What’s the adage? Luck is when opportunity and preparation meet.
How would Ainge’s tenure have looked had KG not been available? All you can do as a GM is prepare for Plans A to Z and then when the best one becomes available you are in position to make a play. Brad was the last GM I believe to sign a FA this summer so he was anticipating something like this becoming available......or maybe he lucked out. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for being patient with the ultimate goal of a Beal/Smart swap over the next 12 months.
I think he was anticipating it and thought he'd end up with someone like Satoransky, not Schroder.
Interesting Schroder stat: From 16-3' he is a career .433 shooter. His career FT % is .831, too. So Rajon Rondo he is not. I hope he's using all summer taking 3s. The last 3 years, he is shooting ..355 from 3 on 4.4 attempts/g.
Him and Smart together may cause some issues if they are both shooting 33% from 3 but if one can be closer to league average, a TL/Tatum/Brown/DS/Smart lineup is good defensively and on offense should be able to move the ball around pretty well. Brown would be the worse passer of the group and you'd want him driving to the hoop anyway.
Hopefully Josh Richardson can make slight improvements too, but he's a nice option off the bench. I like the DS/Smart combo to start the game but I could see JRich starting if the C's don't want to use PP as the back up PG.
The team will need PP to continue to shoot as well as he did last year. With Smart/Schroder/JRich and maybe even Dunn, 3 point shooting could potentially be a problem. AN stepping up would help a lot. I'm not high on RL at all, but I won't rehash why.
Bruno is an NBA body at the very least. I don't like Carsen or Grant that much but the latter is serviceable and Carsen would probably get minutes on a team like Detroit or OKC.
I'd guess Tatum shows at least moderate growth from last year and that Jaylen shows incremental growth. Horford is probably closer to "Average Al" than the guy we saw before but Average Al is a valuable player. TL is a wild card. If he stays healthy for a full 82 and can stay on the court for 30 minutes a game, it could turn the team from pretender to contender. I'm guessing Jabari is gone.
Hauser is fine on a 2 way, assuming he ends up with one of them. There is potentially a spot for Madar, and potentially a 2 way deal for Begarin. I don't see either as all that likely. Of the 2, I think Begarin is more likely. If a 2 way for Madar was a possibility, that would change my mind.
I'm really high on Begarin too. He's an athletic freak with a motor and length. Madar at least has a motor. Curious how people think his length matches up after having seen him in summer league. He's definitely on the light side but some were questioning his height/length. He's not the best athlete but I think PP's athletic enough to play in the NBA as a bench player. Begarin's ceiling is probably higher than any of us feel comfortable writing down. This is a guy who could have been a lottery pick next year had he waited, and one that went higher than 14th overall. Minus Tatum and Brown (and maybe TL) he might have the highest ceiling on the team.
Anyway, long winded post. I like this team SOOOOO MUCH MORE than last years. I'd maybe look to add another 3 point shooter with some gravity. Barring that, I'd give Madar the 15th and Begarin the 2nd 2 way, but it's probably not the wisest idea to lock up the 15th roster spot with a guaranteed deal. I'd also look to add a stretch 4 who can play the 5, but I think everyone is always looking for that.
This team doesn't really have any completely wasted roster spots like Semi, Tremont, Fall, Jevonte. Even the players I don't like are young enough and have theoretical value if not actual value (Grant, Edwards, Dunn, RL). The top 8 only consists of 2 bigs. Those 2 bigs are very different from each other too, except that they both are excellent passers for their position. The only player that looks like a total waste of a roster spot atm is Jabari Parker. Maybe Hauser but he probably spends all his time in Maine.