Honestly, I'm not sure why everybody here views those two picks and players as so outlandish. Of course you'd prefer a lower asking price, but the Celtics are looking to acquire a top 15 player on a discounted extension. That changes the price; early reports on the price assumed free agency. An extension eliminates risk and saves money relative to the cost of acquiring George as an UFA.
The starting caliber players have to be included to make the money work, and there are multiple starter caliber players that have limited value to Boston. Given this Haywood/George thing the C's are trying to pull off, Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart are unlikely to be part of the Celtics future. Those are "starters," and one or both may well be on the table for Indiana.
As for the picks, there's still a lot of uncertainty around that Lakers/SAC pick. Ingram, Randle, etc. will all improve. Ball will help. They could easily play themselves out of that pick conveying, and becoming the Sacramento pick.
Sacramento then offers uncertainty of their own. They've been linked to both LMA and Millsap, will beg Griffin for a meeting (and may well be the only team dumb enough to go to the full max in terms of years and money) and have made it clear their intention is to spend money to improve. They have some interesting young guys, just brought over a 23 year old widely believed to be the best player in Europe, and have max money to spend. Even if they strike out on their big targets, and instead overpaid for some combo of Gallinari/Teague/Holiday/Ibaka/Hill, etc. it could easily push that SAC pick into the latter half of the lottery and pretty greatly reduce it's value.
Brooklyn projects to be bad, but guys like Zach Lowe are pretty confident that they won't be nearly as bad. It's a big risk to bank on that being a top 3 pick.
The starting caliber players have to be included to make the money work, and there are multiple starter caliber players that have limited value to Boston. Given this Haywood/George thing the C's are trying to pull off, Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart are unlikely to be part of the Celtics future. Those are "starters," and one or both may well be on the table for Indiana.
As for the picks, there's still a lot of uncertainty around that Lakers/SAC pick. Ingram, Randle, etc. will all improve. Ball will help. They could easily play themselves out of that pick conveying, and becoming the Sacramento pick.
Sacramento then offers uncertainty of their own. They've been linked to both LMA and Millsap, will beg Griffin for a meeting (and may well be the only team dumb enough to go to the full max in terms of years and money) and have made it clear their intention is to spend money to improve. They have some interesting young guys, just brought over a 23 year old widely believed to be the best player in Europe, and have max money to spend. Even if they strike out on their big targets, and instead overpaid for some combo of Gallinari/Teague/Holiday/Ibaka/Hill, etc. it could easily push that SAC pick into the latter half of the lottery and pretty greatly reduce it's value.
Brooklyn projects to be bad, but guys like Zach Lowe are pretty confident that they won't be nearly as bad. It's a big risk to bank on that being a top 3 pick.