They would probably enjoy discussing what government means to them.
But what you're asking is impossible: Kyrie doesn't enjoy anything.
Offseason Thread - Betty when you call me, you can call me Al
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But what you're asking is impossible: Kyrie doesn't enjoy anything.
It makes no sense. Capela makes virtually no sense for this team, especially with four years at ~$18mm per and that is even if they get Walker. Walker is decent from beyond the arc but not elite nor efficient.
Capela would be great if the Celtics had a two more regular rotation deep shooters. I think some people want/hope or think that basketball is going back to ISOs and low post play. Otherwise, Capela makes no sense with a team that cannot spread the floor.
No. He can't.
Moving Smart for Capela is a clear downgrade to me.
Langford isn't replacing anybody this year. I'd be surprised if he's in the 9 man rotation.
I am going to assume this isn't a troll post. What is your reasoning for wanting to move Smart at all costs? Would you have the Celtics buy him out? Trade him for a few future seconds?
Your team of Capela, Walker, Langford, Hayward and Tatum will get absolutely roasted on defense imho.
You know far more about this that I do, so my question is ... if Capela's not a good fit for this iteration of the Celtics, why does it appear that they're trying to trade for him?
I think(?) he was being sarcastic.
Anyway, I agree, moving Smart for Capela makes no sense to me - Smart is a key cog on the team and who would be the backup PG if he left? A Wanamaker type?
There are enough floor-spacing big-man options out there that they don't need to stretch to get Capela, who as others have said doesn't really fit the role of an Al replacement because he's not a floor-spacer at all.
Not a Smart fan in today's NBA. Doesn't shoot it enough for me and he's got a big cap hit.
I don't know that they are. The Celtics, because of their assets and their unique position of being half-way between a contending and a middling young team, tend to get linked to a lot of deals, especially multiple team ones. Some of it is likely due to Ainge's opportunism.
On the other hand, maybe Ainge/Stevens et al see something that I don't see. But on its surface, Capela is a 6-10/11 guy who can occupy some space, is very good on PnRs and catch some lobs.
Trading away the Celtics best defender and best current player who is on a fair, if not bargain, contract for a one-plus skill guy who makes more money seems very un-Ainge-like to me.
$12.5 million is not a big cap hit for a player like Smart. Among PG's, he's making less than Gorin Dragic, Jeff Teague, Reggie Jackson, Brandon Knight, George Hill, Jordan Clarkson, and Dennis Schroeder.
Agreed. And Ainge has long liked to involve himself in these discussions occasionally landing a pick or other asset in exchange for helping faciltiate a deal. So I'm sure he's talking to Houston and involved in some scenarios which involve Capela---some where Celts keep him, some where they facilitate him going elsehwere. But Celts likely have disucssed literally dozens of scenarios so it doesn't mean much a few involved Capela.
Clint Capela is an elite finisher, defender and rebounder. He can't stretch the floor, but you're overly focused on what he can't do instead of what he does do. Moving a back-up guard for a starting big man, both of whom are on fair salaries, seems like a move that makes a ton of sense.
I will grant you finisher and rebounder. He is not elite at anything defensively unless I am missing a metric that you are looking at. He is pretty average defensively and is a switch target.
As a side note, the gamehtreads where Stevens leaves him in while teams play the hack-a-Clint would be a bloodbath.
Oh, you weren't being sarcastic?
Basing a player's value on how much he shoots it, especially when he's shown to not be a very good shooter, is pretty ridiculous. His value lies primarily in defense, not to mention intangibles like effort and leadership - something this year's team will need in the absence of Al in particular.
But even if he was a shitty player, his contract is eminently tradeable (it's not a big cap hit at all, relatively), so why would you want to give up that asset at the first opportunity rather than holding it for use in a trade down the line that would make more sense for the Celtics overall?
If you frame it this way, sure.
But is Marcus Smart just a run of the mill back up guard? The dude can play 1-3, and even has the strength to guard 4s. He's actually an elite defender, I don't think Capela is.
It's not like Smart is going to play 15 minutes a game like a back up point guard. He's going to be in the high 20s, probably in the ballpark of minutes Capela plays.
I think Smart is a better player than Capela, it's just that Smarts' biggest, maybe only?, weakness is shooting which is the most noticeable one to anyone watching games.
Are you just looking at 2018-19 or are you considering 2017-18 as well? He was top five in defensive rating league-wide and something like second among centers in D-PIPM. 538's CARMELO had him 90th percentile in defense. Even if you consider that year the outlier he still rated out better than average by most metrics this year. Maybe I'm using elite too casually here, but he's a good defender.
Back-up guard in the sense that it's the most likely role he'll play for Boston, whereas Capela would start and get the bulk of minutes at C. From a team-building perspective it makes sense. If you don't believe Capela is good enough for that role, that's fine. This wasn't meant as a knock on Smart.
Totally agree with you. I really don't understand the Capela fascination, let alone giving up legit assets for him.
Right, and I'm saying back-up guard isn't the best way to categorize him because he's going to play starter level minutes across three different positions.
I don't sweat too much who gets their names announced at 7:05.
Minutes are minutes to me. They all count equally.
