Colin Cowherd's Idea To Get Damian Lillard To Boston Might Be The Dumbest Idea In The History of Ideas
Maddie Malhotra. Getty Images.Now listen, you have to understand something here with Colin. He for sure does not watch the Boston Celtics on a nightly basis. If you were to ask him what these Celtics "issues" are, he would most likely recite whatever popular narrative people use that doesn't really provide any real insight. You'd probably hear him say "the Jays don't fit" without explaining why that is or why Dame, a high volume shooter, would be the answer. Maybe you'd hear how "nobody on the team likes each other" or whatever ESPN wants to run with next. So you have to start there.
Once you listen to that clip and eventually get to his idea, it's even more confusing. He suggests "the answer to their issues" is to trade Jaylen Brown/Marcus Smart/3 1sts to Portland for Dame. Let's just play along for the sake of this blog. That leaves them with a roster of
Dame/Richardson/Tatum/Horford/Rob
As your starters with a bench of
Schroder/Romeo/Nesmith/Pritchard/Grant/Kanter/Bruno/Juancho
Let me ask you, what issues does this solve? You immediately regress big time defensively. Even if you don't love what Jaylen does on that end, he's still mostly a plus defender. Marcus Smart is an All NBA caliber defender. So yes, you gain an elite offensive talent in Dame at the PG spot, but he's on the other side of 30. Jaylen is 25 and getting better every single year. Smart is 27 and is as versatile a defender as you'll find at his position. We are currently watching what happens when this Celtics team doesn't defend. Irt doesn't matter what their offense looks like.
Then you fast forward to this summer. Dennis Schroder is most likely on his way out. That leaves the only point guards on your roster to be a 31 year old Dame and Payton Pritchard. If the Celts give up all their picks to get Dame, how do they find a replacement? It's not like they'll have a shit ton of money to work with in free agency, plus the names aren't anything they should want. The second you actually take the time to spell it all out, how on earth does that make the Celtics better or immediately in title contention?
Let's say we live in a world why somehow Kyrie comes back, and the Celts face the Nets in the playoffs again. You feel good about shutting down that perimeter attack with Dame/Schroder/Pritchard????? How could you? Shit, go down the list of teams in the East. How about the Bulls perimeter players. You feel good about that? Of course not.
When it comes to trading for Beal or Dame or whoever, the whole idea has to be bringing them in to ADD to Jaylen and Tatum. If you lose one of them, it does not make you better. Especially for a smaller point guard on the wrong side of 30. Not only is it a lateral move at best, but if you're honest about it you're probably worse off. You then have to think of Tatum's future. Why the hell is he going to want to stick around for his next contract if Dame is like 34-35 and there are no other stars around him and the team doesn't have assets or cap room to find those stars? So now I potentially lose Jaylen first and then Tatum later just to bring in a 31 year old point guard who doesn't guarantee shit?
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Why do you not run the NBA Colin? Because your trade ideas are absolutely terrible. They in no way solve any issue that may currently exist with the Celtics, and it screws them for the future. All for something that does not guarantee a title, in fact I argue it makes it tougher to achieve.
The list of players I imagine Brad would actually trade Jaylen for is pretty small. You need to be a young All Star/top 15 talent to make it even worth it. There's no point in shortening your window with an older player while also gutting your roster to do it when you have no way of filling in the gaps.
So sorry Colin, that's gonna be a no from me and literally anyone else who watches this team play on a nightly basis.