For Celtics fans, the last few days had been nothing but torture: between GM Danny Ainge doing his usual NBA Draft con job (getting his name crowbarred into a bunch of far-fetched trade rumors but then never completing them) and using two mid-first round picks on Wednesday, followed by crickets the first day of free agency on Friday (besides Enes Kanter getting traded back to Portland), we needed something to be even slightly positive about. After Gordon Hayward signed a four-year, $120 million dollar deal with Charlotte this afternoon, Boston was left with the bitter reality that they had gotten absolutely nothing in return for seeing their former prized free agent skip town after only three injury-plagued and disappointing seasons.
Hallelujah, the tide finally started to turn a bit in the Green's favor this evening as news trickled in that they had signed veteran center Tristan Thompson to a two-year deal worth $19 million while point guard Jeff Teague had also agreed to a one-year contract for the veteran's minimum. Right before these moves came into fruition, Brad Wanamaker signed a one-year with Golden State, hence the sudden need for a new backup point guard that head coach Brad Stevens could count on in crunch time. These moves alone aren't groundbreaking on their own but at least they demonstrate that Ainge is still trying to improve the team and not simply hoping that Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown can continue to develop into franchise players and carry a bunch of inexperienced youngsters to even greater heights mostly by themselves.
Obviously not getting a much-rumored sign-and-trade deal done with Indiana for Hayward involving Pacers center Myles Turner is the biggest headline out of this rapid succession of moves for the Celts. When Gordon moved his personal deadline for picking up his ludicrous 2020-21 option ($34.2 million!) from Tuesday to Thursday, you knew that he was as good as gone. That fact was cemented when he opted out on Thursday night to become a free agent. I liked Hayward's game going back to his Butler days with Stevens, long before he got here but thanks to an incredibly bad streak of luck when it came to freak injuries and long stretches where he never really fit into the gameplan, I am not going to lament him leaving here that much. It was time. The frustrating part is that Ainge wasted one of the only real assets that he had on the current roster.
Looking ahead, Thompson and to a lesser extent Teague should make Boston slightly better this season. Thompson was the fourth overall pick of the 2011 draft and for most of his nine years in Cleveland, he has tormented the Celtics whenever they matched up, especially in the playoffs. Once again, after LeBron left the Cavs, the franchise has turned into a disaster. However, Thompson has posted his two best seasons in back-to-back campaigns. Known as a ferocious rebounder with a limited offensive game, he has averaged double-doubles the last two seasons: 10.9 points and 10.2 rebounds per game in 2018-2019 followed by a career-best 12 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. He is much better overall than Daniel Theis and therefore should start right away. One of Boston's biggest issues in the bubble postseason-and dating back years now if we're being honest-was rebounding and Thompson immediately addresses that and at the age of 29, he figures to have some good productive years left in the tank. Getting away from the Cavaliers and onto one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference should also motivate him plus he'll be back in the playoffs where he seems to shine the most.
On the other hand, Teague's peak is behind him (who knew that he was an All-Star in 2014-15?) but that doesn't mean that he can't provide some value to the C's at the ripe old age of 32. Additionally, with the way that Kemba Walker's knee wasn't right for much of last season including in the bubble, Ainge had no choice but to get someone that he could depend on when Walker undoubtedly misses more time with another mysterious injury that the Celts will try to downplay as always. Teague was the 19th pick of the 2011 draft by the Hawks. You'll remember that he was part of some fun playoff series between Boston and Atlanta early on in his career. After seven seasons in Atlanta, he played for a year in Indiana (his home state) before three years in Minnesota and then he was traded back to the lowly Hawks last season where he averaged 10.9 points and 5.2 assists per game. Unlike Thompson who can't hit free throws to save his life (61% for his career), Teague is excellent at the line (he's shot in the 80s for the last 10 seasons in a row).
The craziest part out of all of this is that the 2020-21 NBA regular season starts exactly a month from today. I'm not kidding, it really does return before the NFL playoffs have begun. Given that the NBA Finals just wrapped up in early September, that's preposterous. I thought they would surely start after New Year's but Christmas Day is such a ratings draw for the league that they simply had to fast-track this offseason to get those key holiday games in. Let's admit it: the league has a virtual sports monopoly on Christmas with usually five games (featuring many of the top teams and players) from the afternoon to late at night. About the only thing that makes sense is that they've cut 10 games off the regular season thanks to Covid-19 so instead of the 82-game grind, it'll be a 72-game sprint or something like that. Granted, I won't be complaining about any of this when it's the dead of winter, I'm stuck inside every night due to the miserable weather and that's where the NBA will be clutch in our pandemic lives.
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