A bit ago, I went back and watched some closing minutes from the MIA series and I was struck that the Cs generally played JT/JB/Al/Smart/MB. A couple of times I think GW was in there instead of MB. But no White.
Getting Jrue for MB/TL was also great because it replaced two guys who have injury history (and wouldn't be available right now if they were still on the Cs) with one guy who seems pretty durable.
nice work Wade
That would be a bargain the day it was signed, if DWhite agrees to it. Even if Wyc starts to worry about his bux eventually, it's extremely tradeable as a very positive contract.
Assuming the $$ aren't the problem, why would you want to trade anyone on this team? Of course, if they poop out in the playoffs you have to consider if something is missing, but until then the null should be "if it ain't broke don't fix it"
As Brad showed last summer, there are many reasons you might want to trade someone on the team, even someone well-liked and perceived as valuable.
Yeah.. but this years team is almost incomparable to last years in a lot of ways.. Sone of the players are the same but they’re all as good or better than last year’s version. I guess the only thing that’s always going to be a worry is KPs ankles.. hard to see, currently, where they can improve
Definitely, and it's been my favorite season as a fan in a long time.
And is at 69 games played, so will hit that bonus in the next couple days. And he should make an all defense team.
It's just a matter of whether he'll accept the ~$30M/yr extension or not at this point. Cs will offer it.
How many teams out there would look at him as a max player, though? We see his value, but that's because his complementary skills are so apparent in an environment that we've got. He's not going to be a team's alpha scorer, and as a distributor he's pretty good but not flashy in the way that max PGs are. Board Man may get paid, but Tenacious D Man With Good Decisions does not necessarily get paid.
The FVV deal is indicative of what a "we need credibility" team will pay for a good guard, and the cap is only going up.
I think the difference there is that FVV signed a really short deal. Bad young teams have a different challenge in which all the young guys have to sign their own extensions on a timetable, so d white at 40 mil over 4 makes a young team exorbitantly expensive faster than normal.
Tatum ended with 9 shots lol, he hasn’t seemed too intent on taking anyone’s shots.
If White will agree to an extension (a huge if now), I imagine they lock him up and figure out who gets traded later. He's still under contract next season for a smaller number.
Not a FA until 2025, but I don't see how a team like San Antonio or Detroit wouldn't throw 4/170 or something at him then, barring injury/massive decline.
Detroit will have used up all their cap on signing Tobias Harris, D'Angelo Russell, and Bruce Brown by then
One of JMs worst coaching decisions.. it was clear to everyone that White needed to play more but JM was loyal to Smart to a fault.Detroit will have used up all their cap on signing Tobias Harris, D'Angelo Russell, and Bruce Brown by then
DW doesn't seem like the kind of guy that will turn down $123MM gtd to announce Brinks Trucks are making their way to his house in a year. BUT if he does he deserves it.
Funny to look back and see Derrick struggled to get minutes in the playoffs last season averaging 23mpg over G1, G2, & G3 against Miami.
Ehh, it’s possible (likely?) the dynamic was more complicated than we know. Thankfully Brad took matters into his own hands to resolve it.
I dunno, a rookie coach trying to earn credibility with a star-laden roster coming off a Finals victory is going to find it impossible to make the reigning DPOY 2nd fiddle to the new guy. And Coach Joe also had to work Brogdon into the rotation as well. And White got minutes once Brogdon got hurt against Miami.
And he was a beloved local legend, too. Even Bill Belichick waited a year or two before benching and trading Bernie Kosar. I'm coming around to the position that the Smart dilemma was solved the only way it could be, or at the only level that it could be.
Yeah, I think regardless of what Joe did, the players would have had some issues to sort out among themselves. Marcus wasn't going to check himself into games (although he may have tried!) but he would have likely made a lot of noise. Brad solving this was one of his crowning achievements to date.
I only mentioned G1, G2, & G3 against Miami since those games were crushing to the Celtic's last season.
After seeing the not-surprising fragility of KP, and DW's not-surprising brilliance, is it sensible to let KP walk in 2026, and use that 30m to help sign DW?
There are a lot of teams who have another guy who's the center of attention, and who could really use DWhite. Spurs with Wemby, Detroit with Cade, Atlanta with Trae....I'm sure I can find more.
This is the most likely scenario, but by signing DWhite, they'll have left themselves the flexibility to deal any combination of:
In 2 years I'd guess Tatum, Brown, White, KP-expiring along with team-friendly deals on PP, Hauser, Luke.
Tatum 16-points on 9 shots is a fantastic sign of growth.
