u/LarBrd33

This is a tough one, because Pritchard spent his first 4 years clawing for a role on a great team (years 2-4 were the Finals, ECF, Championship contending window). He saw his FGA increase to 10.8 in 2024-25 and averaged 14.3ppg. Last year that increased to 13.8FGA and 17ppg.

I think some people have a perception of him as something of a TJ McConnell/Patty Mills/Donte DiVincenzo who maybe already has an inflated role relative to his talents.

They point out he's 6'1 195. But he clearly has elite scoring talent and has proven in small sample sizes he can still score with heightened role. In 10 games without either Tatum or Brown last season he saw his FGA increase to 20 and he averaged 25.2ppg on 48.5%/44% shooting. Team went 8-2.

So on the extreme end you have people questioning if he could be like (5'9 185lb) Isaiah Thomas with an increased role. In his 3 year stretch with Boston he saw his FGA increase from 13.6 (19ppg) to 16.9 (22.2ppg) to 19.4 (28.9ppg)

Obviously people have brought up 6'2 190 Jalen Brunson who went from averaging 12.8 fga in Luka's offense (16.3 ppg) to becoming the driving force of the Knicks offense (17.6-21.4fga = 24-28.7ppg)

I wonder if it's more of a middle ground? How about 6'0 197lb Fred VanVleet who had a three year stretch where his FGA increased to 16.1-16.9 and averaged 19.3-20.3ppg.

Maybe the most direct comp is actually 6'1, 190lb Terry Rozier. We saw a glimpse of him having a green light in 2017-18 playoffs where he averaged 14 fga and 16.5 ppg (extremely similar to Pritchard's stats this season), but the next year saw himself struggle to have a role seeing his FGA drop to 8.4 and his points drop to 9ppg. He immediately saw his role increase in Charlotte (14.9fga/18ppg) followed by a half decade of him averaging 16-19fga and 19-23ppg.

I've been wondering for a while what Pritchard would look like if giving the Rozier-esque green light on a shitty team. How do you compare those two as players? With Brown gone it does seem like Pritchard could see his FGA increase from 13.8 into the 15-17 range, right?

I posted about this a few weeks ago about how if Pritchard gets 3-5 more shots per game (17ppg on 13 fga last season), he’s going to be a 20+ scorer and then it’s just a matter of how many shots Brown sacrifices on Philly.

Obviously Embiid’s health matters. Whether or not Brown’s addition stunts Edgecombe’s development matters. Consider Edgecombe averaged 16ppg on 13fga, but he’s she same age Tatum went from a 15ppg to 23ppg scorer with more shot attempts.

LeBron’s addition matters.

Last season:

Bron 15fga
Edgecombe 13fga
Maxey 21 fga
Embiid 18 fga

Brown almost certainly isnt going to average 22fga like last season with all those mouths to feed.

So what’s the target PPG for Pritchard to leapfrog him?

Now that Boston is the lone use case of tearing apart a title team and trading away a home grown star primarily due to these excessive repeater taxes and aprons, how do we feel about the sudden outcry about them?

Seems like they are pushing to make changes before a team like OKC, Spurs or Philly get hit with the same reality of being unable to afford their roster.

But fuck those teams. Are we pro Taxman now?

Basically I have a little home theater with a Denon receiver, smart lights, various input devices (roku, nintendo, ps5, bluray) and a Sony projector.

Most of those devices I've been able to control without issue with my alexa. I set up a little routine where I'd say "alexa, it's showtime" and it would turn on the denon receiver and the smart lights, but I'd still have to turn on the Sony projector manually with a remote.

The projector is connected via ethernet, but there's no way to control it with alexa

Denon uses some "HEOS" app integration for alexa, but it's garbage and the only thing I can do with it is turn the denon on and off. I can't make it work for switching inputs.

I was trying to fix the input issue and went down the rabbit hole of home assistant.

I've gone as far as to install home assistant on my Mac Studio, got it to see the Denon receiver properly and do things like switch inputs which is cool, got it to recognize my sony projector (had to update the configuration.yaml file) and successfully found it within integrations and was able to turn it off and on.

Have the Home Assistant app running on my phone and was able to do all the same stuff.

Seems like I got through a lot of hurdles. But now I'm trying to figure out how do I take the next step and make it so my alexa will see these devices so I can do things like say:

"Alexa it's showtime": -

• turns on the lights the way I want them (alexa can do that natively)
• turns on the sony projector (home assistant can do this)
• changes the input on my denon to the roku (home assistant can do this)

or "alexa, nintendo"

• play the "mario level complete" song via spotify (alexa can do that natively)
• switches the input on the denon (home assistant can do this)

... stuff like that

I asked ChatGPT and Gemini and they said there's some paid option, but then I saw something about tricking your alexa into thinking home assistant is a phillips hue, and then another thing about a matter intergration... just a little confused at this point on what's the obvious next step like whether I should be building automations with home assistant that alexa can trigger or doing some kind of workaround where these devices are accessible within alexa the way I want them

I have to give credit to /u/aceking555 because his recent post covered a lot of the same ground, but after going back and forth with him in the comments, it got me exploring different scenarios and I want to expand on what he's saying with more detail and depth.

