OT: Kemba traded to Thunder

[huskiesouth]

Whatever success lies in the future for the Celtics there is no question that it rides on Tatum & Brown. Hopefully Stevens and the owners have had in-person meetings with both these young stars and have emphasized that the only goal of the organization is to compete (soon) for a title and every effort will be made to accomplish this goal and stock the team with the quality players who will help these two guys achieve success in Boston.

 

[Waquoit]

This was a decisive move. I don't think one can worry about winning the trade. Ainge was obsessed with winning the trade and didn't have a plan. Does Stevens have a plan?

 

[Dogdeacon]

This was a decisive move. I don't think one can worry about winning the trade. Ainge was obsessed with winning the trade and didn't have a plan. Does Stevens have a plan?

I think Ainge had plans, most recently it was Kyrie and possibly one more free agent. The problem was when that didn't work out, he clung too tightly to that precise plan and overpaid Kemba to try and salvage. It was a decent plan B, it just didn't work.

Another miss I think the last few years is due to high payroll they never signed or traded to fill in the glaring holes mid-way thru any of the past 3-4 seasons. Had they signed one or two James Posey types it might have been enough to advance a little further in the playoffs (esp bubble playoffs).

Ainge tried to address this (namely the bench), adding role players via their draft picks but they drafted poorly. Instead of picking a role player like Thybulle they tried to buy flawed upside via picks like Romeo Langford and ended up just flawed with little meaningful bench contributors. I'd hypothesize that showing and arguing against this approach is part of how Stevens landed the GM job. The rooks & projects consistently were an albatross around the team and coach. Stevens knows not to do the same to the next coach. So rather than keep an iffy late teens pick that's at best yrs away he jettisoned it for $ that will enable them to sign a vet that's already evidenced whatever skillset the team may need.

 

[UofCT]

My buddy who works for espn thinks walker could move again or possible 2x more in trades.

Is your buddy WOJ?

 

[blackbird]

I'd say yes and no. It's true that there's not a huge appetite in the league right now for 6'0 two guards that leave you exposed to all sorts of mismatches on the other end. He does not seem particularly well-built physically for the gauntlet that is playoff basketball, and that's probably the most damning thing you can say about him, in addition to the fact that he hasn't been efficient enough - especially in the postseason - to warrant shooting at such a high volume.

But he's also clearly not the same player physically that he was in Charlotte, which makes him tough to judge. His production over his final few seasons there can't be marginalized, especially given how much better he was defensively compared to other smallish guards like Isaiah Thomas, Lou Williams, Jason Terry, etc. All the data pointed towards him being a legitimately really good player that carried those Charlotte teams.

Ultimately he found himself in that no man's land of being overqualified to lead bad teams (hence Charlotte picking in the late lottery every year) but maybe slightly underqualified to put a good team like the Celtics over the top. There just aren't a lot of guys like that.

Brad’s defensive schemes exposed him too.

Kemba is good defensively at certain things..taking charges, sticking him on a shooter and acting like a gnat..

But Stevens liked to switch everything - and given the makeup of his team last year (Tatum, Theis, Brown, Hayward..) it’s understandable. But it’s also not Kemba’s fault that when Brad had him switch everything and the small forward he now has to guard posts him up. And that was pretty much an every play thing during the playoffs. (Which, tbh..would have been an easy fix with “everyone but Kemba switches”..

The real question is - how does his knee hold up. I think the Celtics made a mistake because Kemba’s value was at an all time low. See what he looks like with a full off season and time to recover - maybe that knee procedure does help him. Then, either he is a good fit with the Jay’s or he’s now an expiring contract..much more value than what was gotten for him.