Here at The Step Back we have basketball questions. We also have answers. When we bring those two halves together, we get one whole roundtable.
Given that they’ll have to let go of Kelly Olynyk and likely one of the Avery Bradley-Jae Crowder-Marcus Smart trio, how much better does Gordon Hayward make Boston?
Scott Rafferty (@crabdribbles): Quite a lot. Losing two or three for the price of one obviously hurts their depth, but Hayward has the potential to solve their biggest problems on offense as someone who can play off of Isaiah Thomas and consistently create his own shot. Teams had success slowing down the Celtics in the playoffs by loading up on Thomas and forcing other players to make plays, so having an efficient playmaker like Hayward who can run a pick-and-roll and attack a mismatch should make a big difference. It helps that he’s also a versatile defender who can replace at least some of what Bradley, Crowder and Smart do.
Andrew Johnson (@countingbaskets): It’s a step forward. How a big a step will depend, in part, on how they handle the roster adjustment. The value for Boston is Hayward minus Olynyk and one of those rotation guys plus whatever they get in return. Crowder is the best of those three and on the best contract, if he moves they need to get a big return.
Wes Goldberg (@wcgoldberg): Here’s the thing with the Celtics: they can lose Olynyk, Crowder and Smart and pretty easily replace them through the draft. They have so many picks! Not to mention Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown coming off the bench, and some dude coming over from Europe. This isn’t so much about this year — Cleveland is still better — but for the next several years. They’ve got their stars, and the means to maintain a supporting cast around them.
Brandon Jefferson (@Jefferson_Hoops): Gordon Hayward makes this team better. Period. None of the players that Boston will have to move on from are not near equal value to Hayward. Hayward has quietly turned into an efficient shooting All-Star in Utah. With the East losing as much firepower as it did this summer Hayward is a lock to make the midseason festival for as long as he’s a Celtic. Boston is still a step behind the Cleveland Cavaliers for Eastern Conference supremacy, but they’ve closed the gap some. Last year, the Cavaliers defensive scheme to stop Boston was to simply double team Isaiah Thomas and make the rest of the team beat them. With Hayward, that gamep lan has to change because Hayward commands the same type of defensive attention and respect as Thomas. With the drop-off of talent in the East it wouldn’t surprise me if Boston tops the 60-win mark in 2017-18.
Trevor Magnotti (@illegalscreens): He definitely helps. I actually don’t think this pushes their regular season win total too far forward – they will need time to acclimate Hayward even if he already knows some of the plays Brad Stevens will use, and their depth is going to take a hit. But in the playoffs, you’ve now got a rotation of one of Bradley/Smart, Hayward, Brown, Tatum, and possibly Abdel Nader on the wing. That’s a deep rotation of guys who just flat-out make things happen, and that’s what you need to beat Cleveland. This doesn’t address Thomas’s deficiencies, nor does it solve Al Horford’s total aversion to banging under the basket. But if you boil it down to a vacuum, you’re replacing Jae Crowder, who has been consistently bad in the playoffs, with a guy who can be a secondary initiator and replace Crowder’s skill set fairly well. That helps out.
Which non-Minnesota team has had the best offseason so far?
Rafferty: The Thunder. Trading for Paul George was a great move by Sam Presti and he’s since signed Patrick Patterson for $16.4 million over three years as well as Andre Roberson for less guaranteed money ($30 million) than he was offered last offseason ($48 million). As Jared Dubin noted, they’ve basically turned Victor Oladipo, Taj Gibson and Domantas Sabonis into George and Patterson this summer for less of a financial hit. Even if it isn’t good enough to beat the Warriors, they should be in a position to fight for home court advantage in the Western Conference next season.
Johnson: The Thunder and the Rockets have both had a better offseason than the T-Wolves. The Chris Paul move was out of nowhere, and has already somehow become underrated and overlooked. The Thunder under loaded a questionable contract for a year of Paul George then got a great contract on Patrick Patterson.
Goldberg: Indiana. HAHA, joke. I mean the Rockets and Thunder had amazing offseasons if you can already consider their big swings successes (which you can’t). Even by bringing aboard a star apiece, neither team is good enough to beat the Warriors. Golden State kept Steph Curry and Kevin Durant (nothing to sneeze at) and Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston (you can sneeze at that one), signed Swaggy P (now a dark horse to win Most Improved Player) and bought the No. 32 pick at a garage sale in Chicago and took Jordan Bell (the guy everyone wanted to compare to Draymond Green but didn’t). The only way to stay at the top is to get better, and the Warriors got better.
