Why are you so sure that Charlotte would have wanted him if the price were assets and not cash? Ainge and Zarren seem to have had a different read, and they have a pretty strong track record wrt extracting value in trades.
Edit: I don’t think either of want this to go on forever. My basic point is that when a competent front office does something, I try to first understand what they were doing, rather than saying what they should have done.
In this case, it seems fairly obvious that the Celtics:
1. Valued the optionality of the potential S&T
2. Didn’t think Charlotte was going to deal good picks for Rozier, even though they were willing to overpay him somewhat.
You can disagree with the front office’s conclusions, but the thought process seems straightforward and defensible.
I never said it wasn't defensible, I said I thought the return was light.
To why am I so sure Charlotte would've wanted him if the price were assets and not cash? I'm not. I'm speculating like everybody else. It seems unlikely to me that Charlotte liked Rozier enough to offer him 3/58, but not like him enough to walk away from offering better compensation to the only team that can trade him to them.
Is it the biggest deal? No. If this happened at the trade deadline I probably wouldn't think twice about it. But it's July. If I'm thinking basketball, I can't just turn on a regular season game, so I'm focused on transactions/team building.
It's all speculation, right? I mean, you, me, and most of this board has speculated the Celtics valued the optionality of the potential S&T. But, did they? What evidence do we have that they did? I don't think any of the national news breakers have reported Boston negotiating with Brooklyn or Philly to make this happen. (Not being snarky there, I just haven't noticed if someone had). I think the most we've heard from anyone nationally is ESPNs cap guy Bobby Marks saying on air (paraphrasing)that Brooklyn wasn't going to do a sign and trade with Boston, unless Boston offered a first round pick or something. Even he didn't say something like, Boston is only offering a second so Brooklyn won't do it.
The most plugged in local guy who broke Horford leaving in the first place hasn't had anything on a potential negotiation either. Steve Bulpett tweeted on June 30th, "Source close to Horford says that even after all the Celtics' cap gymnastics, he will not be winding up back in Boston."
The only real piece of evidence that would be more than a rumor, the Celtics giving away Baynes to clear cap space, leads to me thinking that they weren't expecting to turn the Charlotte trade into a 3 way to stay over the cap, but were clearing the space needed to fit Kemba in.
I think the Celtics basically provided Charlotte the same service that Brooklyn would've provided Boston in a theoretical three way trade, give up nothing of value(technically Boston gave up Rozier RFA rights, but kinda worthless) just so Charlotte/Boston can spend money on someone else they couldn't have just readily done themselves.
And I don't think Brooklyn would've done that for a second(and weirdly Boston having to even send a protected second back. That usually just happens when you have to offer something to satisfy league rules. Not the case here)