re: Sign and trade cousins for derozan

I'm not a fan of the proposed trade of Boogie for Derozan.
Potential closing lineup of Rondo, Jrue, Derozan, Mirotic, AD, doesn't have consistent space and shooting prowess. Also, outside of Rondo, not much in terms of sheer toughness and causing the opposition to be "fearful" of a particular player's antics/prospective reactions (i.e. Boogie, Draymond, Marcus Smart, Zaza, etc.)

I'm a firm believer that great teams have a antagonizer and/or a player who's toughness/hard play is viewed as "dirty." However, alot of times dirty/physical defense gets confused and embellished, especially in this "space and pace" era.

Case in point, in game 2 against Warriors, when Draymond was talking shite and "motivating" his teammates, I knew it was over (besides the absurd free throw disparity), bc we didn't have Boogie to go back at Draymond and attempt to stop all that boasting he was doing. Warriors team picked up on our lack of "response" and knew we wouldn't get physical or muck up their rythym.

I am eager to see Boogie back on the team with a tall (6'7-'8)defensive-minded, peremiter player (Durant killer, no such thing) free agent signing/traded player, which will allow us to likely be the only team, besides a healthy Celtics squad, with a reasonable expectation of consistently playing elite defense against the best offensive team in the history of the NBA.

As I have repeatedly stated, the key to beating the Warriors,in a playoff series, is not trying match offensive firepower (Houston), rather it's a team with elite peremiter defense (Steph, Klay) and the ability to have a defensive scheme where you have a rangy, elite defender, along with sound help from the other players (outside of those guarding Steph/Klay), where you force Durant to pass or make him take extremely contested shots and hope he misses at least half of those shots.

In a perfect world, Solo would be this rangy, Durant defender and it's unfortunate that he wasn't healthy enough and/or played the whole year to have what it demands, if your realistically trying to slow Durant down. However, I'm not convinced Solo, even healthy, is that answer.

I'm convinced the Pels off-season moves will center around resigning Boogie to a "fair" contract, bringing Rondo back and attempting to trade Solo, 1st round pick, and whatever else it may dictate to get a quality, peremiter wing with the stated goal of defending Durant better than this year's showing. Accordingly, this allows you to put Jrue back to guarding Steph down the stretch and attempting to have the Warriors "out of rhythm" and miss a few shots they usually/expect to make in key late-game situations.

U need a Dennis Rodman type defender to guard Durant, period. Must do the dirty work before Durant even gets the ball or before he finds his shooting rhythm or it's over. Rodman was a master defender of getting a star player out of his comfort zone, whether by antics/"dirty play" and forcing that player to doubt his abilities that night and/or feel that Rodman was "suffocating" him with defensive intensity.

With that said, yes, I know there are no "Rodman" type defenders readily available, but it is a must for Dell to identify this type of defender and attempt to reasonably do what is necessary to secure said player. Would have been nice, in hindsight, to have Aminu on this Pels version bc he is probably the prototype player, from a physical standpoint, outside of Giannis, to have a chance at successfully guarding Durant over the course of a 7 game series. Conversely, two reasonable moves that may be attained this summer, depending on what happens with P.George in OKC, is to trade Solo for Andre Roberson and hope that makes a difference, from a defensive standpoint.

Also, if Bron would sign with the Sixers, that may mean Robert Convington would then be available. If so, I say the Pels sell the farm to gain Covington in a trade. Solo/Moore, Diallo and a 1st, maybe even another 1st (top 10 protected), might be enough to secure that missing piece for the Pels to be a sure-fire championship contender.

A lineup of Rondo, Jrue, Convington, AD and Boogie, might be the best the league has to offer at defending the Warriors and securing a championship in the next 2-3 year's.

A bit of a long read but I'm pretty sure, not many would argue with the logic articulated.

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A lineup of Rondo, Jrue, Convington, AD and Boogie, might be the best the league has to offer at defending the Warriors and securing a championship in the next 2-3 year's.

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The Celtics have built a team to compete once they are healthy.

Irving
Brown
Hayward
Tatum
Horford

Plus they have a bench, their own picks, and future 1st from other teams. I think that team could be a handful for the Warriors as their best bench players and Iggy are getting older.

I think the Pels can compete with them with a SF upgrade, a Cousins relatively close to what he was and keep some of their better bench players.

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it would be an interesting series and pose some legit problems for the Warriors, but Cousins's defense would kill the Pels. he couldnt play in space before his injury, doubt he will even be at that level again.

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Probably, but they always knew that when they got him. The point of getting him was to make the other teams have to play a bigger lineup. the Warriors cannot play a lineup of Steph/Klay/Iggy/Durant/Draymond against AD/Cousins. As long as AD and Cousins are on the court, one of the big dummies on their team has to be in the game, which disrupts their flow and spacing on offense having someone like Zaza out there.
If that happens, then they have 2 guys on the court that you absolutely do not care about shooting the ball, one of which isn't a threat to do anything with the ball unlike a passer like Green/Iggy, which makes it a lot easier to play help defense and recover back to the shooters. As long as AD is roaming around the paint, they aren't attacking the rim, and you could see that as the series went on. Unless they were positive AD wasn't getting to them, they were dribbling back out and looking for something else b/c no one was going to challenge AD after game 2, and the times they did, AD usually won. The Warriors knew it was pointless to challenge AD, so they patiently waited until they got a better shot, even if that meant dribbling back out of the paint after getting by their man.

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the Warriors cannot play a lineup of Steph/Klay/Iggy/Durant/Draymond against AD/Cousins

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They can and would certainly roll out the Hamptons 5 v that pair for stretches.

and when Cousins is the lone big, the Pels would be in trouble.

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flow and spacing on offense having someone like Zaza out there.

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They have the big set ball screens for Curry or Durant and force Cousins into spots where he is going to get killed. They run Thompson/Curry off pin downs...Cousins isn't going to be able to switch off to stop them from getting clean looks with all their off ball action

There's a reason slower bigs disappear every single year in the playoffs. They are too easy to target defensively. Cousins, for all his gifts, is no different than other less mobile bigs

I agree. Beating them is a long shot; doesn't mean the Pels should fold up.

No shame in bringing back Cousins and going for it with him. But if the conversation is about a potential Warriors matchup, I'm going to be somewhat realistic about how that might play out.

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I agree there too, but it's not often those slow bigs have the best shot blocker in the league to play with to patrol the paint. If the Warriors want to let Steph play one on one with Cousins all game, then that's an easy way to get them out of their offense. If he wants to hit 10 3's from 5 feet behind the line in Cousins face, then fine, we lose, oh well.

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This is a really good assessment. If Curry gets hot like his 3rd quarter last night you are probably losing no matter what you do. But he can't, and frankly doesn't do that every game, and neither does Durant. You have to make them take contested long shots and live with that. You might still lose but if you give up open shots and layups you will definitely lose.

The other big part of playing GS is mental toughness. When they get rolling those long 3s feel like 6 point shots. Its hard to stay focused when they hit shots while you are playing great defense. You have to be (mentally) tough enough to not let their shots affect your defense, and even more important, to not let their runs cause you to stop playing your offense.

I'm hoping this playoffs helps to make the Pels mentally tougher moving forward, especially when playing GS.

No just no..