Celtics acquire Mike Muscala

HomeRunBaker

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Solid bench depth get….and on the cheap. Team Option for next year at $3.5m
 

Sam Ray Not

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Dammit, I wanted him! Very nice get. Love the way the Cs eschew obvious name brands in favor of smart, efficient UTR guys who fit well on both sides of the court.
 

Ale Xander

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Interesting. There's no one on the team i want him getting playing time over. Not a great rebounder, not a great passer. Hope we didn't give up anything of value.

Good 3pt shooter this year though

Edit: I'd rather have kept the 2 lottery (small l) tickets and the Tar Heel (biased).
 

Lazy vs Crazy

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The right price probably would have been Jackson and one second rounder, but it's hard to be mad about this. Solid depth, and he can shoot. Should give Al and Rob some extra games off down the stretch.
 

Cellar-Door

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Interesting. There's no one on the team i want him getting playing time over. Not a great rebounder, not a great passer. Hope we didn't give up anything of value.

Good 3pt shooter this year though

Edit: I'd rather have kept the 2 lottery (small l) tickets and the Tar Heel (biased).
He's good. He's much better than Blake Griffin, and better than Kornet (different roles to be fair). 61032
 

shoelace

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Interesting. There's no one on the team i want him getting playing time over. Not a great rebounder, not a great passer. Hope we didn't give up anything of value.

Good 3pt shooter this year though
Joe's offense is centered around producing open threes, 70% of Muscala's shot attempts over the last 4 seasons with OKC have been 3s and he's hit 39% of them (3.8 attempts per game). He's giving you a different look than Kornet in that respect, but he's not a player that's going to demand minutes a ton of minutes or be unhappy with a bench role. He's under control for cheap next year, this is a good move where you gave up nothing.
 

radsoxfan

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Like the move and price.

Someone who will play little if at all with perfect team health.

But someone who isn’t awful if he has to play 15 min a game.

Solid insurance at a pretty cheap rate.
 

Auger34

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Like this move! A little surprised it took 2 2nd’s instead of one but that’s the definition of picking nits.

Could still use Pritchard to get a wing or just wait for the buyout market
 

HomeRunBaker

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Like the move and price.

Someone who will play little if at all with perfect team health.

But someone who isn’t awful if he has to play 15 min a game.

Solid insurance at a pretty cheap rate.
Muscala is similar in a way to Hauser in that on any given night he can be a game changer if he gets hot from three and stretches the defense in ways that TL and Kornet do not.
 

BigMike

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Like this move! A little surprised it took 2 2nd’s instead of one but that’s the definition of picking nits.

Could still use Pritchard to get a wing or just wait for the buyout market
i was somewhat surprised to see OKC deal Muscala, but happy as OKC needs to be playing the developing young guys, and not playing Muscala 15+min a night
 

lovegtm

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Solid bench depth get….and on the cheap. Team Option for next year at $3.5m
Brad loves those extra years of cost control.

Muscala, Kornet, Al...there are options at backup C now even if TL went completely bust.
 

DJnVa

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Cheap guy who can spell Horford in the stretch big role from time to time during the rest of the regular season. Good pick up.
Yeah, feels like a guy that will have at least one postseason game in the first round where there's foul trouble and he drops 17 and 10 and helps us win.
 

Kliq

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Muscala is not useless and we didn't really give anything up to get him so hard to criticize the move. I guess coming off a night where the Celtics beat Embiid without TL or Horford, plus no Smart and Brown missing the second half, where we used a combo of Grant and Kornet to slow down Embiid, I don't see a huge need to make a marginal improvement to our third big situation.

Part of it is I'm just entertained by seeing Big Luke clamp around with his awkward feet and yet effectively put in a few good minutes.
 

Fishy1

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Meh. I think Kornet's rim protection is more valuable in the 10 or so minutes a game one of them might get. Price is right though.
Fair enough, but this gives them room to move others, like Grant, and is nice Horford insurance. We talk about Rob insurance but Al isn't immortal either.

Muscala is gonna love playing next to Tatum-Brogdon-etc. Open looks galore.
 

Light-Tower-Power

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Meh. I think Kornet's rim protection is more valuable in the 10 or so minutes a game one of them might get. Price is right though.
I think there is going to be plenty of playing time for both of them over the next couple months. Al and Rob are going to be in bubble wrap from here on out.
 

MyDaughterLovesTomGordon

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His on/off is a plus 6.2 in offensive rating with OKC this year; opponents' ORTg is -4.8. Obviously, it's in only 15 minutes a game and lineups can be all over the place, but dude seems to have a positive impact on games.

I love him in the pick and roll with Brogdon/Jaylen as part of the second unit when Tatum's not out there.
 

benhogan

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In a defined role over the last 2.5 seasons, MM has been an On-Off darling, which again DARKO seems to encapsulate.

Clearly not Poeltl, but good injury insurance for TL/Al in the playoffs and regular season shrink-wrapping purposes. Plus Grant leaving in RFA insurance for next season.

Another arrow in Brad/CJM's quiver.

2nd round picks are just $$$. I guess OKC is another team not terribly bothered about the play-in game.
 

Devizier

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Also worth noting that the fact that the Celtics didn't also pick up Kenrich Williams (or the like) is probably a good sign for Grant going forward (contract wise).
 

ElcaballitoMVP

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Meh. I think Kornet's rim protection is more valuable in the 10 or so minutes a game one of them might get. Price is right though.
Good thing we still have Kornet. He's taking Justin Jackson's roster spot, so this is an upgrade. Considering Al's age and Timelord's injury history, he's another competent bench piece that can be used when the team wants to stretch the floor at the C position and help manage Al and Timelord's minutes in the 2nd half of the season. When one of those guys gets a night off, it'll be nice to have both Kornet and Muscala available.

