Oui! Vincent Poirier to Celtics - 2 years.

Big John

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Dec 9, 2016
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I wouldn't want to meet a guy who looks like Poirier at 2 am in a back alley in Marseille.
 

TripleOT

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Jul 4, 2007
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This guy really attacks the rim. I looked at his summer league play from a few years ago, and although I saw some signs, he didn't play with the nastiness that I saw on his recent highlights. Looking forward to seeing him in green.
 

Imbricus

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Jan 26, 2017
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My concern is what happens when he's trying to fly in for a dunk when there are bigger, more athletic guys who are less afraid to challenge him. His Euro defenders in the highlights look a bit meek and undersized. It's easier to look like a monster when everyone around you just kind of ducks and gets out of the way.
 

lovegtm

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Apr 30, 2013
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My concern is what happens when he's trying to fly in for a dunk when there are bigger, more athletic guys who are less afraid to challenge him. His Euro defenders in the highlights look a bit meek and undersized. It's easier to look like a monster when everyone around you just kind of ducks and gets out of the way.
Yeah he clearly doesn't have great explosiveness.
 

InstaFace

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Sep 27, 2016
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I wouldn't want to meet a guy who looks like Poirier at 2 am in a back alley in Marseille.
the French Steven Adams, you might say.

that might make a great thread - who are the scariest-looking NBA players. There's definitely a few who look like they just got back from a few months on an oil rig off the north shore of Alaska in February, and may or may not have killed a polar bear with their bare hands. And then you've got Chris Andersen, who always looked like he was trying too hard to look hard, and I bet frequently gets off his motorcycle to help old ladies cross the street.
 
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lars10

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Jul 31, 2007
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My concern is what happens when he's trying to fly in for a dunk when there are bigger, more athletic guys who are less afraid to challenge him. His Euro defenders in the highlights look a bit meek and undersized. It's easier to look like a monster when everyone around you just kind of ducks and gets out of the way.
Yeah..looked a bit like a high school game for me. He'll get dunks because of his height..but he won't go unchallenged like he did on most of those clips. He looks a bit slow to gather and go up too..so NBA defenders will most likely be able to meet him at the rim. Would be interesting to know who the tallest players he was playing against in most of those clips because he seemed to have a pretty big height advantage in most of them.
 

Eddie Jurak

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Dec 12, 2002
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Max Carlin of celticsblog.com has an analysis of Poirier's pros and cons. Lots of video.

Since Poirier rolls hard and is such a threat as a finisher both above and below the rim, he draws corner defenders regularly, which opens great looks for teammates. He puts pressure on the rim the Celtics haven’t had in years with a big man rotation built around a ground-bound Aron Baynes and pop-oriented Al Horford. When you get the ball to Poirier on the roll and he pulls defenders, he can be trusted to quickly and correctly make decisions. Poirier is capable of exerting pressure on defenses and knows how to manipulate that ability to generate team offense. For the most part, Poirier has solid recognition, and simply being a large body who can maintain advantageous position correlates to defensive impact. Generally, he uses that body well. He delivers chest bumps to drivers to throw them off balance and divert their paths to the rim. He gets big and dissuades and alters shots at the rim.

But Poirier’s damning flaw, his potentially disqualifying weakness presents itself on the defensive end. Simply put: Poirier is slow. While he can get up to a solid top speed in the open court, he struggles mightily to consume space in closer quarters. And those issues are further magnified when he’s tasked with really tight change of direction. Poirier’s balance defending in space is often pitiful, and he’s completely incapable of quickly turning his hips to stay with opponents as they shift from side-to-side. He also seems to regularly find himself poorly angled, setting himself up for that turning difficulty to ruin him.

The truth of the matter is we don’t know. Poirier has limited mobility, but the extent of the issue is unclear. He’ll never be anything remotely resembling a switch big, but possessing adequate mobility to survive as a drop big is well within his range of outcomes. If he hits an outcome like that, Poirier will be a highly valuable situational player, boasting the title of best roll man the Celtics have had in years.
Seems like the best guess is another matchup-dependent role playing guy, but maybe someone who can provide value in the right situations.