Isaiah 41:10 - Al Will Strengthen You and Help You: Official 2016-17 Boston Celtics Season Thread

How Far Do The Celtics Go This Season?


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William F. Russell

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Whatever LeBron is feeling, the Celtics are experiencing the polar opposite emotion. They always had 2018 marked as their time to take the leap forward, with LeBron either moving West or the Cavs just growing stale. The market for trading stars after they ask out has been clearly established this summer as hibernating. Unlike the Paul George situation, the Cavs are not up against an expiring deal. But when players request a trade and it goes public, it usually happens.

This situation cracks the window to the Finals wide open for Boston. The current team, if the Cavs cannot acquire a commensurate player for Irving, is good enough to take Cleveland the distance. The likelihood of the Cavs getting an even trade for Irving is incredibly slim. The big question for Cleveland comes down to whether they can acquire a collection of effective role players that can help them maintain their edge over Boston.

The gulf between the Celtics and Cavs was greater than Lake Erie last year. The Celtics have taken a big step forward this offseason, bringing in Gordon Hayward while the Cavs essentially maintained their same structure. Now Cleveland could take a step back while the Celtics hit their stride.

Kyrie Irving trade demand opens path to NBA Finals for Celtics
 

William F. Russell

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Brehs, let's get a bead on this:

Michael Holley is incredulous that every other reporter on the air thinks Kyrie is better than IT.

What's the take here?

I definitely understand why people would Kyrie here but I don't think swapping IT for Kyrie doesn't make us any better. It could actually make us worse, considering how he'd fukk up the team chemistry. And I think moving IT would be a HUGE slap in the face of a man who lead us to a 53-win season, willed us to the ECF (especially after the death of his sister), was 3rd in the league in scoring (29ppg), and was an MVP candidate. He also became the league's most clutch 4th quarter player (King in the Fourth). Trading him after all that would fukk up the Celtics' goodwill, especially with us trying to attract more FAs in the near future. Why would a player want to join a team that wouldn't hesitate to flip you after having a Herculean season?

Kyrie is significantly younger than IT but he's not going to get any better on defense. And then there's the fact that a Kyrie-led team has never been to the playoffs, never mind the ECF. Even last season, IT brought a team of Jae Crowder, Avery Bradley, Kelly Olynk and Jared Sullinger to 48 wins and pushed us to 6 games in the first round of the the playoffs against the Millsap, Teague, Horford-led Hawks.

Brehs always point out that IT is 5'9", 29 years old and can't play defense and use that to argue that the Celtics shouldn't max him. If Kyle Lowry, Al Horford, and Otto fukking Porter can command max contracts, it makes absolutely no fukking sense to withhold a max contract from IT. He's definitely a much better player than most of the players being given max contracts these days. Dude has to be the most disrespected #1 in the league.

I say we keep IT and push ahead. If Kyrie was a better defender than IT, I'd consider the swap more. But there's nothing Kyrie does better than IT.
 

William Heavy

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Marvin Bagley trying to reclassify and go to college this upcoming season making him eligible in the 2018 draft. It seems like his Dad still wants him to wait a year and come out in 2019 though. Don't listen to your Pops Marvin.

2018 No. 1 Recruit Marvin Bagley Reportedly Files to Reclassify to 2017

Lets us pray that the NCAA allows this to happen, Bagley goes to college this season, and the Nets and Lakers have terrible seasons in 2017-18(lakers falling between 2-5) giving us two top five picks next years draft. :blessed:

Next years top prospects would be Bagley, Porter, Ayton, Bamba, Doncic, R Williams.
Imagine us getting Bagley and Ayton. I'm just trying to speak this into existence.:banderas:
 

William Heavy

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:patrice: Kyrie's a great scorer, but that's about it. He's also had knee issues that concern me. Cavs would try and swindle us for our young assets and I don't think Kyrie is that great of a player to be giving up a bunch of talent. Someone on espn was talking about the Suns sending Bledsoe and Josh Jackson for Kyrie. Even though Jackson has never played a regular season game yet, and may be great or be a bust, I still wouldn't trade him straight up for Kyrie. Besides, our guys are about the success of the team. Kyrie has Lebron and other very good players and is talking about wanting his "own" team like he's really that dude.
 
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