OT: Celtics Acquire Courtney Lee

[aceboon]

Pretty good move for Boston, cements their backcourt depth and in small lineups you could get away with playing Lee at SF depending on the matchup. It was expected that Lee wouldn't return to Houston but this cements that all of the backup SG minutes are Jeremy's. Despite his frame I'm assuming Johnson is going to play a good deal of C because I can't see why the Rockets would want another PF.

http://www.csnne.com/basketball-bos...rtney-Lee-in-sign-?blockID=743013&feedID=3352

 

[UConn990411]

As someone else put it:

Celtics swapped Lee for Allen, brought back a healthy Chris Wilcox and Jeff Green, signed Jason Terry, and drafted Jared Sullinger. Pretty good offseason for Ainge, I'd say.

The Celtics aren't better than the Heat on paper, but they should be damn good next season. Might I say they'll be better than the Knicks?

 

[aceboon]

Yea the Celtics have had a great offseason. Ray will be missed for his clutchness in hitting big shots but Terry would give you the same numbers from the G spot and Lee is just an added bonus as a scorer and defender, especially since initial reports are Bradley won't be available at the start of the season and I'm sure it's going to take awhile for him to get back into the flow when he does come back. Imo this is their most complete team since the title year.

 

[Dogdeacon]

I agree the Celtics have had a good offseason, the issue is the greatness of the team hinges almost entirely on Garnett and Pierce. Not sure if it was a fire in the belly or German Knee engineers but Garnett's playoff time resurgence this past year was pretty remarkable and very unexpected. I'd expect 70% of those minutes and numbers out of him next regular season.

Then their playoff chances are contingent upon Garnett & Pierce at 90%+ come playoff time. Maybe 75% chance of that for each = 56.25% chance Boston is a title contender.

 

[ford82]

Very nice move. Ainge has the guts to take chances and is a good player evaluator.

 

[dsturdy5]

Given the relative depth at their positions, I see Doc aiming to keep Pierce and Garnett's minutes as close to 30 min/game as possible.

 

[DogMania]

As someone else put it:

Celtics swapped Lee for Allen, brought back a healthy Chris Wilcox and Jeff Green, signed Jason Terry, and drafted Jared Sullinger. Pretty good offseason for Ainge, I'd say.

The Celtics aren't better than the Heat on paper, but they should be damn good next season. Might I say they'll be better than the Knicks?

You're probably right but it's often hard to figure out the NBA. The C's came damn close to beating the Heat. Who knows if things would have turned out differently if the refs had called that face-rake on Rondo in game 2 (I think it was 2?). Then again, maybe the heat would have rolled the Cs with a healthy Bosh for the entire series. But also imagine the outcome if the Cs were healthy with the players you mentioned above...oh, also if they had a healthy Avery Bradley who they had to shut down and a healthy Ray who gutted it out.

I don't know what other key additions the Heat made other than Allen, but I assume they made a few upgrades. I think the gap between the two teams is razor thin if...and big if...the Cs can enter the playoffs next season in relatively good health. They match-up well with the Heat as long as they have healthy mobile bodies that they can rotate on Lebron.

All in all, I agree, Ainge did a nice job of rounding off the roster with the limited money they had to spend. I like what they did. IMO, a big key to them having a shot at beating the Heat will be a healthy Jeff Green...this assuming that the big 3 (Pierce, KG & Rondo) are healthy and playing their best hoops next spring. They seem to have stockpiled a bunch of big bodies along with KG man the 4 and 5. That assumes the two new bigs can develop enough game to eat up some minutes come the post season. They clearly seem to have a lot of answers at the 1-3 with the returning cast that includes Avery Bradley and the two newcomers noted above. They might not have the young or in-their-prime trio of super-stars, but they have some very good veteran stars, a budding star in Rondo and a lot of depths consisting of very good players. Let's see how well the gel. I've not been a big NBA guy for a while, but Ainge has done a surprisingly good job of putting an entertaining team out on the floor and next year's team looks to be maybe the most entertaining they've had since the Big-3 arrived.