Let's start here:

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/boston-celtics/yearly

https://preview.redd.it/gg82ti4rw1ch1.png?width=950&format=png&auto=webp&s=af9b4251d8055e67af42ba9e9e5a125e0f9192ac

15 players (minimum is 14)

Current salary: $201,523,752
Luxury tax line: $200,428,000 (currently 1,095,752 over)
1st Apron: $209,015,000 (currently 7,491,248 under)
2nd Apron: $221,686,000

Luxury tax problem: First point of emphasis for those who still aren't clear on it, we are currently over the luxury tax line. That's a problem. Boston’s years above the luxury-tax line made it a “repeater” taxpayer. That triggers significantly higher, escalating penalties for every dollar spent over the line. Instead of paying the standard $1.00 per dollar in the first tax bracket, a repeater starts at $3.00 per dollar, with the rates growing increasingly brutal as payroll rises. Boston got under the tax in 2025–26, and staying under again in 2026–27 would complete its reset, allowing the team to return to the tax in 2027–28 without paying repeater rates. Teams below the line also avoid the tax entirely and can receive a share of the money collected from taxpaying teams. Boston is about 1 million over this line right now.

Luxury tax solution: Dalano Banton's 2.8 mil contract is entirely unguaranteed so they can waive him and remove his money from the books. This seems to be the most likely outcome for the season. It would get us down to the minimum 14 players and $198,722,406 under contract.

To be clear, that's probably the most likely scenario here.

Brad and Bill made it clear in their press conference that if they saw a move that made us a better team, they aren't completely against the idea of going over the luxury tax this season. My guess is, it would have to be a significant opportunity and player. More likely, we just stay under the tax, but if they genuinely thought "hey people are underrating how good Paul George will be, this is a 60 win team as-is, this one last piece makes us a legit contender", maybe they consider a move.

Let's explore it.

TPE offers some flexibility: Because of the Simons trade, we have a $27,678,000 Traded player exception that would theoretically allow us to trade picks for a player and use that TPE to absorb their salary. We have February to use it.

1st Apron Hard Cap Problem: Naturally, fans wonder if that means we could trade 2-3 picks for Trey Murphy (27 mil contract). Problem is, even if we waive Banton we're at 198,722,406 mil under contract and after signing Mitchell Robinson using the Full Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception, we are hard-capped at the 1st apron ($209,015,000) meaning that even with Banton waived, we only have $10,292,594 of room. Meaning, we could theoretically waive Banton and trade picks for a guy making 10.2 mil using a portion of the TPE to absorb his salary, but it would be impossible to take on more without sending out additional salary.

Sending out salary can help: From here you can then start to brainstorm ideas similar to what u/aceking555 outlined in his post where Boston sends out additional salary to give them the opportunity to use more of the TPE. Obviously, if Boston were to move George, White or Pritchard, the math becomes a lot easier here, but if we're assuming Boston keeps those 3, here's how I'd think about it...

- Scenario 1 - Just waive Banton = $10,292,594 of room we could use of the TPE so you can start to look at free agents (via sign-and-trade) or current players that fit.

- Scenario 2 - Waive Banton and send out Hauser (10.8) in a deal: Now you're looking at roughly $21,140,809 of the TPE you could utilize. Current players making less or S&T targets willing to take that as a starting salary are now in play.

- Scenario 3 - Waive Banton and send out Hauser (10.8) + Garza (2.8): Here it becomes interesting, because in theory that would get you to $23,942,155 to target an individual, but there's a catch... getting rid of 3 roster spots to add 1 leaves us with only 13 players under contract. We'd need at least 14 under contract and the absolute minimum we could probably give someone would be a rookie with 0 years of service at around $1,358,084. So even if you shave 2.8 of Garza, you have to replace that roster spot with someone making 1.35 meaning we're at $22,584,071 of the TPE you can use.

- Scenario 4 - Waive Banton and send out Hauser (10.8) + Garza (2.8) + Walsh (2.4): Like Banton, Walsh is non-guaranteed and we could just waive him to remove his salary. For the purpose of this exercise let's say we send him out (either via trade or waive). Similar rule applies above where you still need to replace that salary with a 0 years of service rookie making around 1.35 mil. So you're now at $23,632,192.

Just a side note, that with Scenario 4, some are going to push back on the idea of dropping Walsh. It should be noted that mid season these options will remain in play and by then Mike Conley (also around 2.4 mil) is a possible sub-in for Walsh in the concept.