Jefferson: The Golden State Warriors. The defending champions were not only able to bring the band back together — they resigned Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Shaun Livingston, Andre Iguodala and David West — but they’ve actually gotten better. They swindled the Bulls to acquire the draft rights to Jordan Bell. They supplemented their bench with more shooting by signing Omri Casspi and Nick Young. And oh yeah, they got Durant to take around seven million less dollars to keep their luxury tax low. A few teams have made headline-worthy moves this offseason, but the rich got richer anyway. Maybe it’s time to start taking the lightyears ahead thing seriously.
Magnotti: TRUST. THE. PROCESS. Granted, none of their offseason has actually been Process-based, which makes it all the more amazing. Brian Colangelo fleeced Boston for the number one pick, grabbing ostensibly this draft’s only star-caliber player, and shutting the Celtics out of a future number-one pick. The Redick deal is a steal that desperately fills their biggest need as a team — floor-spacing. Throw in Amir Johnson for mentorship, and this team looks playoff-ready. But these moves not only help raise the ceiling for the 76ers, they also raise the floor significantly if Embiid or Simmons deal with injury again. These aren’t your older brother’s 76ers — they’re going to be in the playoff hunt next year, and it’s mostly thanks to what Colangelo has done.
What’s the biggest case of addition-by-subtraction we’ve seen so far this offseason?
Rafferty: Does Taj Gibson count? Letting him walk to the Timberwolves for $28 million over two years opened up the room the Thunder needed to sign Patrick Patterson, who is an ideal stretch four to put alongside Russell Westbrook, and give Andre Roberson an extension. Most teams would’ve probably tried to keep Gibson had they acquired him five months ago, but the Thunder made the right decision to not re-sign him.
Johnson: The Knicks firing Phil Jackson. Whatever his basketball knowledge base and basketball intelligence, which I could never aspire to have, his ego was devouring that franchise. He was poisoning the Carmelo Anthony relationship, force feeding an idiocratic offensive system just prove a point, micro-managing the coaches, and almost traded away their best asset because of his hurt feelings.
Goldberg: Calvin Harris is finally over his breakup with Taylor Swift, and his album is wonderful. Basketball-wise, I’d like to give a shout out to the Sacramento Kings, who are still adding following the subtraction of one Boogie Cousins. They were able to sign some locker room adults in George Hill and Zach Randolph, and draft a few more nice prospects. Now it’s Sacramento with the options, while the Pelicans seem to be land locked.
Jefferson: Let me start this by saying I love Chris Paul. However, him leaving the Los Angeles Clippers could be a blessing in disguise. The Paul/Griffin/Jordan dynamic never really worked out from a chemistry standpoint and injuries to Paul and Griffin often left the trio playing as a duo for long stretches. As we saw from the aftermath of the Paul to Houston trade, there was a good heaping of dirty laundry surrounding the Lob City era. Losing Paul isn’t anything to bat an eye at, but GM Doc (or most likely consultant Jerry West) was able to make sure the cupboard wasn’t left bare. They brought back Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams and some potentially intriguing pieces from the Rockets, acquired Danilo Gallinari in a sign-and-trade, and found Jawun Evans and Sindarius Thornwell in the draft. The Clippers probably won’t be fighting for home court advantage in the West, but don’t write them out of the postseason just yet. Ewing Theory could make its way West next season.
Magnotti: Jimmy Butler. That sounds crazy, but I’ve simply added variables to the algebra problem here. Losing Jimmy Butler for Kris Dunn, Zach Lavine, and Lauri Markkanen was horrendous, and probably set the franchise back quite a ways when combined with the team’s other moves. But what this does do is it all but ensures that this team is going to be a tire fire this season, and it is 100 percent the doing of their own front office. Bulls fans have wanted their front office to get tossed for years, but they’ve never been bad enough to warrant it. They certainly will be this year. This is bound to be a 25-win team, if that. That should be the catalyst for some significant organizational restructuring in Chicago, and that’s truly the best return for Jimmy Butler they could get.
Which group of players would you most like to build around — Sam Dekker, Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams; or Kris Dunn, Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen; or Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis?