I'd like the C's to add one more piece, but this is a solid pickup at the price.
 

InstaFace

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Well, this isn't TimeLord insurance (those are off the market, I think), but it's an upgrade on Griffin and a lot less pressure on Kornet, so I think we'll see TimeLord's minutes in the regular season tapered a bit as they try to figure out who fits best under what circumstances.

What I'm wondering is, who the hell is OKC going to play in the middle? Muscala was basically their only NBA-level center. A rookie Chet Holmgren? I'm surprised we didn't deem one of our guys surplus to requirements and ship them a replacement C.

And credit where due, from yesterday:


Seems like a lot of the rumors have the Cs trying to pick someone up using the Schroeder TPE.
This Masslive article list 16 options that fit, most notably Vanderbilt and PJ Washington..
Mike Muscala also looks like a guy who could be worth a look as a back-up big who won’t cost much to acquire.. https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2023/02/16-realistic-celtics-trade-options-for-dennis-schroder-tpe.html?outputType=amp
Muscala feels like a Brad target. Cheap alternative for another big for next year too with the club option.
And back on Jan 19th:

I threw this out there last year, it didn’t happen, so going back to the well this year: Mike Muscala. He’s had really strong on-off numbers the last 3 years (which Brads seems to value), shoots the 3, defends the rim decently, can play the 4 or 5, is cheap so salary matching is easy and is signed through next year. He’s more like poor man’s Al than poor man’s TL but likely a better player than anyone who will become available on the buyout market.

There is the question of whether OKC wants to try to make the playoffs this year in which case they may not be sellers.
 

Cellar-Door

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Muscala is to me basically Olynyk. They rebound the same, defend similarly (Muscala blocks a fraction more shots, Olynyk probably a bit better off the bounce), biggest differences are....
Olynyk is a better passer for sure, Muscala is the better shooter.
Nice bench piece though, the offense creates a lot of shots for the Horford role. Muscala is a significant upgrade on Blake in that slot, and injury insurance. He also hoenstly might be better than Grant if the opposing team is playing 2 bigs.
 

Spelunker

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I think there is going to be plenty of playing time for both of them over the next couple months. Al and Rob are going to be in bubble wrap from here on out.
And this may allow us to play 2-big more often, right? That takes some pressure off of wing depth, when you have Al / Grant / Muscala playing stretch 4, next to TL/Kornet at the 5.
 

BaseballJones

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It's amazing how much better today's bigs are at shooting compared to most bigs in the past. I know Mascala is a better shooter than most bigs, but man his mechanics are just beautiful.
 

Mooch

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I really like this move. The very definition of a 10-15 mpg stretch 4/5 backup. Perfect fit.
 

RoDaddy

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He also hoenstly might be better than Grant if the opposing team is playing 2 bigs.
Yeah, I wonder if his value will be more taking Grant minutes than Kornet minutes? We're now in Feb so our worry that Luke's early season success was a mirage looks like less of a concern, including last night where he played well again (including down the stretch) in a playoff atmosphere game against a great player (Embiid).
 

radsoxfan

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Yeah, I wonder if his value will be more taking Grant minutes than Kornet minutes?
Might be on the table, but very match-up dependent. Nice to have the option though Grant might have a meltdown.

Grant has value on D against certain guys, seems to play Giannis OK, etc.
 

Cellar-Door

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Yeah, I wonder if his value will be more taking Grant minutes than Kornet minutes? We're now in Feb so our worry that Luke's early season success was a mirage looks like less of a concern, including last night where he played well again (including down the stretch) in a playoff atmosphere game against a great player (Embiid).
I think he's taking a little of both, and most of the Blake minutes. Kornet ideally is only a TL backup, they can't play together, Muscala is an Al backup, so he can let you do more 2 big if TL is injured, or Al is injured, or just both need a rest (foul trouble, etc.)
 

Koufax

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The present value of a 2029 2d round pick is about one beer, and I'd rather have the beer now.
 

lovegtm

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The present value of a 2029 2d round pick is about one beer, and I'd rather have the beer now.
Yeah, given the Celtics depth/roster crunch, the worse 2nd this year + 2029 2nd is about as close to "free" as you get in these kinds of deals.
 

AMS25

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Moose! This Thunder fan is going to miss Muscala. He is a steady, cheerful presence who doesn't care about his playing time. During the tanking years, there were weeks when he never played. But, he was always willing to return to the Thunder on team-friendly deals. He was supposed to be a "big brother," veteran player who would help his younger teammates acclimate to the Thunder Way.
 

Deathofthebambino

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Moose! This Thunder fan is going to miss Muscala. He is a steady, cheerful presence who doesn't care about his playing time. During the tanking years, there were weeks when he never played. But, he was always willing to return to the Thunder on team-friendly deals. He was supposed to be a "big brother," veteran player who would help his younger teammates acclimate to the Thunder Way.
Dude has made like $25mil on those team friendly deals.

Fuck you Mom and Dad for not having better genes and leaving me about a foot shorter than Mike Muscala.
 

AMS25

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i was somewhat surprised to see OKC deal Muscala, but happy as OKC needs to be playing the developing young guys, and not playing Muscala 15+min a night
Why?
Chet Holmgren is OKC's starting center next season.

James Robinson-Earle has earned a role. Jaylin Williams is trending up. Dieng will be in the rotation. Poku was playing well before his injury. Jalen Williams and Kenrich Williams play PF minutes. OKC could draft a big (Jarace? Wemby?)

Just tough to find minutes long-term for Moose.