Denver as an example: You can expand these concepts to any team, but for fun let's just use Denver for all of them. As aceking555 pointed out, their salary situation makes them an interesting trade partner to consider hypotheticals. As-is, the Nuggets are currently sitting at 211 mil on the books with only 9 players under contract. That puts him over the 1st apron and a stone's throw away from the 2nd apron. In theory, they are going to be looking to alleviate salary.

• Scenario 1 example: Say we just waived Banton, Boston could in theory make a deal with Denver and absorb the salary of Jonas Valančiūnas (10 mil). Not that Boston would do this, but it's one example. Is there a guy in the league making less than 10.2 that this would be worth doing for? Edit: Denver just waived him since only 2 mil of his contract was guaranteed, but I was mostly using it as an illustration of the salary range of talent
• Scenario 2 example: Peyton Watson allegedly wants 25 mil per year. It sounds like Denver is more interested in giving him 20 mil per year. Denver also is open to doing a sign-and-trade. With a sign-and-trade, a player is limited to 4 year deals at 5% annual increase. Let's say Boston waives Banton and sends out Hauser and picks in the deal. The max we could make work would be giving Watson a first year salary of $21,140,809. Next 3 years would be $22,197,849, $23,254,889, $24,311,929 for a total payout of 4 years 90.9 million. Slight hiccup here is that doing this deal has base year compensation restrictions on Denver trading Watson where for the purpose of matching salary on the Denver side, Watson only counts as 50% of his new contract (10.5 mil) and can't take back more than they send out in a trade because they are a 1st apron team. Meaning, either Boston would need to find a 3rd team for Hauser or if Denver wanted Hauser they'd also have to send out a small contract to a 3rd team.
• Scenario 3 example: As a variation on above, if Boston were to waive Banton and also send out Hauser + Garza, they could offer Peyton Watson a starting salary of $22,584,071. His next 3 years would be $23,7113,275, $24,842,479, $25,971,683. Total contract value 4 years 97.1 mil. Annual average of 24.2 mil (close to his reported ask of 25 mil/year). Watson reportedly wants more than Christian Braun's 5 year 125 mil deal which would be difficult given the financial situation. But fwiw, if you just look at the first 4 years of Braun's contract, it actually works out to 4 years 96.5 mil (first year salary of $21,551,726) so technically it WOULD pay him more especially if the contract has a player option where he could opt out after his 3rd year and get a larger deal. One last point here is that at a starting salary of $22,584,071, due to base year compensation, Denver can take back $11,292,035 without issue. So they COULD take Hauser (10.8) back directly. However, Boston would probably have to find a third team to offload Garza.
• Scenario 4 example: Alternatively if you were to waive Banton and send out Hauser, Garza and Walsh, Boston could trade for Cameron Johnson ($23,062,500 expiring contract) using the $23,632,192 in available TPE space. For what it's worth, I saw a random thread on the Nuggets sub where a fan had suggested trading Johnson for Hauser and two second rounders. Technically this would work. Would Walsh be a suitable replacement for the two 2nd rounders? Even if Denver took on Hauser + Walsh, it cuts 10.4 mil from their books

Quick Note on Murphy: Fwiw, I just don't see any mathematical route we could trade picks for Murphy and use that full 27.6 mil TPE unless we also traded out one of our larger contracts like George, White or Pritchard. You can play with hypotheticals like George (54 mi) + Hauser (10.8) + filler + picks for Zion (42.1) and Murphy (27 mil) which we could probably make work financially and would intrigue of people, but I'm basing this on the idea Boston keeping George. George (54) + a buttload of picks for Murphy (27 mil absorbed with the TPE, Herb Jones (14.8 mil) + Saddiq Bey (6.5 mil) works and generates a new 35 mil TPE, but again I'm basing the idea George stays. You could trade White for Murphy and use the TPE to absorb Murphy while generating a new 30.3 mil TPE for sending out White, but obviously nobody wants to trade out White. If Pritchard is part of the outgoing salary picture, you can do a lot more, but clearly nobody wants to do that.

Big picture why consider any of this?: I'll repeat that it would seem the most likely route is just staying under the luxury line. However, I do wonder if how the Paul George thing is being marketed (we're going to use his big fat expiring contract + picks to land a star) is a bit of a pipe dream. It's certainly a possibility, but part of me wonders if instead it's just as likely that George ends up fitting in really well in Boston and being a valuable player. What if adding a guy like Watson is the final piece to push us over the top and George contributes to a deep playoff run? Remember, Horford was 37 when we won a title with him. Can 36 year old George stay healthy and make a similar impact? And if so, is there a route here where next Summer, with no real superstar trade market developing, we convince George to opt out of the final 56.5 mil year of his deal and sign a long-term deal with Boston? For instance 3 years 75 mil descending salary where he gets paid 26.3 mil, 25 mil, 23.6 mil from ages 37-39. Or maybe even 3 years 90 mil descending salary paying him 31.5, 30, 28.4 mil. I'd think Paul would take the guaranteed money rather than take 56.5 mil and risk making up the 18.5 to 33.5 mil difference as a 38 year old free agent in 2028-29.