 

[RS9999X]

Stiemsma wil be signed IMHO. They haven't got good depth upfront (Melo) .
They will add a young guard--Christmas or someone similar or a vet minimum/
I think Joseph makes the team as Green and Pierce will be healthy. Pietrus and Daniels are out.

 

[upstater]

It's still disappointing to see a career backup in Lee arriving for last year's #1 and next year's #2.

Should have stuck with Marshon Brooks!

 

[aceboon]

It's still disappointing to see a career backup in Lee arriving for last year's #1 and next year's #2.

Should have stuck with Marshon Brooks!

Not really understanding you're thinking, most guys picked where Johnson got drafted are career backups, you're chances of landing a full time, career starter in the late 20s is not that high. Lee is a solid 3 pt shooter and defender who adds depth at the wing, a spot the Cs have been thin at for years now. With Bass, Green, KG, Sullinger, and Wilcox, Johnson wasn't gonna see time anyway unless they got wiped out by injuries and if it ever reached a point where he was seeing alot of minutes then that meant the Cs season was lost anyway. Also, as the cascade of Euros who get drafted and never see a minute of NBA time has shown us(despite Fran Fraschilla's pleas that they're good), a 2nd round pick doesn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things.

As for Brooks, the jury is still out on him as well to see if he will eventually be a starter on a good team, he had a good rookie season getting iso plays run for him while playing on a garbage team, he's not getting those same opportunities playing for the Celtics.

 

[dsturdy5]

I like the Celtics ability to surround Rondo with guys who will get out and run when PP and/or KG are on the bench. Bradley, Lee, Green, Joseph...they can and will be able to be more versatile next year.

 

[Ricky1Moore]

If ray ray is healthy, the heat are ridiculous. There are just so many open shots created by the penetration of Lebrun and wade that I think they'll take the east no problemo... If ray isn't healthy, then there is a window for the C's and the bulls... Everyone else is irrelevant.

But the heat (or anyone from east) will have to deal with okc, or the lakers (with Howard) , and even the clips could be good... San Antonio, and on...

All if this depends on health of course, wade included

 

[Ricky1Moore]

Also, it remains to be seen if spoelstra is clever enough to use ray to his potential... But they have a full season to sort that out

 

[RayRay19]

I think steimsma gets a bigger contract and signs with minnesota. I want the celts to get Chris Birdman Anderson though haha. All we need now is a big and we have the bi annual exception left.

 

[RayRay19]

PG: Rondo/Terry
SG: Bradley/Lee
SF: Pierce/Green
PF: Bass/Sullinger
C: Garnett/Wilcox/Melo

...we still need to get a big with more experience...might puke the first time i see Melo in a real celtics game...wish he got traded...

 

[aceboon]

If ray ray is healthy, the heat are ridiculous. There are just so many open shots created by the penetration of Lebrun and wade that I think they'll take the east no problemo... If ray isn't healthy, then there is a window for the C's and the bulls... Everyone else is irrelevant.

But the heat (or anyone from east) will have to deal with okc, or the lakers (with Howard) , and even the clips could be good... San Antonio, and on...

All if this depends on health of course, wade included

The Bulls are essentially taking the year off so they're out of the equation in the East, only free agent of note they've signed is Hinrich and Rose will need another year to get fully back. In the East it's really just the Celtics, imo.

 

[upstater]

Not really understanding you're thinking, most guys picked where Johnson got drafted are career backups, you're chances of landing a full time, career starter in the late 20s is not that high. Lee is a solid 3 pt shooter and defender who adds depth at the wing, a spot the Cs have been thin at for years now. With Bass, Green, KG, Sullinger, and Wilcox, Johnson wasn't gonna see time anyway unless they got wiped out by injuries and if it ever reached a point where he was seeing alot of minutes then that meant the Cs season was lost anyway. Also, as the cascade of Euros who get drafted and never see a minute of NBA time has shown us(despite Fran Fraschilla's pleas that they're good), a 2nd round pick doesn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things.

