Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
Charles Barkley said Friday that the Boston Celtics are a “middle of the road team in no man’s land.” Kevin O’Connor joined Greg Dickerson on Sports Tonight and explained just how foolish of a statement that is.
Kevin O’Connor, who contributes regularly to, well, a Celtics-themed blog that isn’t this one, as well as CSN, used a line of reasoning he’s presented before, which is the combination of high win totals and high draft picks.
There’s a lot of sense to that. But there’s an aspect that I think Kevin overlooks:
Front office acumen. The Celtics had that high draft pick, plus the chance at one or two more top ten picks because of Danny Ainge’s ability make good trades.
While the Celtics did catch some lucky breaks with how the Nets blew up, it’s also fair to say that a team that was willing to trade that much of its future in order to win now, yet had already hired a guy with zero head coaching experience, was not destined for prolonged greatness.
As Branch Rickey said, “luck is the residue of design.” The Celtics likely knew that the Nets picks would become increasingly valuable as time went on, knowing the Nets’ salary situation and the age of the players they were going to make their run with.
There was also the sequence of trades that started off with Tyler Zeller coming over from Cleveland along with a pick that was flipped to Phoenix for Isaiah Thomas.
And the Jae Crowder + first round pick for Rondo trade.
The Celtics also haven’t overpaid for mediocre free agents in order to ‘make a splash’, nor are they likely to:
Page 2: Where just say “no” to JR Smith
Boston has an obvious need for shooting, and everyone in the organization has been looking for more impact talent. The move would weaken a primary Eastern Conference rival. The Celtics wouldn’t mortgage any of their future flexibility with a short-term deal. And exec Danny Ainge would gain a golfing buddy.
Yes, Boston needs shooting, yes, this is an opportunity to weaken the Cavs. But going with that logic is one of the reasons why the Bucks signed Greg Monroe last year. And look how well that worked out.
J.R. Smith was a much better shooter last year, but the salary he’s looking for, the obvious drawbacks he brings, and the fact that the Celtics are not looking to get a little better combine to argue against signing Smith.
If signing Smith were a priority, it would have been accomplished by now; the Celtics front office has a well established record of moving quickly and silently on these things.
There are sound basketball reasons for looking at Smith as a marginal improvement over a short one-two year window, but the money required to obtain that improvement and the extent to which Smith would slow the development of Brown argue strongly against paying $15,000,000+ to get a one-dimensional player.
And then there’s this:
Page 3: Boston’s just not that into Okafor
In other words, Ainge is not likely to be offering much, and the 76ers are probably smart from holding off on a deal. They need to clear some space on their front line, but giving up Okafor for nothing would essentially be throwing an entire season of semi-intentional losing down the drain, which would probably feel pretty devastating to an already beaten-down fan base. That would not be a good look.
See, a mediocre team with mediocre management and no center would be going after Okafor. Granted the Celtics have signed Al Horford, but they had ample opportunity to trade for Okafor before that point. And they didn’t.
It’s not upcoming drafts that have me convinced the Celtics aren’t stuck in the middle, it’s the acumen that has put them in position to get good picks in upcoming drafts, and which has prevented them from overpaying or sending out too much talent in a trade to add players that might land them one or two more wins.
I said yesterday that the Celtics, if they’re interested in Okafor at all, it’s as a 2nd unit player with enough potential to take a gamble on. And at that valuation, they’re not going to offer Philly much more than a late first rounder and/or a 2nd unit rotation player (think, say, Jerebko + the C’s 2018 pick).
Finally, let’s talk about the last bit in the snippet above:
giving up Okafor for nothing would essentially be throwing an entire season of semi-intentional losing down the drain
Frankly, the Sixers have no use for Okafor, due to their own inept drafting before that pick, therefore they’ve already thrown an entire season of losing down the drain. They just haven’t made it official yet. And, again, that’s one of the reasons why competent front offices are so danged important in a league where, perhaps, too much credit for success is focused on on-court talent.
The Sixers set fire to their last four seasons. They campaigned with barely concealed contempt for their fans, their coaching staff, their players, and the rest of the league. They had exactly one strategy for getting better, and look what they did with it: They drafted three consecutive centers and now they have too many. They had only one opportunity, every year, to get better, and they made a royal mess of it.
Page 4: Where the dancing bear gets it
Yabusele knows that if he wants to find a permanent spot with the Celtics, though, the work is just beginning. He would like to improve his ballhandling and conditioning, in addition to refining basic skills such as shooting and defense. He was told by the Shanghai Sharks that the team has an elite strength and conditioning program that is led by a former Houston Rockets staff member from Yao Ming’s time there, so the belief is he will be in good hands.
“The NBA will be my dream come true,” he said, “so I can’t just lay down or be slow or lazy. I just give everything on the court.”
Now, of course, Yabusele might just be saying things that he knows people want to here, but he showed a marked improvement over a very brief run in the Summer Leagues. That at least suggests that on that level, he was willing to put in the effort required to get better.
The kid’s young, but he’s got, as they say, ‘the right tools’. If he genuinely has a work ethic to match, it isn’t hard to imagine him developing into an NBA rotation player.
Page 5: Where no, the All Star Game is not coming to Boston
Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo said he’s reached out to the Celtics about asking the NBA to bring the game to the Hub. Mayor Martin J. Walsh enthusiastically backed the idea, saying that the state’s recent passage of a bill that bans discrimination against transgender people, including in bathrooms, makes it a strong counterpoint to Charlotte.
“I’d love for it to come to Boston. It would be a great story,” Walsh told the Herald. “If you want to send a message, that’ll be a strong message to send right here in Boston.”
DeLeo said he approached the Celtics about making a formal written request to the NBA for the game, but the Garden is booked for the weekend of Feb. 19, when the game is scheduled to be held, according to TD Banknorth Garden officials.
(insert snide remark about public officials not having a clue how things work)
The Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach adds this wry observation:
With Boston’s doomed 2024 Olympic bid and the cancellation of a scheduled IndyCar Series race in September, there is a lingering sense that the city cannot host fun things, and the fact that the NBA All-Star Game has not been held in Boston in 52 years does not exactly dispel that notion.
The rest of the links
CSNNE: Carroll: Crowder doesn’t understand what it takes to win in playoffs
Boston Globe: In wooing of Durant, Celtics spilled some secrets
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