At that point, assuming we just hang onto George with him on the books for 26-31 mil in 2027-28, maybe he still ends up a tradeable contract, but if Boston also had a guy like Watson under contract at 22-23 mil and White (32.5 mil expiring at that point unless we've extended him) and Pritchard (8.3 mil expiring at that point unless we've extended him), there would still be lots of options for including players and picks in trades. Or alternatively, we just hang onto the cost-controlled team and run it back if we're having success.

It's certainly not a likely scenario, but a potentially funny one. Maybe Philly immediately becomes "Jaylen's team" and he continues last season's trend of being "the man".

Brown averaged 28.7 points with .477/.347/.795 shooting (.573 TS%)

Obviously, being only behind Luka in usage (35.1%) and shot attempts (21.7 FGA) league wide leads to a lot of scoring opportunities.

Start with looking at Maxey who last season was only a hair behind Brown in shot attempts at #3 in the league 21.4. He averaged just a hair less points (28.3). .462/.367/.892. TS% of .588. Usage was 29.4%.

Bottom line is that Maxey scored about the same amount of points, but with higher shooting efficiency and that should make him the #1 option with Brown slotting in as the Robin to his Batman. Since Brown has reached stardom, we saw his Robin stats fluctuate from 20.3 ppg (2019-20) to 26.6 ppg (2023)

In 2024, when Brown was the 2nd option a team with Tatum (26.9 points - 19.3 FGA), Porzingis (20.1 points - 13.2 FGA), White (15.1 points - 11.5 FGA) and Holiday (12.5 points - 10FGA), he took 17.9 shots and on great efficiency (.499/.354 with .580 TS%) averaged 23 ppg. Usage was 28.3%

Embiid's health and Edgecombe's growth are obviously big factors here as well.

A big reason for Maxey's scoring explosion was that Embiid's last 3 seasons he's played 39, 19, and 38 games. Probably that trend continues. Embiid's usage the last 3 injury prone seasons = (33.6%, 34.2%, 38.7%). Embiid took 18.3 FGA last season. When last healthy, he was taking 19-22 shots per night on .655 TS% (higher than both Maxey and Brown). Is there a chance that Embiid puts together a stretch of healthy games and that actually knocks Brown to the Batgirl to Maxey/Embiid's Batman and Robin? We've never seen what 3rd option Jaylen Brown averages for field goal attempts.

Edgecombe is also one to keep an eye on. Behind Embiid, Maxey and George last season, his usage was only 20.1%. He averaged 16 points on .438/.354/.818 on 13.7 FGA and a.540 TS%. However, keep in mind he was only 20 years old and obviously has huge potential. Consider someone like Jayson Tatum who as a 20 year old averaged very similar stats (15.7 points on 13.1 FGA and .547 TS%). The next season he took a leap and averaged 23.4 points on 18.6 FGA with .567 TS%. Presumably Edgecombe will keep developing. Will he make a leap? At what point in Jaylen's 3 year contract does Edgecombe leapfrog him as a talent? Is there a small chance that Brown actually gets knocked down to the Alfred Pennyworth to Maxey/Embiid/Edgecombe's Batman/Robin/Batgirl?

Then of course the small tiny possibility they also add LeBron on his retirement tour. LeBron averaged 15 FGA last season with .594 TS%.

At some point, there's just too many mouths. Consider when in 2008 Boston formed a big 3. KG went from 17.6 FGA to 13.9 FGA, Pierce went from to 18.1 FGA to 13.7 FGA, and Ray went from to 21 FGA to 13.5 FGA and all of them averaged under 20ppg.

Again, perhaps Brown just takes over that offense, everyone else falls in line, and they flourish with Brown proving he's a legit MVP candidate. Or maybe, just maybe, he sees a big decrease in his offensive output. This could either be a positive thing with him willingly accepting a 3rd-4th banana role, or a source of conflict, but it's still a possibility.

Pritchard, on the other hand, may continue to just come off Boston's bench and continue his trend last season of averaging 17 ppg on 13.8 FGA with .464/.377/.890 and TS% of .584. Pritchard's usage had been behind Brown, White and also Simons and Tatum when they played at 21.5%. When Brown sat (only 10 game sample size where Boston won 8 games), we saw Pritchard's usage jump to 29% and his output increase to 25.2 points, 20 FGA with excellent 485/.444/.957 shooting splits. I think the big questions here is that with Brown out of the mix, does this elevate Pritchard's offensive role? Will he continue coming off the bench? Did Boston just see a similar sized Brunson win a title and gain confidence Payton is ready to take on the challenge of being Boston's 2nd option? If Tatum's recovery proves to be a problem and he misses more games, who is is more likely to get the keys to the offense in his absence - Pritchard or 36 year old George?

