The Weekend Greenie Bag: How Does Tatum's Rookie Year Compare To Giannis?

If you’re like me, you’re starting to get a little restless for tomorrow. A noon Celts game followed by the Super Bowl, tomorrow is shaping up to be a pretty great day and as I sit here on a late Saturday afternoon I’m going a little stir crazy. I figured there may be stoolies out there feeling the same way as well, have already refreshed the site a few dozen times, and need something to help kill the time before the fun begins. Well what better way to do that than check into the minds of some readers and see how everybody is feeling. As always you can be a part of this mailbag by tweeting me something with #GreenieBag or you can email greenieceltsbag@gmail.com. It’s always open so feel free.

Now, to your questions….

By now, you should know who Janos is. I won’t take credit for discovering him, he’s been active in the Celtics community for a while, but I am more than happy to help spread his Twitter dominance. The guy is RUTHLESS and may be the best follow on the whole damn website. He’s electric, he cares about the team just as much as I do, and nothing has made me happier than more and more people becoming aware of his awesomeness.

So even for a team like the Celts that desperately need bench scoring (even w/ Monroe), I don’t think I could do it. I am Janos, you are Janos, the Celtics are Janos. No bench scoring production could ever provide as much as he does on a daily basis so no, I’m not trading him for anyone.

Also, I’m holding out hope that he’s real. I never had a Santa Clause to believe in ya know, given the whole last name thing, so Janos is that mythical figure for me. He will always be real to me I don’t care what anybody says.

Hey Greenie,

So word is, I’m sure you’ve seen, that Kawhi wants out of San Antonio. Now that is not confirmed, but what would it take to get him from the spurs? Not necessarily from a Celts perspective, just league wide. An AD caliber player? Or something like multiple young assets? What do you think? – Seth

This whole Kawhi thing is really interesting. On the surface it would seem silly that you would want to leave an organization like the Spurs, especially because Kawhi seems like such a Spurs type player. But if he has real concerns with how they’ve treated his injury and the long term health implications, then this would certainly be something to keep an eye on.

At the end of the day though, I think it’s mostly nothing to worry about. This isn’t a situation like Kyrie where he was leaving a good team because he hated his teammates, Kawhi has no real reason to truly want to leave that I can think of. Name a time when the Spurs weren’t in contention? Remember, they were a dirty play from Pachulia away from dominating the Warriors. Even with their injuries they’re hanging around a top 3 seed in the West.

From a contract perspective, Kawhi has this year, next year at $20M and then a player option in 19-20 for $21M before he becomes an unrestricted FA in 2020. Not exactly the easiest thing to match when you’re thinking about a potential trade. If you’re the Spurs, you aren’t moving a top 5 player in the NBA for crap. If it’s me, and I am in no rush to have to move him, I’m not doing it for anything less than a legit All Star talent plus high unprotected picks. What team can do that though? Maybe Anthony Davis like you said, but if I’m NO I’m not giving up Davis and his contract security for an older player who could then just leave.

One thing we know is that the Spurs won’t overreact and make a stupid decision. I think they have earned that benefit of the doubt.

In terms of a trade for the Celtics, if I’m SA the price is similar to what NO would want for AD. I’m talking you don’t do it for less than Tatum + Jaylen + unprotected picks. Just one of them wouldn’t be enough in my opinion when you’re talking about a high caliber player like Kawhi, so I would advise Celtics fans to not even think about this.

You can read all about it here and here!

What’s up Greenie,

Quick question cause this has been bothering me since around late November.

Why in the HELL is Michael Beasley not starting for the Knicks and playing at least 30 minutes a night?

I need answers. My roommate and I have been on the #freebeasley movement for months now, and it feels like we’re the only ones. No one in the media is talking about how good he’s been. I legit hadn’t seen any articles about it until this weekend when Kevin Durant finally gave him some love, but STILL no one’s talking about him even after KD hyped him up!

He dropped 21 on 8 shots last night, is 3rd in the NBA in small forward PER behind Lebron and Durant, and on any given night, if you look back at his boxscores, you’ll see a line that looks something like 18 points in 20 minutes. On GOOD shooting percentages. With few turnovers. I know, because I check every single time I’m on the shitter so I can load up on ammo for the next time I need to argue on his behalf.

