Ainge still wants to get his hands on Anthony Davis. Still has a lot of draft picks so they are going to be good for a long time.

NBA

THE HOOK
By the way, the Celtics are in line to have another top-5 NBA draft pick in 2018

It’s all thanks to Steve Nash, Brandon Knight, and Markelle Fultz.


By Tom Ziller@teamziller Jan 4, 2018, 11:43am EST


Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images
The Boston Celtics remain in first place in the Eastern Conference, having conceded the slot for 24 hours recently. Kyrie Irving is a surefire All-Star and dark horse MVP candidate. Jayson Tatum is a top-three Rookie of the Year candidate, which is absolutely wild for a 19-year-old who joined a really good team. Despite the catastrophic injury to star free agent pickup Gordon Hayward in Game 1, Boston actually looks capable of challenging LeBron James and the Cavaliers for a trip to the NBA Finals.

By the way, the Celtics are in line to have another top-five pick in the 2018 NBA draft.

Boston traded the Brooklyn Nets’ unprotected 2018 first-round pick in the deal that brought Kyrie Irving to New England. But the other major trade the C’s made last summer — sending the No. 1 overall pick to the Philadelphia 76ers for the No. 3 pick and a future choice — means Boston could pick in the top five for the third straight season despite making the playoffs each year.

How did the Celtics get so many 1st-round picks?

The pick’s origin story traces to the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2012, the Lakers traded two future first-round picks and two future second-round picks to the Phoenix Suns in a sign-and-trade for Steve Nash. L.A. paid Nash $27 million over three years for 65 games of work. Welp.

One of those future firsts that went to Phoenix was protected in the top five in 2015, protected in the top three in 2016 and 2017, and unprotected in 2018. As it turns out, the Lakers have been dreadful over the past four years. So the Lakers kept that pick in 2015, 2016, and 2017.

But the Suns didn’t wait on it to transfer. At the 2015 trade deadline, Phoenix sent the pick to the Sixers in a three-team trade to land Brandon Knight, who was months away from being a restricted free agent. The Suns signed Knight to a five-year, $70 million contract that summer. Knight’s in the third year of that deal. He started just five games last year and hasn’t played a single second this season due to a torn ACL.


This tortured future Lakers pick now became booty captured in Sam Hinkie’s asset net. After Hinkie was exiled from Philadelphia, the new Sixers front office decided to leverage the pick to move up in the 2017 draft. Last June, Philly traded the No. 3 pick in 2017 and a conditional future pick to Boston for the No. 1 overall pick. The Sixers took Markelle Fultz, who as a rookie has played four games (poorly) and happens to be currently trapped in the panic room that is the Sixers’ medical rehabilitation program.



It’s not certain that the pick the Celtics receive in the Fultz trade will be the Lakers’ unprotected 2018 selection, because the Sixers stuck new conditions on it. If the Lakers win the No. 1 overall pick, the Sixers keep it and Boston instead gets either the Sixers or Kings pick in 2019. If the Lakers’ pick falls below No. 5, the same condition applies: the Celtics get a pick next year.

Right now, the Lakers are the second-worst team in the NBA. Under current NBA draft lottery rules — which will change going into 2018-19 — the Lakers pick has an 80.1 percent probability of landing between No. 2 and 5.

As of now, based on current standings, there is an 80.1 percent probability that the Boston Celtics — first place in the East — will have another top-five pick in what looks to be a very nice draft. If the Lakers end up as the third-worst team, the odds of Boston getting the pick this year are virtually unchanged (in fact, a little better at 80.4 percent). Should L.A. become the fourth-worst team in the league, Boston’s odds of grabbing the pick this year would drop to 70.9 percent.

Danny Ainge is a wizard.

Thanks for the great article - unreal! What a string of absolutely stupid trades!

By the way, I don't think there is any way the Pels trade Anthony Davis. They are playing well enough in the tough Western Conference with Boogie/Davis that the announcers are talking they will both stay.