Is there a chance here that Payton Pritchard ends up averaging around 24 while Brown averages 22? Maybe not, but it's a fun thought exercise here. It's also fun to think of how the media/fans, who seemingly put more weight into bulk stats like PPG over advanced stats, will start to see these two players. On the extremely unlikely end, is there some hilarious outcome where Pritchard gets more all-nba votes than Brown?

TL;DR: Simple usage and shot attempt distribution could see an unlikely scenario where Philly has too many mouths to feed Brown his usual shot meals while Pritchard is eating well on the new look Boston.

You could also just say LeBron played more games as a Laker (542) than all-stars like Yao Ming (514) Bill Walton (468), Brandon Roy (326), Ralph Sampson (494), Arvydas Sabonis (522), or Andrew Bynum (465) played in their entire careers, but it's interesting comparing it to a modern player held in high esteem.

Including playoffs, LeBron played 542 games as a Laker. That's only 14 fewer games than Embiid has played in his entire career (556). Had he stayed with LA, Laker LeBron probably would have surpassed Embiid's games played this coming season.

However, it's interesting looking at LeBron's Laker-exclusive career and comparing it to Embiid.

Playoff series wins: Embiid = 6. Laker LeBron = 7

All-Star Teams: Embiid = 7. Laker LeBron = 8

First Team All-NBA: Embiid = 2. Laker LeBron 1

Second Team All-NBA: Embiid = 4. Laker LeBron = 2

Third Team All-NBA: Embiid = 0. Laker LeBron = 4

Total All-NBA = Embiid 6. Laker LeBron = 7

Conference Finals: Embiid = 0, Laker LeBron = 2

Championships: Embiid = 0. Laker LeBron = NBA Champion, NBA Cup Champion

MVPS: Embiid = 1 Regular Season MVP. Laker LeBron = NBA Finals MVP, NBA Cup MVP

People may think of LeBron's Laker tenure as the weakest of his 4 careers, but that's actually wildly impressive in isolation. A good question is if Laker LeBron and Embiid retired right now, would both be locks for the Hall of Fame?

this has been true for a couple seasons now where we had heard Boston had been targeting Jaren Jackson Jr (went for 3 firsts) and then Zubac (price ended up way too high). Then obviously we went after Giannis. Rumors last week that Boston was interested in Rudy Gobert.

And now we are hearing rumors Boston would take Evan Mobley for Brown.

On some level this makes total sense. All-defense bigs are hugely impactful and change the entire ceiling of a team. I use to say that an all-defense guard like smart can slow down an opposing guard, but an all-defense center can slow down an entire opposing team.

It’s also true that scoring is one of the easiest things to replace in this league. This is the main reason the Celtics have seen almost no drop off whatsoever in games Brown has missed (90-36 including 9-2 this season) is because when he is out they just have someone else step up and take shots instead - like Prichard averaging 26 points in games brown missed this year.

But you can’t just have someone “step up” and replace the impact of an all-defense big. In 2008, the core reason we were great was our dominant defense and that was anchored by an all defense big in Kevin Garnett (DPOY). The next season with him hurt, they were able to replace his lost scoring with the likes of Glen Davis (he averaged 16 points in the playoffs), but you simply can’t replace the impact of an all-defense big and the team barely made it out of the first round.

We also saw it in 2022 where Rob William’s evolution to all defense level big completely changed the trajectory of the team and we started steamrolling through the league. Unfortunately Rob’s body didn’t hold up and by the finals he was a shadow of himself.

The logic of chasing these guys makes sense. There are only so many options. Will be interesting to see if we succeed in landing one.

I think Brad is a competent GM who obviously made moves to help Boston get over the finish line once, but you have to acknowledge some things about his tenure.

1 - The team he inherited after the 2020-21 season had already been to the Conference Finals 3 times in the last 5 years

2 - The team already had a championship core in place built around 22 year old Jayson Tatum and 24 year old Jaylen Brown. Those two, especially Tatum, were on an obvious growth trajectory. Players of Tatum's caliber typically make the leap into superstardom around 23-25. As expected, the year after Brad took over as GM, Tatum, at age 23, had the first of 4 straight all-nba 1st team selections. Brown was still a couple years away from his first all-nba selection. Regardless of supporting cast, those two were going to have success moving forward.

3 - The team he inherited still had many of the tradeable assets stockpiled by Danny Ainge including recent lotto selections and valuable draft picks.