I’m not even a Knicks fan, I’m a Celts fan, so this shouldn’t bother me but it does. Why does this man continue to toil away on the bench behind Lance Thomas on a sub-.500 team that could actually use another star in their starting 5?

I think it’s time we all looked in the mirror, and at Michael Beasley’s career stat line, and accepted that this man was never bad at basketball and deserves a second chance. If you can’t tell, I’m already all in.

Viva,
Mike

This feels like the owner’s son that was in my 2K RealGM mode and acted rogue as the computer and traded Marcus Morris for Beasley straight up.

Side note: What the fuck is up with that feature? What was 2K thinking? The computer just going ahead and making trades for you? I got lucky that it was pretty replaceable players, but then I saw people online talking about how stars were traded. What a stupid fucking idea that was.

I will say this though, he was pretty good for me in 2K, so much so that I resigned him for a 1 year league minimum deal. I also have one rule in life, and that’s 2K rarely lies, so I’m going to have to agree with you here Mike, Beasley probably deserves a bigger role in NY, and could probably help a lot of teams as long as he has his head on straight. Plus we’ve seen him dominate the Celts this season too which always leaves an impression on me.

I’m not exactly in the business of helping the Knicks though, so I’m going to have to ask them to keep not paying attention and stay in the lottery, or give him to Danny for like Abdel Nader and a 2nd.

Hard to say because we haven’t really seen anything from Kadeem Allen on this level to assume he can fill such a big role. We have seen him go off in the G League which I enjoyed

and he does have a similar size at 6’3 but he weighs nearly 30 pounds less. I don’t think we’ll see Allen guarding 3s and 4s and sometimes 5s like Smart, but in terms of an on ball defender he seems like he could be up to the task. But to be fair to Marcus I think we actually have to see him play a little more before we start talking ourselves into him.

With Marcus is all comes down to price, if he gets a massive offer sheet then yeah, having Rozier and Allen and others will help make it easier for Ainge to walk away, he won’t have to overextend himself. But if Smart can be had for a reasonable number, I would imagine he stays.

Greenie,

First time write in, long time reader/watcher of highlights, smoking some Celtics greens.
Not intentionally being a troll here, but wouldn’t the Celtics’ have an easier path to the finals if the east’s top three seeds finished as: 1. Raptors, 2. Celtics, 3. Cavaliers. Meaning in theory they either play a tired Raptors or LeBron(if that’s really a thing) in the conference finals. I am not saying that “good adversity” can’t be Kyrielluminati talk for “we are strategically selecting our playoff seed this season.” I’m just not going to deny it either.

Gracias,
-Cheese

Have to disagree here. Even though it didn’t seem to matter against CLE last year, I am of the thinking that I want homecourt throughout the playoffs. Even if TOR is “tired” in the ECF, they are an entirely different animal on the road than at home. At home they are one of the hardest teams in the league to beat, so if we’re at the point of a deciding Game 7 against them, I’d prefer that to happen in the Garden.

The interesting thing is CLE. I think given their history, CLE is not afraid of the Celtics and really, until the Celts can prove they can beat them in the playoff series, they shouldn’t be. If I’m the Celtics, I need the Cavs to stay top 3, or fall down to 6. I think playing CLE in the 2nd round will be much harder than playing them in an ECF. I just want to avoid Lebron as long as possible so them being a 4/5 seed would be an issue.

Last year homecourt didn’t matter for the Celts, but this is a completely different team. The Cs are tied with TOR for the most home wins on the year, so the more games they can play at home the better in my opinion.

Thinking about potential tatum comps and I’m really starting to think Giannis. Curious on how their rookie seasons stats (regular and advanced)would look when compared especially because like Giannis Tatum versatility translates to a decent amount of blocks and steals. – Ryan

Ask and you shall receive Ryan. I have to warn you before you keep scrolling with your eyes though. You are about to get a severe erection

I’m not saying he’s Giannis, but I’m not not saying it either.

And that’s it! Hopefully this helped distract you a little bit, and thanks to everyone as always for writing in. Also little programming note for tomorrow, I’m going to get the Celts blog up before the Super Bowl so that should help you kill time tomorrow as well. I’m no hero, I’m just desperate for the #pageviews.

Have a great rest of your Saturday everybody!