Report: David Lee Traded By GSW TO BOSTON CELTICS

rambone wrote:Found this comment on the web:

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Re: Celtics To Trade For David Lee
Post#85 » Yesterday 8:18 pm

Posted this on the Celtics board, figured this might start some conversation over here.

I'm a Warriors fan who used to be pretty anti-Lee but I grew to really appreciate him in the last year or two as a player. He can still be an extremely valuable and productive player, IF used in the right situations.

The old stereotype about David Lee is that he's an awful, awful, awful defender. This is true to some extent, but is also something that can be negated and even turned into a net neutral on the court, if surrounded by the right players. At this point in Lee's career, he probably is not a 25-30+ minutes a game player after a series of abdominal and hamstring injuries. His jumpshot was once a staple of the Warriors offense with Curry pick/pops but it seems to have abandoned him in the last few years.

That said, I think Celtics fans will be pleasantly surprised with Lee if he's played primarily at the 5. Most of people's complaints about David Lee on defense revolve around him getting burned in pick and roll coverage and being a mediocre rim-protector. If you put him at the 5, he doesn't have to nearly as much work running around guarding 4's that can dribble or shoot. Lee is no shot blocker by any means, but in single coverage in the post, he's done a decent job in the past defending some brutish types. I assume lots of fans will recoil in horror at the idea of David Lee playing the 5, but if he's put next to someone like Amir Johnson who is a good defender and capable shotblocker, Lee's defensive problems will neutralized.If the Celtics utilize lineups with good swarming defenses that focus on snuffing out pick and rolls and keeping the ball out of the paint, Lee at the 5 will not be a problem whatsoever. In Mark Jackson's last year, the Warriors took the Clippers to 7 games with the Draymond Green/David Lee frontline and may well have won the series if Mark Jackson had pulled his head out of his ass earlier and stopped playing David Lee/Jermaine O'Neal frontlines with terrible spacing. During most of the regular season, the Curry/Klay/Igoudala/Green/Lee lineup had something around a +30 net rating with a defensive net rating somewhere either in the low 90's or high 80's. Not gonna go back and find those numbers, but I've seen them tossed around in many places. If you want to read an incredibly optimistic view of David Lee, I would recommend checking out feltbot.com. This guy is a Warriors blogger that has long been aboard the Lee at the 5 campaign and he's cited the numbers many a time.

As a Warriors fan, I am of course thrilled with how the season went, but the whole season I felt like Steve Kerr was completely misusing Lee on offense. Mo Speights is no low post threat and he isn't a high level passer like Lee was so Kerr ran him mostly through pick and rolls and pops at the 5. Festus Ezeli still is learning how to play the post and isn't a good passer at this point in his career, so Kerr used him mostly in pick and roll situations. Lee on the other hand has a reputation as a low-post player and a great passer so Kerr had an affinity for sticking him in the high post for handoffs and in the pinch post in sets that were triangle mutations. At this point in Lee's career, he is only really effective posting up against bigger and slower players. Athletic players will eat his sh-t in the low block if they have time to prepare for him. THAT SAID, Lee is still a monster in the pick and roll, especially if he's playing the 5 with a spaced floor. My biggest fear as a Warriors fan all season was that the Warriors bench wouldn't be able to score in the playoffs and that this would bite them in the ass. This did indeed become a huge problem in the Finals and Kerr finally used Lee at the 5 running picking and rolls with Livingston and Curry in Game 4 and 5 and he saved the Warriors ass in a huge way.

If you use Lee at the 5 with a lineup full of shooters, he will be a threat for 10-15+ points a game off the bench in 20-25 minutes. Lee is an incredibly smart player who is equally adept with both hands. He doesn't always set real picks and prefers to slip screens, but if he does this above the three point line with a point guard that is a shooting threat (Steph Curry or in this case, Isaiah Thomas), Lee will get tons of opportunities to get the ball at the free throw line, and assuming he is playing the 5, won't have to deal with Bogut or Jermaine O'Neal clogging the paint and dragging their man into the lane and making Lee susceptible to getting his shot blocked. During the Jackson tenure, the Warriors offense was highly uncreative, but Green/Lee lineups were incredibly solid defensively and absolute terrors on offense. With the floor properly spaced, Lee gets a chance to get the ball at the free throw line on pick and rolls, make a read and either drive to the hoop or kick the ball out to open shooters. He may be getting older and he probably won't be nearly as athletic or capable of playing big minutes as he was in his youth, but he's still a wizard in the pick and roll and makes great reads about when to drive and when to kick.

I didn't watch the Celtics outside of their games with the Warriors, but I did get the sense that Stevens was a brilliant tactician who adapts his game plan to his players. I would hope that Stevens uses Lee paired up with Amir Johnson at the 4 where his defensive problems will be covered by Amir, or in super small ball lineups with Jae Crowder at the 4 where the offensive firepower will blow most bench units out of the water.

I know that Lee was superfluous in the Warriors scheme given his huge salary and Kerr's insistence on using Lee in the post, but I for one am going to miss him a lot. I had my gripes about Lee in the past, but as I grew older and understood tactics and gameplans more and more, I grew to really appreciate Lee on the court and really did feel that even on the Warriors, he got put in some situations where he wasn't used to his true potential. He's a true professional who gave out his hamstring and his abdominal muscles in the his first two playoffs and probably sacrificed some milage in the long term. He cares deeply about winning and I think the Celtics will actually put him to good use and make this trade look like a steal for them long term.

Hope this raises some hopes of some pessimistic Celtics fans.

dboss wrote:I always liked David Lee despite his defense.  I always wanted to see him in a Celtics uniform.  No longterm financial commitment with him and Johnson.  

Sully is probably the next candidate to be moved.  Plus ko is more suited for the Celtics offense.  I would be very surprised if AB is part of another trade because neither Young nor Hunter are starting level SG and Smart is a player without a position, PG?, SG?...

Still no center as DA continues to set up a bigger move.

Most logical teams to engage are Minn and Philly.

Dboss

bobheckler wrote:dboss,

Why Minny and not Sacto?

Pekovic, Dieng and Towns vs Cousins, WCS and Koufos. Towns isn't a true C and Pekovic doesn't really fit into Brad's "fast and mobile" team strategy.

sam wrote:Clyde,

Let's hope Danny agrees with our thinking about the potential benefits of overpaying.  I believe his pre-draft offers to Philly and Charlotte prove that he does.  He's been busily engaged in building a foundation for a house, and now he definitely needs a roof.

Sam

worcester wrote:That's Doc's best chance for saving his season. Good luck Doc.

BTW, I hope everyone catches the sarcasm in my last post.