Danny Ainge wanted a reset button on the Jeff Green-Kendrick Perkins trade, according to a report
I don’t always take trade rumors at face value. But if you take the latest “Danny Ainge wanted to swap Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green for Kendrick Perkins and Russell Westbrook after the 2011 playoffs” rumor as the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God, faith could be shaken and beliefs could be altered. (ESPN)
ESPN’s Chris Broussard dug up yet another interesting Celtics tidbit for us this evening, one that casts last season’s Kendrick Perkins-for-Jeff Green trade in an entirely new light.
After last season’s playoffs, the Celtics offered Rajon Rondo and Green to Oklahoma City for Russell Westbrook and Perkins, sources told Broussard. The Celtics, looking for another scorer who can create his own offense, thought Westbrook might be available after his erratic postseason play. But Oklahoma was not interested in the deal.
Let’s assume this rumor is true and take a look at the timeline:
1) The Celtics are favorites in the East, if not the entire NBA, and destroying everyone on the schedule.
2) Danny Ainge, at the last minute before the trade deadline, swaps Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson for Nenad Krstic and Jeff Green. We later hear the trade was made for financial reasons — the C’s did not believe they could afford to re-sign Perkins after the season.
3) The Celtics fall apart after acquiring Green. Green, despite all his obvious natural athleticism, fails to produce in any one aspect of the game. He does not score, rebound, or defend particularly well, and the Celtics collapse during the second half of the season, ultimately bowing to the Miami Heat in five games.
4) Fuck being frugal. Ainge offers to reacquire Perkins (and his new, $9 million per season contract), except this time he also proposes to (slightly) downgrade from Rajon Rondo to Russell Westbrook.
5) Sam Presti hangs up the phone, chuckling to himself.
6) A few months later, the trade offer resurfaces. My period of grieving goes something like this: I spend three hours crying about Perk (“I just miss his scowl, mom”), two hours trying to Google Ainge’s address so I can egg his house, two more hours trying to ponder the question: “wait, Rondo IS better than Westbrook, right?”, and then I return to crying about Perk until I fall asleep.
Unfortunately for Ainge, there is no reset button in real life.
Related posts:
Celtics Blog | Jay King | November 30, 2011
Boston Celtics rumors 2011, Danny Ainge, Jeff Green, Kendrick Perkins, Rajon Rondo, Russell Westbrook
Danny has been on a tear, hasn’t he? But what amazes me, as each new revelation makes it clearer and clearer that pretty much EVERYONE knew that the Perkins Trade was a disaster, EXCEPT THE MEDIA, who defended it to the death. My God, what a blizzard of rationalization we heard from the media about spacing, the future, Green is Great, Perk is a Punk, etc.. How much better off would we have been if Danny had gone to the team the day after the trade deadline, admitted that he just made the biggest mistake of his life, and pretty much begged the team to save his ***. Maybe the team really would have pulled together and maybe a different story would have been written. But instead Danny chose to defend the indefensible, and Doc fell in line, and the media ran with it, and here we are today, with no team and now, no Rondo.
Make no mistake, Rondo is now done in Boston. But I doubt Danny gets much when he finally deals Rondo, because he’s pretty much succeeded only in making himself look desperate, while lowering Rondo’s value.
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paul, paul, paul…Why do you let these stupid, inane and baseless rumors (especially post ‘The Trade’ and all the bullshit fallout) get to you. The trade is over, KP is never coming back and Rondo isn’t going anywhere. Please stop revisiting this crap with your same old tired bashing Ainge comments and all. I don’t want to have to reply again ever on last season or the trade. Way past the time to move on and let these latest f’in idiotic rumors, like CP and Howard rumors, die as they are major BULLSHIT and a waste of time. Go Cs…
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P.SM Name one GM who has ever traded a player and then turned around and tried to get said player back??? Much-less also giving a top 3 PG who (is also the Best defensive PG) fits the Celtics better than the others would for a weaker PG? Come on this is the absolute dumbest rumor I have heard in my 50+ yrs following hoops. Bar none! Go Cs…
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I love the way you defend Danny. Well done. And some folks will even buy that argument.
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DA isn’t infallible, but he put a group together (and drafted RR) that won a title, lost one due to K/G’s injury, was robbed of one by Laker refs and KP’s injury and had a shot last year until RR’s injury. I have a lot more issues with Doc and his lame coaching, rotations, and lack of focus on rebounding better as they should than the guy that assembled a new era in Celtic championship caliber play. Go Cs…
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