Took a break for a while at work from this thread after the news broke and after catching up on the last six or seven pages (or the six or seven previous to the last couple, my eyes started to bleed) I've come around a bit after reading the comments, having put it out of my head for a bit. I initially thought 'huge overpay'. After reading reactions - in both ways - I've come around to being perfectly content with this deal. Some random thoughts:
- I'll start by saying I don't watch the Celtics on a nightly basis, so I don't have the personal love for IT that some here might. But I definitely watched more last year than I had since PP/KG got shipped out, they were a fun team and I got sucked in more than usual for a team I knew had no shot. That being said, as charasmatic and fun as IT was it was easy to see he was not a piece to build around and when the playoffs came and he got the shit beat out of him again, I think that was made clear. He's not the alpha on a championship team. Add in the injury and I had no desire to see them extend him. So one season of IT, with a possible hip impairment, in a season they aren't winning a title means not a whole lot to me. Were I more of a fan I could see the attachment, but it's not there for me.
- I'm by no means an alaytical nba guy, but Kyrie strikes me as a guy that could easily improve. For one, when he finally had a team around him, he had the biggest alpha in the league calling the shots, all of them, transactions, who got the ball, etc. Theres all the talk of 'he couldn't play with Lebron...he wanted out of that?' Has anyone ever considered it might suck to play with lebron? It might be grating at some point. I'm not gonna knock him for that. Further, has he ever really had a decent coach? I think saying things like 'he is what he is' is foolish. The only decent coach he's had, while also having talent around him, was Blatt and that lasted what, half a season? There's no reason to think Stevens can't make him a better player (or that IT won't regress without* Stevens, even if fully healthy). IT was nothing without Stevens. Kyrie is already top 25. As people noted, Kyrie has the ability to play D, it's getting him to buy in. Brad has a better chance than Tyron Lue of doing that.
- people have noted that 'playoff' Kyrie is a different beast. That's a bad thing? That's the NBA now. Playoffs. They have their top 3 seed ticket to the dance, if he doesn't turn it on until the playoffs start, fine by me. We sit on the BBTL forum and talk about putting Gronk in bubble wrap until playoffs, what's the difference? If he takes the leap when it matters most, that's all I give a shit about. I watched the Finals in 16 for the first time in a while that the Cs weren't involved and he was a freaking beast. I want that guy on my team. Meanwhile, by Finals time, IT is going to be banged up and here's no way around it.
- other assets. Crowder was redundant. He's a good player but his biggest value was his contract, imo. Heyward/Brown/Tatum can fill the void and Crowders minutes would be reduced. Zizic was enticing and honestly the biggest issue I had was they need a big, if for nothing than minutes. Zizic was their bench big, next year's draft was top heavy in bigs and they essentially just traded two in one move. I didn't like that a lot but I see why DA did it. They weren't backing up the Brinks truck end of year and then who's the next piece? Pulling Kyrie out and keeping him in the East offers some control and furthers Lebron to the West end of year.
End of day I see this as a slight overpay, necessitated by making such a deal with your only conference rival and fascilitated by the amount of assets you've accumulated. But it's far better long term, both roster and salary cap fit than standing pat. If they can get a couple ring chasers to fill the bench it would be nice but that train likely already left the station this late and they aren't beating GS either way.