BGleas

Yeah, if you win the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball then you have the potential to go very far.

To keep my Carson Wentz Jekyll/Hyde thing going with Wentz, as bad as he’s played, what he’s dealing with is pretty incredible. Is there another QB/team in the league dealing with this many guys out? 49ers are close, but even their injuries aren’t this bad. Wentz is without: Alshon Jeffrey - WR - Out Desean Jackson - WR - Out JJ Acela-Whiteside - WR - Out Jaelon Reagor - WR - IR/Out Marquise Goodwin - WR, Covid opt out Dallas Goedert - TE - IR/Out Issac Seumalo - Starting G - IR/Out Brandin Brooks - Out for the year, starting, Pro Bowl LG Andre Dillard - Out for the Year, starting LT Josh Perkins - Out for the year, backup TE Jason Peters - Questionable - LT, originally begged out of retirement to be a Guard because of preseason injuries, not moved to LT because of more injuries. The Eagles literally had one WR on the entire active roster healthy enough to practice on Friday. While I’m frustrated with Wentz’s play, this is why I’m probably willing to stay on the bandwagon. The Eagles dealt with this the second half of past season, to the point where their leading receiver down the stretch as they clinched the division was a practice squad guy that was a QB in college. Now he’s dealing with it again this year, and it’s even worse. I can’t remember a QB in recent memory missing this many offensive lineman and receivers. You just can’t operate in the NFL with that.

This is about having a well run organization, not small market vs. big market. You have to have smart, stable ownership that hires smart basketball people and allows them to do their jobs, etc. The Knicks are in a massive market and have been a joke for 20 years. The Bulls have largely been a joke for 20 years outside of the short Rose/Butler run. The Clippers were a joke for 40 years. The Celtics were awful from post-Bird until about 2002 San Antonio was a contender for 30 years. OKC was a contender for a decade. The Pacers, while having some issues recently, have been a competitive playoff team for most of 30 years. Yes, being lucky in the draft helps, of course, but you have to be smart around that. If San Antonio doesn’t bring in Parker and Ginobili, which were super smart moves, Duncan probably leaves for Orlando which he almost did. Its why Dirk stayed in Dallas, Cuban was committed to winning. It’s why Anthony Davis left New Orleans, the franchise is a joke. Success in the NBA is about have a smart, stable front office with an ownership group that will invest in winners and let the basketball people do their jobs, and with anything a little luck thrown in too. The Lakers are the only team in the league that can literally do everything wrong and still stumble into a title team.

The picks don’t impact the cap space in the trade.

It depends on how you're looking at it. I agree that basketball probably suffers the most from not having fans, but at the same time I think the actual level and quality of play in the NBA bubble has been fantastic. The players are rested from not having to travel, they're sleeping in the same bed every night and the distractions are limited, and that's been reflected in the play. With that said, again I do agree that not having sold out home arenas does impact basketball the most. Honestly, I think Miami is a really good team. I said as much in that as a Celtics fan they scared me the most before the playoff started, but I also think the makeup of their team (1 real star and then role players) has benefitted the most from not having to play road playoff games. I also agree that I barely notice that there aren't fans while watching football.

I was coming here to post the same thing. At what point do you blame the Pacers management? There have been plenty of smaller market teams over the years where star players stayed for long periods of time, and this seems to be the beginning of a new trend for the Pacers where guys are leaving.

The Celtics would throw picks in for Vic/Turner, not for Turner and McDerrmot or Lamb. Hayward is an expiring deal next summer, so the Celtics would actually be taking back more years and long term money. Ainge would throw one in simply because the Celtics have so many picks and don’t need more rookies though.

His contract is up after next season. It's a gift. Turner's contract has more money and years on it

Yeah, I don't think Boston is going to give up the best player and two lottery picks (Langford & the 2020 14th pic) and another first rounder.

I know. KoB said for Boston to throw in Langford in exchange for McDermott and McConnell. I was saying that Langford was a lottery pick, so that wouldn't be enough. I'd want Holiday for Langford.

Throwing Langford in, we'll need Aaron Holiday. I know he wasn't great his rookie year, but he's still a lottery pick that injuries played a part in his performance.

Yeah, going to Hurts isn't the answer. Wentz is the guy for now, he just needs to play better. We know with a solid, healthy offensive line and healthy skill players that Wentz is capable of playing at an MVP level. He's proven it. In 2017 he was a lock for the MVP if he hadn't hurt his knee in week 13. The Eagles have seriously been decimated by injuries on the offensive side the last two years. It's hard for any QB to deal with what Wentz has in that department. Last year he was able to elevate the team the last half of the year (which really was incredible), so I was expecting him to build off that in his really 2nd full season post injury. It just hasn't happened and it's been really bad and he's regressing which is trouble some.