Rafferty: It depends on how prepared you are to take a risk. Zach LaVine might have the highest upside of the group, but he’s an explosive player coming off of a torn ACL. Victor Oladipo has always had the tools to be a dynamic 3-and-D wing, but he hasn’t put it all together yet and he’s making $21 million a year. We also don’t know much about Domantas Sabonis, Lauri Markkanen and Kris Dunn because they’re all basically rookies. So I’m leaning towards Sam Dekker, Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams. While they may have a lower ceiling overall, Dekker is a decent combo forward, Beverley could fit in anywhere and Williams can score in bunches. Without knowing which team we’re talking about in this hypothetical question, I’d feel the most confident about them because they have defined roles.
Johnson: Is there a fourth option? Dekker is probably the player I like the most out of those. However, sweet Lou and Pat Bev are not really ‘building blocks.’ Chicago got the most bites at the apple. But, they inexplicably gave up the No. 16 pick and traded the No. 38 pick for bleepin’ CASH, in the third largest market in the NBA no less. So they’re disqualified. Oladipo is arguably the best player, but he’s on an above-market contract.
Goldberg: This is the reason Sam Hinkie, Our Lord And Savior, created tanking, right?
Jefferson: Give me Kris Dunn, Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen. Victor Oladipo is overpaid and Domantas Sabonis didn’t flash much as a rookie. Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams play important roles but both are closer to the end of their careers than the beginnings and like Sabonis, Sam Dekker hasn’t shown much on the NBA level yet either. Between Dunn, LaVine and Markkanen I know I’m getting a good NBA defender, an athletic shot creator with capable range, and a sharpshooting 7-footer and all three players are 25-and-under. It’s not the perfect return for a top-15 player in the NBA, but it is much better than what Indiana and Los Angeles got for their top-10 players.
Magnotti: The Pacers’ return is the best of these. In Oladipo and Sabonis you get one guy that can eat possessions, handle the ball, and defend at a decent level; in the other, you get a super-young stretch four who won starting minutes in the regular season last year. Those aren’t insignificant pieces, even though basketball Twitter would like you to believe that they were Summer League-level players next to Westbrook. These are the types of players who can bring value around Myles Turner, who was a borderline All-Star in the East last year and is the most underrated player in the entire league. The Pacers are by no means screwed, and this pair is a million times more helpful to future success than the garbage piles picked up by Chicago or the Clippers.
What’s your favorite offseason move so far?
Rafferty: J.J. Redick signing with the 76ers. It’s just a fun move. The 76ers had the cap space to sign him to a one-year, $23 million contract and he fits in perfectly with their core. It remains to be seen if he’s in Philadelphia beyond next season — probably not seeing as he’s due for a longer contract and the 76ers don’t want to jeopardize their chances of keeping everyone together — but one season’s worth of his floor spacing should help Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Markelle Fultz and Dario Saric tremendously.
Johnson: Hayward to the Celtics. Mainly ‘cause, I’m a Celtics homer. But it also was a great example of the fickle NBA zeitgeist. We went from LOL Ainge, to Celtic’s landing a top free agent after picking a top three pick after making it to the Eastern Conference Finals in a couple of hours (Though two of those were already true anyway). Plus, for a year Hayward to Boston was considered a no-brainer due to the presence of Brad Stevens. Then suddenly it shifted, completely dismissing that connection. Then, in the end, that relationship appears to have sealed the deal.
Goldberg: Dion Waiters re-signing with the Heat. We didn’t need Hayward anyway! Let’s roll this thing back, fam!
Jefferson: Philadelphia trading for the number one pick and drafting Markelle Fultz. I thought all year long that Fultz would be perfect for the Sixers, but during the lottery the ping pong balls didn’t bounce their way. Luckily, Danny Ainge wanted to restock his asset cabinet and Philly was able to swoop in on the man they wanted. In 2 summer league games Fultz’s per 48 minutes averages are: 40 points on 46.9 percent from the field and 46.2 percent on 3’s. He knows how to put the ball in the hoop and teaming him with Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons is only going to make the game easier for all three. The Process is complete. Philadelphia is operating like an actual NBA franchise once again.
Next: What are the Sacramento Kings doing in free agency?
Magnotti: Andre Roberson getting paid and appreciated. The dude is a legitimate top-five defensive guard in the league, and he’s about to have his level of offensive liability get reduced significantly with Paul George and Patrick Patterson in the fold. His extension was reasonable for Oklahoma City but still paid him with good value. He’s already incredibly impactful, and now he gets a chance to truly maximize his talents as he hits his peak.
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