Tough to land proper trade value for Big Three
Danny Ainge, as GMs should, will look at all possibilities to improve the Boston Celtics roster. He will inquire what Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen might fetch at the trade deadline. He will (and has, according to reports) field calls about Paul Pierce’s availability. He will explore what the Celtics could net by trading Rajon Rondo. He has to do those things, and if he trades any of Boston’s core players, it’s business. He’s just trying to make the team better, just trying to operate with an iron heart like the New England Patriots have for the past decade.
But Steve Bulpett cautions that even the most cold-hearted GM would have trouble moving any of the Big Three for the right value. (Boston Herald)
Team president Danny Ainge didn’t want to discuss transactional possibilities yesterday, but league sources who have dealt with the Celtics confirmed that there is not much the club can do to steer out of this skid.
It is more valuable to the Celtics to let their expiring contracts (Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen) run out rather than deal them for lesser players who would be on the books beyond this season. In theory, it would help to get away from the $16.8 million Paul Pierce [stats] has coming for 2012-13, while he makes $15.3 million this season.
That means the Celts would have to take back roughly that amount in a trade, and how many teams that would need Pierce to make a run now can offer that much back in expiring deals?
So while you might want Ainge to do something immediately to alter the bad basketball you’ve been watching of late, the truth is the club may be better off riding out the storm the rest of this season.
The thought of Pierce wearing a red jersey, or a blue one, or whatever other color he might wear in the event he is traded from the Celtics, makes me want to slow down time and cherish all these losses. Watching the Celtics begin games by spotting opponents 15 points, fight to make contests close and then ultimately fade down the stretch has been uglier than Ronnie Brewer’s jumper, but at least Pierce is currently competing for the one organization he’s ever known, and at least Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett are competing for the organization that adopted them and treated them as its own. There’s something we should appreciate about being able to cheer for these men — our heroes for the past four-plus years (or in Pierce’s case, 13-plus) — even if they can no longer spread their wings, form a ‘V’ and soar well over their opponents’ heads.
There’s not much loyalty in professional sports these days — not from players who force trades to bigger markets, not from GMs who would trade their first-born if it would help bring a championship, not from owners who quickly and Comic Sans-ly turn on departed players — but from an emotional standpoint it would be nice to think that the last two and a half years on Pierce’s contract are unmovable, even if that sets back Boston’s rebuilding process in the meantime.
Objectively, as Jeff Clark writes on CelticsBlog, it’s easy to see why the Celtics would want to move Pierce — he is a 33-year old on the far side of the hill, and he has $30 million remaining on his contract after this season. But on a far more personal level, Pierce has spent 13+ years in Boston, growing from a young boy who shot too much, headbutted with coaches and occasionally partook in immature outbursts, into a players — a man — of whom the entire city can be proud.
Moving him to another team wouldn’t just free cap space and encourage Boston’s rebuilding process — it would callously remove the chance for Boston to provide Pierce with fitting closure to a Hall of Fame career. Think about John Havlicek’s seven-minute standing ovation, which will live in Celtics lore long after everyone forgets the Gerald Green years. What if Red Auerbach had traded Havlicek away for a little more cap space, and Havlicek’s last home game had instead been played in Washington or Portland, in front of a home crowd that couldn’t possibly appreciate him like Boston’s did? How much can a team lose in its quest to win?
Ainge will do whatever he sees fit. He has said for years he will have no problem dealing any of the Big Three when the right time comes. If he does trade Garnett, Allen or Pierce, it could allow the Celtics to forego at least a portion of what could become a painful rebuilding process. There will be reasons for whatever move he makes. Trading Pierce, especially, makes sense from a financial standpoint because his contract extends for years.
But ask yourself what price you would pay to earn the No. 4 seed in 2013. Is THAT worth a second helping of THIS:
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Celtics Blog | Jay King | January 18, 2012
The first paragraph here is utter crap. And the rest is hardly better. Once again, as you so often do, you are just repeating mantras endlessly and nauseatingly repeated by every presstitute out there, as if they were actual thoughts. No, pal, a basketball team is NOT just a business. It’s part of a community’s sense of itself, it’s a tradition. YOU KNOW THIS. And no, a GM does NOT have to look at every trade possibility. That is a lie and you know it. In fact, a manager should absolutely not look at every trade possibility. If you refuse to have any loyalty to players, they should have no loyalty whatsoever to you. Is that how you want things to be? I sure as hell hope not. Ainge should not look at any trade offers for Pierce, and he should barely look at any for KG, Ray and Rondo.
Doing anything well in life requires some basic ability to discern what is important and what is not. You don’t look at every opportunity to trade your spouse and children. You don’t check into every chance to upgrade your dog. if someone offers you a good deal to assassinate your neighbor, you don’t think about it. IN OTHER WORDS, ONE TRIES TO HAVE SOME BASIC ETHICS IN LIFE, based around relationships that matter. Not everything is Dog Eat Dog. The most important things are not.
