Garnett Traded to Boston Celtics
The Big Ticket joins Paul Pierce and Ray Allen in Boston
Jul 31, 2007
Well, you have to give Danny Ainge his due on this one.
Ainge has made some really awful moves as the General Manager of the Boston Celtics during the last couple of years (see acquiring Raef LaFrentz, essentially trading away the NBA Rookie of the Year for Sebastian Telfair and trading Ricky Davis and Mark Blount for the slow and old Wally Sczerbiak), but Ainge hit the jackpot with this deal.
For those of you who haven't seen it (hardly possible if you are near a TV or a computer), Kevin Garnett has been traded to the Boston Celtics for Al Jefferson, Gerald Green, Sebastian Telfair, Ryan Gomes, Theo Ratliff and two first-round draft picks.
The consensus: the Celtics stole one with this deal, and the late great Red Auerbach would be proud of Ainge's skill in pulling off this trade and not letting go of Ray Allen or Paul Pierce.
So the Celtics now have one of the best trio's in the league, and they are immediate contenders for the Eastern Conference title. No more irrelevance and no more back burner. There is finally something to cheer for on Causeway Street, and it has nothing to do with ping pong balls.
Ainge has effectively turned the Boston Celtics around within a matter of months. Allen apparently was the first piece and he meant to acquire Garnett to add the final ingredient. And it doesn't matter what happens to the Celtics three years down the road.
Maybe Garnett, Pierce and Allen will all lose their legs in three years and Boston will return to irrelevance in the Eastern Conference landscape. But none of that matters with Celtics fans, who are so desperate to watch a decent product and so tired of being told to be patient that they will accept most any deal as long as it's beneficial in the short term.
So Ainge has escaped a desperate situation with some rare savvy, and has restored credibility to the guys in green for the upcoming seasons.
Ainge has acquired a shooting point guard in Eddie House to back up Rajon Rondo at the point (although House might end up taking Rondo's minutes) and veteran big man Scott Pollard to support Kendrick Perkins and Garnett in the middle.
The foundation for a winner is finally there, and no one is happier than Pierce, who has waited his whole career to play with the talent that now surrounds him.
The NBA will benefit from the re-emergence of the Celtics as well, and maybe David Stern can take a breather from the Donaghy Days for a few weeks or so. Maybe Stern will be at the Garden come June this time around. It will be the first showing for the commissioner in a while, probably 20 years.
And you bet that Stern is happy about this deal. One of the best players in NBA history is now playing for the most successful basketball franchise of all time.
Sounds like a good fit for everybody.