The Celtics are a true title contending team if Thies (who I love) is a their backup center, Wanamaker is their 3rd string pg and not the backup, and they add a pure shooter off the bench. They need to turn Hayward, who I like and don't really want to move, into two prime/veteran rotation players and then sign another rotation players. It's not that I want to move Hayward but he's the only real asset they have that you'd be willing to move in terms of players. Yes, they have guys like Langford, Grant Williams, etc. as throw ins, but Hayward is the only real contract to move.

It's an odd move though to just give that team 1 year together, especially when Kawhi and PG can both opt out I believe after next year. While I think they certainly underachieved, it was really a two year window and it's off to make this move in the middle of that window. I also believe both Kawhi and PG said they wanted to be coached by Doc, so I'd guess Balmer ran this by them? Although he seems like a bit of a loose cannon. It's just an interesting move.

True. But, you could also argue Steven has overachieved with that record. The devil is in the details. That team two years ago with Kyrie and Hayward injured, Tatum's rookie year, had no business taking LeBron's Cavs 7 games in the ECF. Probably had no business making the ECF. The season before, pre Kyrie, Hayward and Tatum, they probably also had no business making the ECF and predictably got swept by the Cavs title team.

Absolutely. The Celtics young core is well positioned, Ainge needs to build around them better with more talented and experienced depth.

I know you're being sarcastic, and Stevens isn't going anywhere, nor should he, but he was not good in the playoffs. I don't mean the default 'we lost so it must be the coach' stuff, there are tactical things that Stevens either did wrong or didn't adjust too in both the Toronto series and the Miami series that cost the Celtics. I'm a Stevens fan and absolutely don't want him going anywhere, but he struggled against Nurse and Spoelstra. I'm also seeing Celtics fans getting more and more critical of him.

Agree. Mentioned this a few times, but at the start of the playoffs Miami was the team in the East that scared me the most. I didn't think the Celtics should have been favored in this series. I think Miami has a chance, but I agree that LeBron and Davis are going to get ALL the calls in this series. For my Celtics, the future is bright, but Danny Ainge has some work to do. The Celtics are basically a 6-man team right now. They desperately need a big, a backup point guard and a shooter off the bench. Depth and lack of size were the big issues. But, I'm super happy with the play of Tatum and Brown. Tatum has some things to clean up (tougher finishing at the rim, smarter in shot selection) but he really developed in the bubble from a scorer to a playmaker. I think he had 8 assists in the first half tonight and he's been creating for others, not just himself, much more. Looking forward to the Finals and hoping for a Miami win. Partly because I hate the Lakers and don't want LeBron to win, but also my former office-mate with the Celtics works for them, so would love to see him get another ring.

In two weeks I’ve literally gone from “Wentz can be a top 5 QB in the NFL”, to Tank For Trevor!! I’m still not sure sure how much of this to put on Wentz. He’s absolutely been awful this year, but at the same time 3/5 of his projected offensive line is out for the year and once again his top 3 wide receivers are all hurt, and his defense is awful He really has no help, but geez he’s been terrible.

I also think while Kawhi had to do what was best for him, if he stays in Toronto I think they’re coming out of the East this year and Toronto with Kawhi is better than the Lakers. None of this is the Lakers fault of course, they play who is in front of them, but this is not a great team Lakers team. It’s really an above average team in a year with no great teams.

No doubt. A couple hot takes here. 1) I’m a Celtics fan obviously, but I think Miami has a better chance against the Lakers. They’re deeper, they have Bam to try and guard AD, and they have Butler, Crowder and Iggy to throw at LeBron. The Celtics aren’t deep enough. 2) While I think the NBA is deep this year, it’s also weak at the top. This Lakers team will be one of the worst championship teams in a long time. They’re not that good. This statement is more an endictment on the entire league than just the Lakers.

Howard has been a clown this entire series and the officials have let him get away with it.

Haha, I purposely didn’t use the word “adjustments” because I hate when fans default to that every time their team loses.

Agree. This will tighten up. Frustrating that after a great 3rd quarter attacking the basket and getting to the line, the Celtics comes out Andy jack up two bad, quick 3’s to start the 4th.

After almost two series of getting out coached Stevens finally makes some defensive changes and it has a huge impact. Celtics started pressuring the ball up top and stopped switching screens, making it more difficult for Miami to seek out mismatches of the switches. They started forcing turnovers and bad decisions by Miami which resulted in 3-4 fast break, easy buckets, and now they finally have some offensive rhythm.