The Celtics clearly have an organizational philosophy that you can never have too many 6-4 to 6-8 defensive-minded guys who can handle the ball.
It makes a lot of sense: guys like JB/JT/Smart/Romeo can basically defend 1-4 (once they add strength) and play some combination of 1-4 on offense (as they add playmaking).
Whereas if you draft a big, even a promising one like Hayes, you have a 5. “Competent 5” is the easiest position to find in FA cheaply, especially if your offense is based around infinite playmaking wings. So even if you hit big by getting a pretty good 5 in the draft and developing him, your value delta isn’t as high.
The value of the Celtics strategy is showing this year, as center on the cheap hasn’t been a weakness, and their big wings have co-existed just fine, while giving a size+speed advantage in their matchups, even though an observer who doesn’t understand modern basketball would predict they’d be “redundant.”
Very true, this basically lays out the Celtic/modern NBA roster construction. More
chicken wings, please.
Actually losing Horford, and not signing him to a
Philly 4yr deal, opened up all kinds of possibilities for Danny/Brad. It even has me questioning if Myles Turner's contract is all that cheap? With more teams filling out their roster with versatile wings, the glut of perfectly fine 5s will be hitting free agency this summer. The basic
Law of Supply/Demand is going to continue to drive their prices down and is why Drummond fetched jetsam & flotsam in the trade market & WCS (15/10 last night), at $2MM/yr, only cost a late 2nd rounder.
If anything Danny should be hesitant to draft a center in round 1 (Memphis pick) and have to guarantee them money. The C's will easily be able to find multiple, experienced 5s on the cheap/short deals this summer if they want (PLUS they have Theis, VP, TL already signed - Tacko option)