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.
It was superstar or bust for Ainge, and he walked away content with his effort. And while the confidence boost may have been unintentional, the Celtics are pleased that they can move on from the trade deadline and concentrate on trying to reach 50 wins.
“Nothing in the NBA shocks me,” Turner said. “We understood the situation. We’re a whole team. You don’t really worry about what you don’t have, you worry about what you have. To be third in the East with our momentum picking up even more, what more could you ask?”
Boston didn’t do anything, and there is growing concern about whether Ainge has too many picks in the upcoming draft. Given that Phoenix also has multiple picks, there are plenty of teams with no picks in this draft. That itself is an opportunity. If nothing else, Danny can swap picks in the 2016 draft with teams looking to get back into the draft for picks in later drafts, probably adding a second rounder or two in the process.
Page 2: Don’t give up on Horford
“I think this summer they will revisit the Al Horford situation,” said Blakely. “He will be an unrestricted free agent and the cost that it will take to land him this summer, it will cost you in terms of actual dollars, but in terms of assets it won’t cost you anything. That is why Al Horford, more than any of the other guys that we’ve mentioned is a very viable option for the Boston Celtics.”
Blakely reminds us why Ainge was reluctant to meet Atlanta’s sky-high price for Horford. Of course, there are a few reasons why you’d trade for Horford instead of pursuing him on the open market. The first reason is that the C’s have enough picks to ‘splurge’ and send one to Atlanta in order to get a three month ‘date’ with Al Horford to sell him on signing with Boston long term. They’d also get Horford’s Bird rights in a trade, as well as the capability of signing him to a higher max contract than anyone else.
However, balanced against that, you have no guarantees that he’s going to sign this summer, so you don’t want to give up too much.
Still, depending on what else comes along, Horford could be wearing green eventually. He’s a four time all star and certainly capable of being a starter on a championship team.
Page 3: Where it was pretty quiet all around the league
Unlike last year, the 2016 trade deadline was relatively quiet around the league in terms of high-profile player movement. Top names like Blake Griffin, Kevin Love, Howard and Horford stayed put with their current teams, while role players such as Jeff Green (Grizzlies to Clippers) and Markieff Morris (Suns to Wizards) were moved on deadline day.
Teams that really should’ve moved players they’re either not going to keep (Howard) or probably can’t keep now that they’ve been dangled in trade talks (Horford) spent the day waiting for offers that never came, and for their own reasons, did not choose to lower their asking price.
The whole thing reminded me of Lady Macbeth’s remark
Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would, ”
Like the poor cat i’ th’ adage
Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7
Too many GMs that probably should’ve made moves yesterday didn’t. Miami made a series of small moves that got them below the tax, which is more of about preventing repeater penalties in the future than anything else. Portland added enough salary to get them to the salary floor. Orlando did something–but I’m still not sure what. Stan Van Gundy seems to have fleeced his former team, landing Tobias Harris for a pair of expiring contracts. Cleveland shed salary, but had to send out yet another pick to do that. The last time Cleveland shed salary with a pick, Boston ended up with Tyler Zeller and a pick they turned into Isaiah Thomas.
Page 4: Daryl Morey’s asking price for Howard was ridiculous
Sources say Houston, however, told several teams that it wasn’t prepared to trade Howard without receiving at least one frontline player and a future first-round draft pick in return.
But interested teams were unwilling to pay such a premium for Howard, at least in part because Howard, who turned 30 in December, can become a free agent July 1.
Daryl Morey used to work for Danny Ainge. In some ways, he’s very similar to Ainge. In other ways, he’s very different. Morey either seems to believe that you can accomplish something by negotiating through the media or he doesn’t really care if people on his staff leak details of trade proposals. Morey also seems to think that all of the other GMs in the league are fools. Either that or he is incapable of properly assigning values to his own players.
Morey probably could’ve gotten a first round pick in this draft for Dwight Howard. But because he also wanted a ‘front line player’, he’s going to be lucky to get anything when Howard hits the open market this summer.
Morey’s obviously planning to move on from Howard, so the million dollar question is why he didn’t trade Howard now for the most he could get, instead of holding onto some unrealistic valuation and losing him entirely.
Lest we forget, Ainge traded Rondo last year for, we thought, a collection of role players and a pick because he wasn’t going to be able to keep him. That the trade worked out extremely well for Boston is a bonus, what was significant at the time was that at least Boston got a draft pick back for Rondo.
Finally: The David Lee era is almost over
“I’m a competitive guy,” Lee said Thursday after his teammates practiced at the University of Utah. “Of course I want to play minutes and I want to be out there playing basketball more than anything else. People who don’t know basketball say, ‘Man, it would be nice to make a bunch of money to sit there and chill.’ But as you guys know from dealing with players over the years, that’s the last thing that a player wants to do. I’d love to be out there playing and being able to help a team.”
There was some brief speculation that Kelly Olynyk’s injury might delay the team’s timeline with David Lee, but it’s clear that the plan now is to bring up Jordan Mickey and see how he looks. Worst case scenario is that the team asks the rest of the bigs to pick up the slack as happened when Smart was out with that unfortunate series of events earlier in the year.
It remains to be seen if Lee buys Chipotle for the Celtics’ staff after he’s bought out. If so, he’ll probably have to make sure everybody knows it’s from him and not Ainge.
The rest of the links:
CSNNE: Maxwell: You don’t get fireworks for fireworks sake | Mannix: Hawks wanted ‘Godfather offer’ for Horford | Ainge: C’s in ‘better position’ not making deal | C’s will continue to weigh options with Nets pick | Scalabrine: ‘Not a bad decision to sit tight’ at deadline
MassLive: Danny Ainge explains Boston Celtics’ thought process behind quiet trade deadline | Kelly Olynyk’s injury could potentially open door for Boston Celtics rookie Jordan Mickey
ESPN Boston: Danny Ainge: Celtics are in better position after avoiding impulse move
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