Quick Note on Brad's Draft record: Interestingly, Brad's tenure is marked by a streak of risk-aversion. Any young lotto talent or valuable pick he had, he traded away for sure thing vets. The highest draft picks he's made in his tenure are #28 (Hugo) and #30 (Baylor). Given both are late 1sts and showed signs of contributing this year, you can't be mad at either pick. Beyond that, the only notable pick he's made is Jordan Walsh at #38. If Brad keeps his pick this year (#27), it will be the highest selection he's ever made. We simply do not have any data to make a decision one way or another on whether Brad knows how to draft well given he's avoided keeping any higher picks.

Ranking Brad's Deals:

This is my quick ranking, but I will hear out arguments in the comments and may adjust this based on feedback.

#1 - Derrick White

• Celtics Acquire: Derrick White.
• Spurs Acquire: Josh Richardson, Romeo Langford, a 2022 1st-round pick (#25 overall - Blake Wesley), and a 2028 1st-round pick swap right (top-1 protected).

I think this is definitively Brad's greatest move. I don't think anyone will disagree with it. At the time, Richardson still seemed like a solid contributor (9.7 points on 44%/40%/86% shooting). 22 year old Langford was in the midst of his 3rd disappointing season after being selected 14th, but had showed minimal signs of developing. The 2022 1st was used by the Spurs on Blake Wesley. Just a few picks after Walter Kessler. 6 picks ahead of Andrew Nembhard. But ultimately it didn't result in anything major. That 2028 1st pick swap with the Spurs could sting, but more likely we'll both be towards the top of the standings and irrelevant. White, meanwhile, turned into one of the best guards in the league being a critical part of Boston's title. This season he was top 3 in plus minus and made first team all-defense. We've heard rumors about his trade value having increased. For instance, we were offered RJ Barrett and #9 last Summer. Home run trade and Brad's crowning achievement.

#2 - Kristaps Porzingis (and picks)

• Celtics Acquire: Kristaps Porziņģis (from WAS), a 2023 1st-round pick (#25 overall - Marcus Sasser, later traded), and a 2024 1st-round pick (via GS - top-4 protected).
• Grizzlies Acquire: Marcus Smart (from BOS).
• Wizards Acquire: Tyus Jones (from MEM), Danilo Gallinari (from BOS), Mike Muscala (from BOS), and a 2023 2nd-round pick (#35 overall - Julian Phillips).

Some might disagree with the ranking here. On the positive sides, Porzingis was a monster in the regular season and arguably our 2nd most important player when healthy. On the negatives side, he was more or less useless in two playoff runs and then salary dumped for nothing .He played a total of 7 games in our championship run (averaging 12 points) and was actively horrible the next playoff run (7 points on 31%/15% shooting), but he did show up for a few games against Dallas and contributed to our domination of that team. This deal cost us widely beloved Marcus Smart. That said, Smart was a bit overrated and had run his course in Boston. Porzingis, if healthy, was an obvious upgrade.

The key reason I rank this as high as I do is actually the draft picks. It remains insane that we got both Porzingis AND two 1st rounders out of it. The 2024 GS 1st was later used as part of the Holiday trade (will cover that below). The 2023 1st (#25) was used by Brad to continually trade down over the course of multiple seasons and essentially has turned into Jordan Walsh (#34 in 2023), Anton Watson (#54 pick in 2024 - waived), Amari WIlliams (#46 in 2025), Max Shulga (#57 in 2025), 2026 pick #40, 2027 2nd via Atlanta, 2027 2nd via Orlando.

#3 - Jrue Holiday

• Celtics Acquire: Jrue Holiday
• Trail Blazers Acquire: Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams III, a 2024 1st-round pick (the Golden State pick acquired in the Porziņģis trade), and a 2029 unprotected 1st-round pick (BOS own).

If not for the boatload of ongoing 2nd rounders acquired in the Smart/Zingis swap, I might have ranked this 2nd. Brogdon was coming off 6th man of the year, but is now retired. Rob Williams III looked like a defensive player of the year candidate, but has never gotten healthy. I knock this down primarily because of the draft compensation we gave up. It's important to note that the 2024 1st we gave up (acquired in the above Porzingis deal) ended up a lotto pick at 14th overall. It was used to select Bub Carrington. Just a pick before Kel'el Ware and Jared McCain. Also ahead of guys like Kyshawn George (#24) and Ajay Mitchell (#38) that we could have traded down for. That 2029 unprotected 1st also could end up stinging us, but most likely we'll remain a top team. Jrue proved to be a massive part of our title run. Especially in the Finals where he was a top 3 player. Though we have since salary dumped him (for Simons and then Vucevic), the 27 mil TPE generated by trading Simons could still prove to be an important part of our future.

#4 - Malcolm Brogdon

• Celtics Acquire: Malcolm Brogdon.
• Pacers Acquire: Aaron Nesmith, Daniel Theis, Nik Stauskas, Malik Fitts, Juwan Morgan, and a 2023 1st-round pick (#29 overall - Julian Strawther).

