Rudy Pemberton said:Sure it improves the roster, but I thought the idea was to get worse- not better? Giving up a first rounder to acquire a player who won't be on the next good Celtic team seems nuts to me. I don't get these rumors.
If you want to look at every move in the context of tanking, obviously that changes the dynamic entirely. But those arguments probably belong more in the tanking thread than here.
It's abundantly clear the Celtics are not tanking. They are making moves with the future more in mind than the present (and getting rid of Courtney Lee does exactly that). But with that overriding mindset in the background, Danny wants to make the team better as well.
Late first round picks have some value, but probably not as much as a lot of people think. Sure, it's nice to have multiple chances to hit on a solid player in the 20's, but it's entirely different than a top 10 pick. If the draft choice in this trade is lottery protected, I have no problem with it. If you're desperate for a late first round pick in a particular draft for some reason at some point, you can probably get one later at a reasonable cost.