serious contender this year. Brad is building for next year. By either trading Al or waiving/stretching his contract, I believe we will have a good chunk of change to get a good veteran 3 & D guy. I think the D part is a must for Ime, and possibly another reason why we didn't get a shooter at the trade deadline, i.e. they couldn't get one who could defend well enough for Ime's liking. Add a veteran 3 & D guy to the current core of Jayson, Jaylen, Marcus, Time Lord, & Derrick (plus Theis and Grant), and then factor in continued improvement by all members of this young core, and that's going to be a tough team to beat.

I think we may be missing something on the other side of the coin with the point differential. Not sure how to unwind it but here goes.

What is the difference in points between a team whose defensive rating is in the lower to mid 20's (a.ka. looking pretty crappy...a.k.a. the Celtics for most of this season) versus if your team is either the top defensive team or in 2nd place?

What I'm getting at is even if we've dropped 5.8 points in these trades, will (won't) the surge in defensive standing from the mid 20's to just off the top make up and then some for the points loss? We've seen how teams fold up like a cheap suit when the defensive heat is on.

I'm thinking from what I've seen with the very small sample space that either it's a wash or a net gain. Tonight will tell a lot.

Anyway, just a thought.

db

Didn’t think this warranted it’s own thread but it is interesting reading.

Celtics Fans Will Like Derrick White More After Hearing About His Dad
'My dad was a Celtics fan and he's a Red Sox fan'

by Patrick McAvoy

February 11





Derrick White is making quite the first impression with the Boston Celtics.

The newest Celtic guard joined the team Friday after being acquired NBA trade deadline and shined in his debut scoring 15 points and nabbing six rebounds to help Boston earn its seventh straight win.

He impressed in his debut, but fans may even be happier to hear that apparently his dad has been a massive Celtics and Boston Red Sox fan since he was a kid.

“I was from Colorado so I was a (Denver Nuggets) fan growing up,” White said via NBC Sports Boston’s postgame coverage. “But my dad was a Celtics fan and he’s a Red Sox fan. He was born in Boston. My dad was pretty excited when he found out that it was Boston I was going to. He grew up watching them. He was a die-hard Jo Jo White fan. I always heard stories about it growing up. It’s pretty cool to be playing out here now.”

If his performance against the Denver Nuggets on Friday night didn’t already win over Boston fans, the local connection sure will.

And . . . third time's the charm.

Here's some more reactions to the deadline action from last season, made after a couple games with White on board

Derrick White is starting to grow on some folks, others still resist.