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Raptors, Mavs, and Celtics Make Off-Season Moves


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Celtics

Celtics

+6 players ($41.7m) +2 picks,
Cap Impact + $23.7M

+9  Wins

-47.03  MPG

+0.15  Off.

+3.31  Def.

Mavericks

Mavericks

+2 players ($43.0m),
Cap Impact + $17.7M

+1  Wins

+4.93  MPG

+4.30  Off.

+0.17  Def.

Pacers

Pacers

+6 players ($28.0m) +5 picks,
Cap Impact - $27.5M

-8  Wins

+27.05  MPG

-7.05  Off.

-1.97  Def.

The Raptors:

They solve their need for a stronger frontcourt by bringing Myles Turner and Tristan Thompson. They send out Chris Boucher, sure, but they don't risk losing him for nothing either. So, along with sending out Rodney Hood, they get younger at center and do their best with their lottery pick as prep for their re-tool.

The Grizzlies:

They get assets for players that both don't match their timeline and block the development of their young guys. With JJJ coming back from injury next season, I don't think he'll want to initially play behind JV and he'd be right to think so. JV ultimately is going to age out of the time frame for the Grizzlies to make playoff runs and any chemistry gained between him and the younger players is largely going to go to waste. With them being in the West, it's unlikely for them to make any noise in the post-season anyway. Ergo, go young and get paid for it.

The Pacers:

The Pacers are in a bind. The players they have outside of Sabonis are largely on the older side and they wouldn't be making the playoffs if it wasn't for the play-in tourney. This is a problem that really only has two ways of being fixed. The first being to try to make a big trade by mortgaging their future. This would, if it even happened, would likely succeed in having them make the playoffs, but it would fail in that they still wouldn't be likely to do anything meaningful while they're there. The second and smarter choice is to engage in a Soft Rebuild that takes advantage of their current draft position to either draft or trade for good young players and start winning again in the last year of Domantas' current contract. He would have to be onboard with it and I think he could be if he wants at better chance at winning at 27 or 28. In short, sacrifice now to benefit 3 or 4 years from now and hope to retain pieces like Sabonis and Lavert until then.

The Mavericks:

Taking on Kemba's contract is less about now and more about later. It make seem counterintuitive at first but the whole idea is to trade the pieces that are unlikely to help them in the future and and get a player that will hold a large amount of money to trade in the last year of his contract for someone making a similar amount or several players that make smaller amounts. As long as the Mavericks stay out of the tax they can let Luka and Jalen Brunson develop to the point where going all in to win now makes sense. Additionally, it's important to say that Kemba won't be utterly useless in his time there. He averages around 17 points a game and lessens the ball handling burden on Luka in the starting lineup. Luka can obviously handle the role of a distributor for the team so Kemba would be able to just focus on being himself unlike in Boston where they've tried to force that distribution role onto him. The Mavs losing some of the role players will hurt a bit in the short term, but it's very likely that they'll make the playoffs ever year anyway due to Luka's talent, so it probably won't hurt as much as people think. Essentially, this will be a way to easily go over the Salary Cap when necessary without losing players that will be useful in the future.

The Celtics: They Celtics need two things this off-season. The first is a decent quality distributor that either supplement or supplant Marcus Smart's own passing in the starting lineup (ideally moving him to the bench). They second is to aquire players old enough to contribute bro deep playoff runs now that aren't so old as to decline in effectiveness too quickly. Malcolm Brogan seems like the perfect place to start to address the first issue. Since they get off of Kemb's contract they can get a better fit in Brogdan who is a more natural distributor and is far less expensive. Getting Justin Holiday (who is old but relatively cheap), Kyle Anderson, and Jonas Valanciunas help a ton with the second issue. Holiday can shoot at a high level with some consistency (which an issue that had plagued the Celtics all of this year's season), Anderson addresses the power forward depth issue (who can play to his midrange strengths with the second unit), and Valanciunas is the force on the interior who will share the starting job with Robert Williams depending on matchups that play to either player's strengths. (JV can bang with the physical bigs that RW can't handle and RW will provide the passing, speed, and vertical spacing that JV struggles with). They'll have to give up a good number of picks to do this but they don't need more young guys to develop right now and they'll likely have to pay a pick premium in order to keep them. Signing Fournier and Kornet back provides that extra bench versatility and offense that, in combination with the other moves, would stop the Celtics from having nearly the worst bench scoring among playoff teams in the league. The only issues with all this are how expensive it could get to retain all these players after the next season and if the players brought in could handle potential bench roles in a top-heavy East that they could struggle in when it comes to the top teams. Still, if all goes well, this could make the Celtics true title contenders for the next several years as Jayson and Jaylen enter their primes.

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