Status woe: Cavaliers not planning changes amid slump
Jan 21, 2018 , By TOM WITHERS


While he was cool, Lue's seat has warmed up.

With the Cavs mired in a bewildering midseason slump and less than 24 hours after a historically embarrassing loss to Oklahoma City, Lue said he has no immediate plans to change his starting lineup or rotations. Cleveland fans may be panicking, Lue's not nervous.

At least not publicly.

The Cavs are just 4-10 since Dec. 19, and in the past two weeks they've lost by 28 at Minnesota, 34 at Toronto and 24 to the Thunder, who scored 148 points and tied a record for the most points allowed by Cleveland in a regulation game - a mark that went unmatched since 1972.

It's a mess, and it's a mystery the way James and the Cavs have collapsed. They've slipped in the past, but this slide feels much more ominous than in the previous three years when Cleveland stumbled but still reached the Finals.

"This is kind of just my experience with this team, to be honest," said forward Kyle Korver, acquired last January in a trade. "The year that I've been here, we've been really good and we've been really bad. It seems to come in waves, so, hopefully there's a good wave coming soon."

With all that's wrong, changes would seem to be in order. Lue, though, believes the Cavs can solve their problems without any major alterations.

"It's the same group we won 18 out of 19 with also," he said, referring to Cleveland's stretch from Nov. 11 to Dec. 19. "We've just got to play better. We've got to play better, we've got to be sharper and that's what we continue to keep working on. It's the same team that won 18 out of 19 and 13 in a row."

Technically, Lue's right. The Cavs' roster hasn't been touched - not yet.

However, the club has been in almost continuous flux over the past month as key players Isaiah Thomas and Tristan Thompson returned from injuries. Also, reserves Jose Calderon, Channing Frye and Cedi Osman have seen their playing time diminish and Korver, the sharpshooter who had developed into the team's best crunch-time player other than James, has had his role reduced.

Lue has been searching for the right combinations, but the Cavs aren't connecting.

"We're just figuring out our team," Korver said. "Ty's got a tough job. He's trying to find lineups that are working and he's trying to find minutes for everybody. I think he's doing a great job in that regard, as far as getting everybody in the game. Maybe not Channing, we'd like to get Channing out there a little more but it's a numbers thing right now.

"It's tough. There's a numbers thing right now. Definitely I've been a part of that, too. It's a long season. We're riding a bad wave right now, but hopefully we'll find some things that will start working again. Guys are getting healthier but we need to get back in sync. There's no answers right now."

A demanding schedule and injuries have prevented the Cavs from practicing much, but they held their third workout this week. It was needed.

Lue, though, decided not to show his players film of the debacle against Oklahoma City.

"Just move on," he said.

Lue can't be absolved from blame, but players aren't faulting him for the team's many issues, some of which could be addressed before the Feb. 8 trade deadline.

Following Saturday's head-scratching loss, James said he "would hope not" when asked if he thought Lue would be fired. Dwyane Wade dismissed any outside noise condemning the only Cleveland coach to win a championship since 1964.

Those endorsements should help Lue, but he knows better than anyone how quickly change can come.

Two years ago, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert fired David Blatt despite the team's 30-11 record and replaced him with Lue, who at the time was the NBA's highest-paid assistant. Cleveland doesn't have a comparable situation now, and while there are no signs pointing to Lue being in imminent danger, anything is possible until the Cavs start stringing together some wins.

Lue can only do so much, and following similar comments by Thomas and Wade on Saturday, Korver said it's imperative for Cleveland's players to hold each other more accountable.

"You've just got to look at yourself in the mirror and say `What can I do better?"' Korver said. "You can't point the finger. You can't get mad at a guy for not doing what you thought he should've done. You just can't point fingers. It's really simple but it really is true. ... We're all grown-ups. When you're a mature grown up you just look yourself in the mirror."

Enes Kanter Warned by Ex-Teammate After Trolling LeBron James
SCOTT POLACEK
JANUARY 21, 2018

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 13: LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Enes Kanter #00 of the New York Knicks exchange words in the first half at Madison Square Garden on November 13, 2017 in New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Elsa/Getty Images
A former teammate of New York Knicks big man Enes Kanter warned him not to mess with the King.