As for Brooks, the jury is still out on him as well to see if he will eventually be a starter on a good team, he had a good rookie season getting iso plays run for him while playing on a garbage team, he's not getting those same opportunities playing for the Celtics.

The Celts had Brooks though. Giving up on your first rounder in one year--a shortened strike season--is questionable. Celtics have done this too often in the last 15 years. How many other teams have shuffled off a Chauncey Billups or Joe Johnson and gotten nothing in return so early in their careers? I'm not saying JuJuan is that, but this is no way to run a team.

 

[aceboon]

They never had any intention of keeping him tho, they drafted him for the Nets. I guess you can call out Ainge for not liking Brooks' talent but he wasn't what the Celtics had in mind when they made their selection. For what the Celtics need in the short term as a contender I'd take Lee over Brooks right now, he's a much better defender.

 

[RS9999X]

PG: Rondo/Terry
SG: Bradley/Lee
SF: Pierce/Green/Joseph
PF: Bass/Sullinger
C: Garnett/Wilcox/Melo/Stiemsma

Melo with get D-League experience. Christmas might get a no guarantee contract. Pietrus could be back for vets minimum. They need Stiemsma badly.

 

[dsturdy5]

The Celts had Brooks though. Giving up on your first rounder in one year--a shortened strike season--is questionable. Celtics have done this too often in the last 15 years. How many other teams have shuffled off a Chauncey Billups or Joe Johnson and gotten nothing in return so early in their careers? I'm not saying JuJuan is that, but this is no way to run a team.

The two trades you mention were both under the Pitino regime. A lot has changed since then.

Besides, after the Joe Johnson trade the Celtics went to the ECF and then then2nd round the next year after not being in the playoffs for 7 seasons.

 

[nomar]

Great trade.

With Bradley hurt, it was necessary to bring in another guard. Lee's quite good. He's a lethal 3-point shooter. And he's in his prime (26).

Yeah, the Celts gave up last year's 1st rounder (JJJ), but Lee was a 2008 1st rounder. I'll give up potential for talent any day of the week when both players have a comparable ceiling.

Ainge has done a bang-up job. Lost Allen, retained KG, Green, Bass and Wilcox, and got Terry and Lee. That's huge. (Considering Green didn't play last year, the Celtics are essentially replacing 1 solid-to-good rotation player -- Ray -- with 3.)

The "old" Celtics aren't so old anymore. Obviously KG and Pierce are integral to the team's success, but they and Terry are the only players past their prime. There's a bunch of young talent on the team now.

 

[JaYnYcE]

As someone else put it:

Celtics swapped Lee for Allen, brought back a healthy Chris Wilcox and Jeff Green, signed Jason Terry, and drafted Jared Sullinger. Pretty good offseason for Ainge, I'd say.

The Celtics aren't better than the Heat on paper, but they should be damn good next season. Might I say they'll be better than the Knicks?

Heat still have 2 of the best players in the world and added a healthy All Time leader in 3 pointers. It's really pick your poison having, Miller, Allen and Chalmers. Not to mention Battier and Jones.


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[JaYnYcE]

PG: Rondo/Terry
SG: Bradley/Lee
SF: Pierce/Green
PF: Bass/Sullinger
C: Garnett/Wilcox/Melo

Felton/Kidd
Shumpert/Smith
Melo/Novak
STAT/Thomas
Chandler/Camby



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[Waquoit]

Felton/Kidd
Shumpert/Smith
Melo/Novak
STAT/Thomas
Chandler/Camby

7th in the Eastern Conference

 

[UConn990411]

7th in the Eastern Conference

The Knicks are better than that - I'd put them anywhere in the 3-5 range (especially since the Bulls appear to be giving up on this season already). Still, the thought of relying on Amare playing like an All-Star would scare the bejeezus outta me as a Knicks fan.

We never know how these things will play out, but on paper it's 1) Miami, 2) Celtics, then everyone else.