The Weekend Greenie Bag: What If Durant Became A Celtic Instead?

Before the weekend came to a close I wanted to potentially help your scaries any way I could. After a great day of football why not check in and see what is on the minds of the people. The Celtics played like DOGSHIT so really I just need anything to keep my mind busy. Before we dive in, as a reminder you can hit me up any time you have a basketball related thought/take/debate/whatever by emailing greenieceltsbag@gmail.com or tweeting #GreenieBag. Don’t be shy.

Now, your questions…

Hey Greenie,

Love the blogs, keep up the good work. What do you think about Julius Randle and his market an RFA this upcoming offseason? I’m pretty high on him and would love to see him in green and white, but I dont know what it would take to get him and what the roster will look like given the upcoming Smart/Rozier scenario, but would it be feasible for the Celts to use the DPE on him and bring more energy to the bench? Not exactly sure how that 8 million works.

Viva,
Jake

In terms of Randle’s market, based on the way he’s playing this season, should be pretty good I would think. A young athletic big who is just 23 should have interest. It’s clear that the Lakers probably won’t match whatever offer he gets so they can make sure to have the most cap space open as possible, and that’s really sad because if Lebron and PG13 don’t go there, they are losing a promising talent for nothing. It wouldn’t stock me to see him get something in the 15-18M a year range. Maybe his hometown Dallas Mavs? They’ll have tons of space. Hell what about the Sixers? Something in that range is nothing for them, they have like 31M in space.

But I don’t anticipate Danny doing anything for the Lakers that would potentially make them one ounce better. They can’t trade the DPE straight up for him, and I don’t see the Lakers just cutting Randle so don’t even waste time thinking about it.

Yeah we went from Lou Will saving out bench problems to him probably getting extended in LA. Not ideal. Personally, I am ready to talk myself into the following scenario. I’m ready for a ‘wink wink’ deal with MEM. The Celtics will make some other trade with MEM, Evans will get bought out, and then ‘wink wink’ the Celts use their 8M DPE to sign him. As a reminder, the Grizzlies literally can’t keep him so they either have to trade him or buy him out. This way they get to do both.

It’ll be interesting to see who else gets bought out, but so far he’s probably who I want most.

No chance. Not only will he be looking for a multi year deal, he won’t be cheap. Redick has had a pretty legit season and definitely earned whatever contract he gets. It wouldn’t shock me if he stays in PHI given their cap space situation, and that’s too bad because I’d certainly take Redick’s shooting on this team. Especially a team that also has Gordon Hayward.

Got a question for you in honor of Durant eclipsing 20,000 points tonight. What do you think the 2017-2018 Celtics would look like if Durant signed with Boston over GSW in 2016? Would the Celtics have held onto guys like Avery Bradley? Would the Celtics still have taken Tatum? Would the Celtics be working toward Banner #19 this season?

Viva – Cale

Well first thing is they don’t have Gordon Hayward, and who knows if they even entertain the Kyrie trade. What if that team won a title? In terms of the draft, they absolutely still take Tatum. There are worse things in the word than having Jayson Tatum learn from Kevin Durant. The Tatum pick was just as much about versatility and the direction of the NBA as it was the player. You need long athletic wings who can guard multiple positions in today’s NBA, and I think that would be Ainge’s plan even if Durant was on the roster.

You could argue they would have been able to keep Avery too, because they could have just used his Bird rights to go over the cap to keep him. So that does make it a little more painful. It had been a while since I thought of the whole Durant fiasco and I’ll tell you what, it doesn’t sting any less. Can’t believe the meeting with Kelly Olynyk didn’t seal the deal.

Imagine all the combinations of Kyrie/Jaylen/Avery/Tatum/Durant/Horford at your disposal? Jesus Christ.

Hey Greenie –

Your Celtics and NBA blogs are great and have helped fill this unusual break in the schedule. This current Celtics team is starting to feel really special the way they’ve taken it to the iron of the West, gotten back to elite defensive play, and especially how Kyrie is facilitating. You can feel their confidence growing, even to the the point of a hint of swagger. Who can blame them after consistently winning while facing each team’s best? Also, the coy tweets and stories about Hayward’s recovery have me firmly believing he’s coming back this season.

All of this has me beginning to think there’s a chance to not just reach the Finals, but hang banner 18 THIS YEAR!! They’re playing as well as any team in the league, Hayward coming back is essentially adding an all-star, and I think Danny will make another bolstering move as well. Vegas has them at 10 to 1; I say 5 to 1. How ‘bout you? -Walshie

I think it’s a little aggressive to think the Celtics can win the title this year. It’s one thing to be able to beat GS on a B2B or beat a HOU with a prayer at the end, but it’s another thing to beat those teams 4 times in 7 tries. I won’t completely rule it out, but 5:1 seems a little much. The fact that Vegas has them at 10:1 is pretty impressive, considering they were 15:1 with Hayward to start the season. I will say this though, they do not look like a championship team losing three straight at home all in pretty terrible fashion.

With Hayward, I’m trying to block it out of my brain, but with every Danny Ainge tweet it’s becoming harder and harder. If this team makes a deep playoff run, who knows? Talk to me in 3 more months and then we’ll see where we’re at.

What is Smart’s price given how he’s played? – Jake

Smart may be one of the most confusing players to enter restricted free agency in quite some time. Partly because he’s such a hard player to evaluate, but also you don’t know how crazy someone is going to be. One team that I thought might be in on Smart to start the year was CHI, but it looks like they’re all set at their guard position for the foreseeable future. The Nets also have space, but something tells me they’re more likely to invest in Spencer Dinwiddie. From there Smart’s options are limited for a huge payday. More and more he’s looking like he could be had for 10-13M, and at that point I’d expect Ainge to want to match. That’s a good price. If he still lives in the 15M+ range, that’s where things get dicey.

It’s also important to remember the pay of Terry Rozier will most likely weigh in on how the Celtics go. During that nice stretch where Rozier looked great you could imagine a world where Ainge just chooses to invest in Rozier. But as of late, you see the risk associated with that. At least you can play Smart when his shot isn’t falling, you know he’s still going to give you something.

And that’ll do it for this week. Thanks as always to those who wrote in, keep that coming even as we approach the all star break. See everybody next week.