Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
The Celtics wanted to make a splash this summer by acquiring All-Star forward Kevin Love, who was eventually traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who owned better assets. That has forced the Celtics to reset and return to their previous rebuilding plan, which is testing the patience of management.
“Most importantly, you want options,” Gotham said. “And we’ve put ourselves in that position. One track has you developing your young players and them getting better and the team performance improving. Brad’s got a year under his belt. He’s a guy who, the more preparation time he has, the better job he’ll do.”
With perhaps $33 million of salary cap space available next summer, the Celtics will have a rare opportunity to chase a maximum free agent. The question is whether they can draw such a talent to Boston, which historically has not attracted major free agents.
“I think we’ve established that we’ve got a winning, championship-driven franchise,” Gotham said. “And I think players around the league see that and understand that. I feel like these things do go in cycles and there’s certain points where you have to transition your team, but people get that and I think players understand that and we don’t have challenges in regards to getting players to Boston.
“Free agency is only one route you can take. There are trades, the draft, a lot of different ways to build a team, so we don’t bank it on any one way to do it. Boston’s got a great reputation among NBA players and the franchise has a good reputation and a championship lineage, and I think Danny [Ainge] and Brad have done a great job of maintaining that culture, regardless of what the team’s performance was last year.”
Boston Globe (Sunday Notes) – Celtics confident the future remains bright
Celtics president Rich Gotham spoke earlier this week to reporters and Washburn has a few more “state of the Celtics” tidbits in his Sunday notes. It seems like viewpoint of the front office is pretty much in line with the view of the fans when it comes to the outlook of the team. Did they want to expedite the rebuilding process? Of course. But the next best thing is what they are doing: being patient and building methodically and logically.
Obviously it would have been nice if ‘home’ for LeBron was Boston and the Celtics struck lottery gold and were able to have everything Cleveland had to offer. Unfortunately it will just take more time. I am tired of hearing the “no free agents in their prime will ever sign in Boston” argument. It’s lazy and unproven for the most part. I’ve said this before: other than Shaq, give me the names of all of the big name free agents (in their prime or close to it) that have signed with the Lakers? They had a chance at a few of them this summer and got none.
So what it comes down to is that the superstar free agents go where the other superstars already are. Historically, it’s proven that this happens more often via trades and the draft. Danny Ainge is playing this right, by collecting as many assets as he can. Until then, the current status will remain as ‘patiently optimistic.’
Page 2: Where a former Rondo teammate shares his opinion
“There’s no one who is a bigger fan of Rondo than Danny Ainge,” says one of Rondo’s former Celtics teammates. “What better guy to build around? But it’s more about the timing of the situation. He really doesn’t fit in with Brad Stevens’ approach—everyone touches the ball, everyone’s equal. Rondo is like Chris Paul or Steve Nash, he can’t play off the ball. And coming into a contract year, he wants to be in a million pick-and-rolls to prove he’s worth a max contract.”
[…]“He will remember exactly what you told him on Oct. 10,” the former teammate says, “and if you tell him something different in February, he will say, ‘That’s not what you told me in October.’ If you don’t know your stuff, you’re done.”
Bleacher Report – Rajon Rondo, Celtics Playing Nice for Now, but Divorce May Be Inevitable
Other than the quotes from this random ex-teammate, there really is nothing new in this piece from Ric Bucher. At this point, we all know what the status of the Rondo situation is. Both he and the team plan on trying to make this whole thing work and see what happens from there. Unless, of course, Ainge gets blown away by an offer, which again, isn’t new. Like no-look passes on the parquet, these are the days of our Rondo lives (ok that was a really bad soap opera joke… carry on).
And Finally…
Avery Bradley’s high school Facebook account has a post about an event they are holding to raise awareness for AB’s mom, who died from a stroke. It’s called “Operation Toasty Toes.”
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