The obvious one would be AD, because everything would change. We would not have any of the Jays, possibly still have Kyrie, or we would be rebuilding now as they all would left (as AD’s dad was saying he’s not staying with the Cs).
So to make the conversation interesting, I’d like to pick a smaller trade:
It’s Nikola Vucevic for me. It was rumored for a long time, but it was talked about the most in 2021. [\[source\]](https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/261768/Heat-Spurs-Celtics-Hornets-Have-Significant-Interest-In-Nikola-Vucevic) [\[source2\]](https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2021/03/26/celtics-nikola-vucevic-aaron-gordon-evan-fournier-magic-trades/)
I never liked Vucevic (I would even say that I have some kind of irrational hate towards him). His defense is terrible, but he was mostly praised for his offense, but I still wait to see something that explains his reputation. 2021 was his best year and he avareged 24.5 PTS and 3.8 AST. So he can score, but it doesn’t seem like he could be an anchor on the offense. It’s not bad, but on that bad Orlando team, it’s not that great too. He was supposed to be their best player that time, so for his price I would expect more. I was so surprised, that he made an All-Star team that year.
But we all know stats are not everything, the winning is what really matters, right? When he played, Orlando (excluding part of the season when he was trated to Bulls) W-L was 200-347, so 36,6%. Again, that Orlando team was real bad, so maybe they were even worse without him? Yes, they were. 32-68, so 32% win percentage. Maybe that’s more of a difference, than it seems, but I’m not impressed.
So the Bulls made the trade and he makes more than ever and his numbers are dropping and the Bulls team, with him at the center, are bad again. OK, the Bulls have a lot of issues, the biggest one is their health, but I’m pretty convinced that he’s not helping much to improve their record. I got the impression that he’s one of these players that are kinda good on a bad team, but they would be mediocre at best on a good team.
I’m pretty sure he’s one of the worst starting centers in the league and he’s getting $22M. At 33yo, he should still be in his prime and when we recently played the Bulls, 38yo Al was looking much better and he makes only $10M.
I strongly believe that trade would cripple this team for years and we would be much worse then what we have now.
**TL;DR** I don’t like Vucevic and I don’t trust players on bad teams with no defensive upside.
Which rumored trade are you most happy about the Celtics not making?
by EricFortman
16 Comments
Easily the trade that would’ve sent the 2016 and 2017 firsts for Winslow shout-out MJ saving Ainge’s legacy
Bradley Beal
Remember reading some insane comments about trading JB for Mo Bamba basically.
Something with a little more weight though I’m glad we never traded Marcus for a Tyreke Evans rental.
There was a lot of smoke about Ainge hoping to trade for Paul George and sign Gordon Hayward the 2017 offseason. IIRC that would’ve required waiting to trade for George until after Hayward had been signed for cap reasons and the Pacers sent him to OKC before that was possible. PG has been a boss since then and maybe Hayward’s ankle wouldn’t have exploded in that timeline, but I’m happy with the Js timeline over the one where we trade the Tatum pick and some other valuable pieces to commit to two injury-prone older wings instead.
The top answer should be the Justice Winslow trade.
In general we have had a really really good trading track record over the past decade. drafting and free agency not so much but trades have been generally good.
I don’t think we’d get KP if we made a deal for Poetl.
The Jeff Green trade would probably have stunted a championship or two
The Jays + stuff for Davis. Don’t know how real it was, but thank fuck it didn’t happen.
Not a trade, but can you imagine how different the team and league would look now if KD had signed with us in 2017?
There is one correct answer to this question and he goes by the name of Justise Winslow
The Kyrie trade. Thank god that one never happened…
Talks were around about this and I was willing to trade our 2 future mid-late first round picks down the line for that dude Bertanz when he was sniping for the wizards years ago.
I’m a sucker for a classy 3 point gunner. Always have been since being an NBA fan in general and seeing Korver back in the day. Fuck the sixers but Korver was that dude.
I’m not sure who the two first round picks ended up being though…does anyone remember when this was going on? The picks honestly might have ended up being grant and Pritch but that’s a shot in the dark.
All n all? I’m glad that didn’t happen because bertanz got a bag and fell off and whoever we did draft had to of worked better in the long run for sure.
Also…can’t forget…Brad managed to take a gamble on undrafted Sammy Hause money Hauser to build for that role and he’s arguably the classiest 3 point shooter in the league.
Sammy the Hit Man Hauser is a fucking gunner from beyond the arc. Not to mention he went from being targeted on defense often to now being a pretty solid defender with his size and strength I think.
He’s had good size with a good wingspan he just truly needed to take off those farm boy boots and get moving quicker which he absolutely has. It’s helped him on both ends.
Hauser has made massive improvements and he’s on an extremely team friendly deal as you know and now look at him…shooting HOT for us. Brad does Brad things.
Keep shooting Sammy boy. Let’s get BANNER FUCKING 18 BOYS ☘️
Anything surrounding the JB / JT picks…
There were so many rumors and everyone wanted to ship them out of town for crap.
There’s the big ones like Vuc and Winslow, but also Serge Ibaka and Monta Ellis.
Yea it sucks to wait, but it’s been worth it
Basically any trade rumor that was breaking up the jays
Miles Turner. So many times Hardwood Houdini wanted us to go get him, and thankfully it didn’t work out that off season we almost got him with Hayward. Would have made a lot of signings impossible due to contracts and we would have been so much worse with him.
Okay technically answering the opposite of your question, but I was not, and still am not happy about not trading Brown+Smart for KD last year.
Generational talents like KD don’t become available very often, and we had much better assets than everyone else. We could’ve easily beat anyone’s offer.
Jaylen’s value was higher back then (smaller contract at the time), and Smart was coming off his DPOY season (his value was never gonna be higher). Sure, there are some risks with KD’s age and health, but what player doesn’t have those risks? With a player as good as KD, those are risks you take. Jaylen, as good as he can be, will never be on KD’s level as a player.
As for Smart, we had White and Brogdon at the time. It would be a downgrade on the guard rotation, but much better roster overall with KD and Tatum leading the charge. I believe with this trade, we easily beat Miami last year and potentially beat the Nuggets in the Finals.
I’m not sure how the team would look like this season though if we made that trade. Would we still find a way to get KP? Is the Jrue trade even possible still?
Maybe the Brogdon for KP trade goes through, and then re-signed Grant and traded him along with Rob for KP. Then the team right now would look like – White/Holiday/Tatum/KD/KP, that’s insane.