It was an important trade in the sense that Brogdon won 6th man of the year for a team that came a game away from making the Finals and then became a key piece of our Jrue trade, but I don't love we gave up Aaron Nesmith in the deal. Nesmith was just 2 years into his career after being selected 14th in the lotto. He had already displayed signs of being a sharp shooter. He's found a home in Indiana where he averaged double digits as a starter for a team that nearly won the title in 2025. (shooting splits of 51%/43%/91% that season). The 2023 1st (29th used on Strawther) has not amounted to much, but given what Brad has done with other late 1sts it presumably would have lead to multiple trades down for several 2nd rounders had we kept it.

#5 Al Horford

• Celtics Acquire: Al Horford, Moses Brown, and a 2023 2nd-round pick (later became Amari Bailey).
• Thunder Acquire: Kemba Walker, a 2021 1st-round pick (#16 overall - later used on Alperen Şengün), and a 2025 2nd-round pick (later became Kobe Sanders).

There's people who would rank this #1 and I understand why. Al Horford was a key part of our title team. The argument essentially goes that we wouldn't have won that title without Horford. I think in a bubble this makes sense. 37 year old Al was a bench player for that title team. Given Porzingis was injured, Horford ended up starting the bulk of that playoff run averaging 9.2 points, 7 rebounds on 48%/37% shooting. I love Al and his contributions were important. Certainly if the option was Al Horford or "Nothing", then having Al Horford is obviously better.

It also is pointed out frequently how Kemba Walker, despite coming off a season averaging 19 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds, was trash and we needed to get out from his contract. He was scheduled to make $36.0 million for the 2021–22 season, followed by a $37.7 million in 2022–23 season. Horford was a bit cheaper than that (making around 27 mil per season).

That said, had Boston just hung onto Walker, they had options. They could have just let him rot on the bench. They could have waive-stretched him. They could have waited a season and bought him out or used his large expiring contract in a trade. Having dead money on the books isn't great, but when the team didn't have cap space to utilize regardless (and Brown/Tatum still only making under 30 million each), it didn't really matter. What actually ended up happening was soon after the trade, Kemba agreed to a buyout with the Thunder and ended up giving up 20 million in the deal resulting in his dead money cap hit for the Thunder being $26 mil in 2021-22 and $27 mil in 2022-23.

Most importantly, Boston had to give up another lotto pick (#16) to make that deal and that pick ended up Alperen Sengun. It was also one pick ahead of Trey Murphy III. It was 4 picks ahead of Jalen Johnson. All three of those guys were significant contributors by 2023-24. Sengun, for instance, was already averaging 21 points, 9.3 rebounds, 5 assists, 1.2 steals with 54% shooting as a 21 year old. So while I loved Horford, the truth is that it wasn't "horford vs nothing" in 2024. The question should have been, would Boston have still won the title had a budding star like 21 year old Sengun or 22 year old Jalen Johnson been coming off their bench on a rookie scale deal. Don't get me wrong, I love Horford and loved his contributions, but the reality is Brad gave up a significant asset for an ancient Horford and then let him walk for nothing soon after. For that reason, I rank that trade 5th.

....

That's pretty much all of his significant moves to date. How would you adjust the ranking?

Kinda obvious, but it's worth a trip down memory lane.

The Jordan/Pippen Bulls, like the Tatum/Brown Celtics, obviously had a lot of success together until Jordan briefly quit.

That 1993-94 season, Pippen stepped up as "the man" (with solid contributions from borderline stars like Horace Grant) and collectively they saw their team go from winning 57 games (with Jordan) to 55 wins (without Jordan). This mirrors Brown's season very well where he had gone 36-22 (50 win pace) without Tatum and then collectively they finished the season with 56 wins (just 5 less than the prior year where they won 61).

There were also strong signals at the time that Pippen felt like he was proving he didn't need to be in Jordan's shadow and that he the team had almost no drop-off with him at the helm. He had a career season, averaging 22 points (career high), 8.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 2.9 steals while inexplicably seeing his efficiency go up from the season prior (though just a bit worse than his peak a couple years earlier). This almost exactly mirrors Brown who made comments about showing the world what he had sacrificed and saw himself average a career high in points with his efficiency only being slightly worse than his peak a couple years earlier.

In Pippen's case, he made 1st team All-NBA. 3rd in MVP voting. In Brown's case, he made 2nd team All-NBA. 6th in MVP Voting.