This is elementary stuff, pal. It’s basic human decency. It’s also how you build a strong and lasting tradition. You know this. Have higher ambitions than just being another pressitute, mindlessly repeating the same lies that every other one repeats.
Many creepos expect players to be loyal, but refuse to be loyal to playes. They don’t have the most basic concept of human decency. Remember the Golden Rule, people? If you want folks to be loyal to you, you have to be a little loyal to them.
And what really makes all this truly demented and sickening is that folks would rather trade the people we have than actually work on making things better. We do have a lot of talent. We clearly are not using it optimally. Nowhere close to optimally. But rather than address the fundamental problems, they want to trade people. Or at least ‘entertain the idea’ of trading people ad nauseam.
So yeah, let’s not talk about how this team could adjust to its fine young players. Oh no. Let’s talk about trading people.
What garbage.
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Wow, somebody’s sounding a little self righteous.
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Isn’t it awful that I don’t join your chorus of idiots, or that I actually talk about the meaning of things, instead of just indulging in your normal drivel.
Do you ever ask yourself why millions of people spend so much time and money on sports, yet refuse to have conversations about sports that go beyond basic idiocy? And whether this is actually a good thing?
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I’ll answer my own question, since I know you can’t/won’t do it in any thoughtful way: sports are fundamentally a morality play. People face challenges together. Their ability to work hard, work as a team, persevere under difficulties, etc., determines outcomes. Every game is a story, every season is a novel.
That is why the meaning of what one does, and the morality of it, matters. There are plenty of owners and gms around the league who are jerks who lack basic decency and discernment. Is that how we think the Celtics’ owners and GMs should be? I hope not.
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Let me add something more about Pierce: I think any team would be foolish to go after him. What they would be getting is an old star who would almost certainly deteriorate immediately in another system. They’d also be getting a guy who expects to control the ball a lot. I don’t see how any of that helps anyone. The Spurs could probably use him.
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Good post. To be honest, it’s tough for me the watch the Celtics this year.
Take the “Wednesday Wouldya?” poll at http://www.wickedimproper.com
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I remind everyone there are no sources or qualifiers to substantiate the PP rumor. Woj’s piece focused on KP, but featured a one line mention about GM’s questioning whether Danny would blow up the team by qualifying Pierce. Instead of another feel good story on Perk’s return to Boston, the Pierce conjecture gives his piece a whole other life span then gains traction throughout the day commencing with Tanguay and basketball savant Andy Gresh forgone conclusion that his days as a Celtic are numbered.
Woj is one of the best NBA writers in the business, and it certainly is plausible a few moves may lie ahead, but Danny is not going to overreact after 12 games. He is not stupid. He understands title contenders(OKC/Memphis/LAC/Chicago) turned things around by drafting solid and keeping cap space available for the next set of moves. But, it’s not everyday a Durant or Griffin or D. Rose fall into your lap, and there is credence in how Miami and even Portland to a lesser degree (without Roy and Oden) retooled their rosters. You never can be sure what he’s thinking, but I feel his plan lies somewhere in the middle because I don’t beleive Doc would have agreed to another extended rebuilding project.
The ‘blow it up’ scenario is flawed because the return on the dollar would never be in our favor as Jay points out. What’s more likely is the team recovers from the slow start and a few ancillary pieces are added, which can bring back a decent contract that doesn’t disrupt the of kind continuity Danny requires moving into the off season.
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Port Celtic
Right on. Adrian Wojarnokski is a great WRITER but he throws up more crap about sources that say this and that are really unsubstantiated.
Go look at his twitter feed during the free agency period. He would contradict himself 5 times in one day.
Between him and Chris Mannix those 2 guys are about career building and making money.. They do more TV and radio appearances, tweets and airplanes and games. How can they be 5000 places at once and still do quality reporting and check sources.
NO WAY
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Pearl Washington
Couldn’t agree more. In fact the wired world we live perpetuates these innuendos, and die hards like us have no choice but to react. Hence, the firestorm just widens. I’ve never been a big fan of Mannix either, but all of these guys are under pressure to produce engaging (not necessary thoughtful) content. So what’s going to happen is the ESPN crew will banter about it tonight and then Danny will have to explain to WEEI why he has no control over unnamed sources who hypothesize to the media. Hopefully Tommy will straighten out Tanguay tonight.
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If PP played the way he is suppose to play by rebounding (there are 2 ends PP to the court), play defense instead of watching his man from afar or blow by him, and drive to the hoop and move on offense (set a pick and move your ass) then there wouldn’t be any of this kind of talk. Fact is the Cs need to rebound the ball and play smarter. If they can get to the mid-teens in rebounding (currently 29th out of 30) then this team has a good shot at getting to the Finals as we have a much better bench and some very strong groups that work well together beyond the starters. Go Cs…
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