wikkidpissah
Footballguy
not a doubt in my mind that Turner/McDermott was on the table, but i'm guessing Indy weren't going past $110M and who knows if that extra $10M means anything at that level v returning home etc. but i saw too many instances during the Jerseypix era not to believe that Traitor Danny is addicted to the "genius move" and that flies in the face of Celtic progress. the Green could have been next-level w Turner because i truly believe Stevens sees the ultimate team as a smallball squad and Turner would have fit that plus been able to 5 it up when their opponents made them stay home more.Been holding off on C's thoughts until I saw more moves...just like being a Pats fan it is easy to over-react at the beginning of free agency (like I did with Hayward) only to like (or not like) what they do a little later...leaving out the elephant in the room (Hayward) till later I am very pleased with what they have done so far...the draft addressed shooting and listening to Jerry Stackhouse (Vandy Coach) a few times on the radio the C's may have have made a really nice pick with Nesmith...Thompson is a player I very much wanted them to get, he fills such a hole for them and if Robert Williams can get more consistent they could be in for a big upgrade there and I also like the fact that this frees Theis up to be on some more realistic matchups...Teague is an upgrade over Wannamaker, not a big splash here but a move that makes them deeper which they desperately needed.
As for Hayward...if the Turner/McDermott offer was real then Ainge made a huge mistake because the alternative of getting nothing meant he had zero hand outside of dealing directly with Indy because it seems apparent there was no way he was coming back to Boston...all it takes is one team to make a big offer (in Charlotte's case an amazingly bad offer) and you are left holding nothing...now there seems to be some chatter that this may turn into some type of sign and trade and if it does turn into that Ainge may save face with this...let's see how that unfolds but even if it does unfold that way my guess is Ainge still didn't see that Charlotte offer coming...if in fact the C's end up with nothing for Hayward and the Indy deal proves to be real the heat will be turned up on Ainge locally in a huge way...C's fans are definitely the most forgiving between them, the Pats, the Sox and B's but this will not be forgiven because it would be such an unforced error.
Overall if Tatum signs his max as rumored the C's will be in solid shape with an opportunity to be much deeper and diverse then last year but with the question of how do they make up for Haywards's production...the C's are an organization that likes to preach player development and IMO that will be a key to whether they can really compete for a legit championship and not just the Eastern Conference...they have a very intriguing group in Rob and Grant Williams, Langford, Nesmith, Pritchard, Edwards and Watters...obviously they are not all gonna work out but if they can max out the potential on about three of them and with the additions of Thompson and Teague they will be much deeper then last year and right in the mix for the Eastern Conference and realistically how much better Tatum and Brown get will determine if they can seriously compete for a title.
Cs havent regressed, but they havent progressed. Heat is really gonna miss Crowder, the Raptors got a BIG hole in the middle and the Sixers lose another year allowing Doc to prove that he's not as much a genius as BBrown was an idiot. Gonna be interesting to see if coach will have TT & Theis on the floor together at all. @Juxtatarot asked what signings i would have made post-Hayward. i actually would have let Stevens make that choice, because most of the 5s still available (Whiteside, Cousins, Cauley-Stein as well as TT) really require some conversation as to their commitment to a vision, but i might have been tempted to actually increase the number of post options by signing like Harry Giles (Duke teammate of Tatum) and bringing Lowell-kid Noah Vonleh home and switch em out like smarter football coaches do with defensive linemen now and keep up with the Bams and run the Embiids silly that way. Just as long as we dont see poor Grant Williams (dirty little secret of Celts' 19 draft - post man GWill is actually shorter than the guard, Romeo Langford they drafted) in the post for a while. but the 20-21 Celtics remain more contender than champion.