However, the playoffs proved to be a disappointment. Pippen's Bulls swept through the first round, but then faced off against a 57 win 1st seed Knicks team. Pippen's Bulls took them to 7 games before the Knicks ended up winning and going to the Finals. But there was also an incident that damaged the relationship between Pippen and the Bulls when in game 3 he famously refused to re-enter the game after Phil Jackson drew up the final shot for Toni Kukoč instead of him. The media had a field day with this and it upset a lot of Bulls fans at the time who saw it as immature and selfish. Once again, this mirrors Brown very well where his team choked a 3-1 lead and then he embarrassingly said within hours of being eliminated that it was his "favorite season"... media went wild and obviously it upset a lot of Celtics fans who saw it as immature and selfish.

Heading into that Summer of 1994, the Bulls actually came very close to trading Pippen in the fall-out of that playoff series. The proposed deal reportedly would have sent Pippen (and a 1st) to Seattle for Shawn Kemp, Ricky Pierce and a lotto pick. What's especially interesting is that Seattle coach George Karl claimed Michael Jordan approved of the deal believing it made sense for both teams. Seattle ownership ultimately backed out killing the deal at the last minute.

Goes without saying, that mirrors this almost Brown/Giannis trade very well. Almost happened. Brad couldn't close the deal. Now we're asked wondering where the relationship will go from here.

Things remained cold between Pippen and Krause after that almost-trade and Pippen never regained his trust of management even acknowledging that he wanted to be traded.

But here's the good news for Boston fans... despite a frosty relationship between Pippen and the Bulls (even demanding a trade in 97), Pippen remained a professional, ultimately slotted back in as Jordan's sidekick, and they won 3 more titles together. Good news for the Celtics and Brown is that JB is under contract for 3 more years and is too much of a professional to let any frustration impact his efforts to help the Celtics win. Maybe like Pippen before him, he finds some success as a 2nd option in the aftermath of his flirtation with being "the man" and almost being traded.

It's right there in front of your face and pretty obvious.

The Jordan/Pippen Bulls, like the Tatum/Brown Celtics, obviously had a lot of success together until Jordan briefly quit.

That 1993-94 season, Pippen stepped up as "the man" (with solid contributions from borderline stars like Horace Grant) and collectively they saw their team go from winning 57 games (with Jordan) to 55 wins (without Jordan). This mirrors Brown's season very well where he had gone 36-22 (50 win pace) without Tatum and then collectively they finished the season with 56 wins (just 5 less than the prior year where they won 61).

There were also strong signals at the time that Pippen felt like he was proving he didn't need to be in Jordan's shadow and that he the team had almost no drop-off with him at the helm. He had a career season, averaging 22 points (career high), 8.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 2.9 steals while inexplicably seeing his efficiency go up from the season prior (though just a bit worse than his peak a couple years earlier). This almost exactly mirrors Brown who made comments about showing the world what he had sacrificed and saw himself average a career high in points with his efficiency only being slightly worse than his peak a couple years earlier.

In Pippen's case, he made 1st team All-NBA. 3rd in MVP voting. In Brown's case, he made 2nd team All-NBA. 6th in MVP Voting.

However, the playoffs proved to be a disappointment. Pippen's Bulls swept through the first round, but then faced off against a 57 win 1st seed Knicks team. Pippen's Bulls took them to 7 games before the Knicks ended up winning and going to the Finals. But there was also an incident that damaged the relationship between Pippen and the Bulls when in game 3 he famously refused to re-enter the game after Phil Jackson drew up the final shot for Toni Kukoč instead of him. The media had a field day with this and it upset a lot of Bulls fans at the time who saw it as immature and selfish. Once again, this mirrors Brown very well where his team choked a 3-1 lead and then he embarrassingly said within hours of being eliminated that it was his "favorite season"... media went wild and obviously it upset a lot of Celtics fans who saw it as immature and selfish.

Heading into that Summer of 1994, the Bulls actually came very close to trading Pippen in the fall-out of that playoff series. The proposed deal reportedly would have sent Pippen (and a 1st) to Seattle for Shawn Kemp, Ricky Pierce and a lotto pick. What's especially interesting is that Seattle coach George Karl claimed Michael Jordan approved of the deal believing it made sense for both teams. Seattle ownership ultimately backed out killing the deal at the last minute.

Goes without saying, that mirrors this almost Brown/Giannis trade very well. Almost happened. Brad couldn't close the deal. Now we're asked wondering where the relationship will go from here.

Things remained cold between Pippen and Krause after that almost-trade and Pippen never regained his trust of management even acknowledging that he wanted to be traded.

But here's the good news... despite a frosty relationship between Pippen and the Bulls (even demanding a trade in 97), Pippen remained a professional, ultimately slotted back in as Jordan's sidekick, and they won 3 more titles together. Good news for the Celtics and Brown is that JB is under contract for 3 more years and is too much of a professional to let any frustration impact his efforts to help the Celtics win. Here's hoping like Pippen before him, he finds championship success as a 2nd option in the aftermath of his flirtation with being "the man" and almost being traded.