The '17-18 season looks more like an outlier result than a trend given the rest of his career.
I want to be clear - I don't hate Clint Capela and depending on the personnel around him, he can be a very effective player. I just don't get the fit with Boston, especially on his contract. That said, I done making my case as Ainge/Zarren/Stevens and their staff know far more about building a team than I ever will.
If the Celtics do go ahead and get him, wouldn’t that indicate that some very bright NBA people strongly disagree with you?
Evaluating current NBA players (on the court, not locker room) has probably been the biggest strength of the Ainge/Zarren Celtics.
Edit: you acknowledged this in your post right above mine.
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He's a weird player to evaluate. He was extremely raw, and developed over time. He was really good in 2017-2018 (contract year), and then promptly went and got fat as soon as he got his contract. He played better as the year went on from what I saw on occasion, and then was part of Houston absolutely toasting Utah. GSW is an awful matchup for him, but that team basically doesn't exist anymore, and it's really helpful in the East to have good bigs.
As far as the spacing thing goes--he's pretty elite at vertical spacing on his own, and centers who can provide that on offense are pretty easy to fit in on almost any team. Those guys only get played off the floor on the defensive end generally, and I don't see a team in the East, and maybe the NBA at all, that can really get close to doing that to him in the post-Dubs era.
It's not a total slam-dunk move, but I think its success depends more on Capela's eating habits than on his Celtics fit.
In Smart's final 42 games last season he shot 38.1% from 3 point range. For the season, his FG% was 42.2, the best ever for him.
No - Turner's cap hit is $18m so Smart would pretty much have to be part of any trade to make the numbers work, unless I'm missing something.
The Boston Celtics are hiring Kara Lawson as an assistant coach, league sources tell ESPN. Lawson, an ex-WNBA and Olympic champion, has been an NBA commentator with ESPN and the TV analyst for the Washington Wizards.
--Woj
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1144325572413313026
--Woj
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1144325572413313026
Aren't cap hits sometimes lower for recently extended players that get big raises? I just don't know when the cutoff is for "recent," maybe that only applies to sign-and-trades but not players extended during the season...
Fantastic move. Ordway is killing the move which proves the reverse. Basketball unlike any other sport has the fewest difference between the women's game and the men's. I believe she is now the 5th. Props to Adam Silver for actively pushing this.
Indeed she is. I'm a huge fan - well, other than that I'm a big UConn women's fan and she went to Tennessee, but I've long since forgiven her for that.
Great addition by the Celtics for lots of reasons. Hope she absolutely crushes it, and I'm pretty confident she will.
Turner's new contract is basically 4yr/$80M, but $2M of that $20M AAV is in unlikely to be earned incentives. The new contract always counts for salary cap and trading purposes.
The only exception is if the player being shipped out in a sign-and-trade is getting a substantial raise, in which case the sending team receives a much lower "credit" for the outgoing salary. It's why if the Celtics were to do a sign-and-trade by shipping out Kyrie for a 2nd round draft pick, the Celtics would only get a $20M trade exception, while the receiving team would have to be able to absorb Kyrie's full max contract value into their cap space.
Because people get that he would have stayed if Kyrie hadn't welched, and that he's on a different timeline than the rest of the team and wants a ring.
It turns out that humans are pretty good at handling and evaluating complex interpersonal situations with lots of nuances. Almost as if they evolved to do it.
I agree. The resentment toward Kyire isn't "Boston bitter". It's Kyrie reaping what he sowed.
I don't know man. I'm as big a Marcus Smart fan as you'll find, and even I don't think I could categorize his shooting as anything but a weakness.
.422/.364/.806, with a .533 eFG%
.434/.356/.844, with a .511 eFG%
One of those guys can't shoot. The other is about to get $141 million from the Celtics. The one who can't shoot is one of the best defenders in the league.
Hopefully, Smart turned the corner on his shooting, and this past season wasn't a fluke. He was assisted on 69% of his makes this past season, and only 50% the season before. Smart should again benefit by playing next to a good scorer (if Kemba comes here), like he did this past season in the starting lineup with Kyrie.
If you want to take the best shooting year of Smarts' career as his norm now, I guess you can.
I'd like to see him do it again before claiming that's who he is as a shooter now.
Really weird to compare him as a shooter to Kemba. Who do you think faced more defensive pressure on his shots? The guy who the opponent didn't want to shoot, or the guy the opponent was begging to shoot?
Turner is $18M
We'd need to get to $16.2M, so Brown $6.5M & Yabu $3.1M & Rozier (4yr at $54-64M) S&T gets it done, me thinks.
Some of the cap wizards can weigh in if I screwed this up.
Indy is in the market for a wing and a PG to pair with Oladipo. This would be a good way to bring in talent (Rozier), retain talent (Sabonis and Brown RFA next yr), and balance their roster.
Rozier would have to want Indy though because signing Kemba is predicated on renouncing his RFA rights, correct?
Problem is that would require Rozier agreeing to go to Indy, which would be dependent on whether he could get a better deal elsewhere or if there was a team (Knicks?) where he felt like he could go and be a more definitive #1 PG, if that's truly what he wants.
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