"One texted me just to say—I'm not going to say who—but he texted me, 'You're about to get 50 dropped on you, boy,'" Kanter said of a former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate, per Nick Friedell of ESPN.com. "I responded something back, but I'm not going to say what it is."

The warning came after Kanter trolled LeBron James with a tweet following Oklahoma City's 148-124 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday:



6:25 PM - Jan 20, 2018
2,037 2,037 Replies 9,077 9,077 Retweets 21,274 21,274 likes
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There has already been plenty of back-and-forth between Kanter and James this season, and things even got chippy on the court during a November matchup:



"I don't care who you are," Kanter said of James at the time, per Al Iannazzone of Newsday. "What do you call yourself? King, Queen, Princess. Whatever you are. We're going to fight. Nobody out there is going to punk us."

James responded, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN, "I'm the king, my wife is the queen and my daughter is the princess so we got all three covered."

There was even some apparent bad blood when James said the Knicks should have drafted Dallas Mavericks point guard Dennis Smith Jr., per Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com. While the Cavaliers' leader clarified it wasn't meant as a shot at Knicks rookie point guard Frank Ntilikina, per Ian Begley of ESPN.com, Kanter said, "We love what we got," on his Twitter account.

James specified he wasn't talking about Ntilikina for those "who just live in the box and for Enes Kanter who's always got something to say," per Begley.

Even with the history, Kanter offered some respect following his most recent tweet.

"I mess with him a lot, but obviously he's the best player in the league," per Friedell. "I respect the guy a lot. But I think right now they are struggling or whatever. I don't even think he's even thinking about what I tweet. I think he's worried about his team."

The Cavaliers are struggling considering they have dropped 10 of their last 14 and sit 29th in the league in defensive rating, per NBA.com. However, providing James—a four-time MVP and three-time champion—with additional motivation seems like it could backfire for Kanter.

James' next chance to make a statement on the court against Kanter and the Knicks comes April 9 at Madison Square Garden.

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Milwaukee has fired coach Jason Kidd, league sources tell ESPN.

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The Kings will extract some sort of draft comepsation if they go ahead with the proposed trade of George Hill to Cleveland for Iman Shumpert and Channing Frye, according to league sources

2:00 PM - 23 Jan 2018

ESPN Cleveland
@ESPNCleveland
Windhorst: The #Cavs have been talking with the Kings about a George Hill deal. The Kings need to clear roster spots first. They are lining it up to pull the trigger.

Cavs are also in talks with other teams.

ESPN Cleveland
@ESPNCleveland
Windhorst: This meeting yesterday was bad for the #Cavs. I can't say for sure what was said but I heard it was bad. I heard everyone was getting aimed at, up and down the lineup. I really think they are going to have to shake things up. This group is at each others throats.

3:47 PM - Jan 23, 2018

Regarding George Hill - obviously an older guy, but the price looks to be cheap.

The sad truth is they do need a point guard who can remotely guard someone. That's hurting their defense. And Hill DOES fit that description.

Windhorst says that there are other deals that he does not want to discuss yet.

On the broadcast pre show tonight David Griffin was a co host.

He said it will get worse before it gets better. Then the guy asked him "What should we look for in the game tonight to know if the Cavs are on the right track"

Griffin said "There is no one thing, there's many"

So it would not surprise me if there are deals for a point guard who can defend AND a big man who can defend. TT no longer qualifies for that in the shape he's in.

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Dan Gilbert wants to sell the Cleveland Cavaliers. (Via Stephen A. Smith - ESPN)

10:57 AM - 24 Jan 2018

Hope he buys the Browns.

If that happens then definitely time to move on from Lebron as well. And he likely knows that.

Look, I've never, ever been a fan of the "sell the soul for a title" way to look at sports but they did that and now the flip side comes a calling.

I am grateful that at least it worked on the front end or what a waste.