Comments on: Report: Celtics just landed Kevin Garnett

By: Keegan

Keegan — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:00:39 +0000

I’m with OtherMatt. Those Rockets teams with the Big 3 never got over the hump, and they had an active Kevin Willis mopping up boards and putting in 10-15 points, and serviceable vets like Mario Elie and Eddie Johnson dumping in 10 apiece every night. I don’t think this is an imminent disaster for the Celts, but in three years it might be. You’ve mortgaged everything, and you can’t pad your roster because nobody in the West or East will want the garbage that you’d put on the trading block. Nobody in the East would help you at this point anyway.

I’ve heard rumorcrap that Troy Hudson is good friends with Garnett, and might also head to Boston, but that’s not making Danny’s Boys better, regardless of what trash he unloads. Maybe Leon Powe will explode.

Danny Ainge, quoted in today’s Dan Wetzel Yahoo column:
“This is going to be a lot of fun this year.”
Also:
“Nothing has been accomplished by this team.”
It’ll be one or the other.

By: Ohad

Ohad — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 05:29:51 +0000

yes, craig a shot at the playoffs.
they think trading will make it all good. now i love ray allen and i think KG is also a great player. But they have zero bench. they can’t play them a lot of minutes like other matt said and you have to take into account injuries (i think pierce was hampered by a few last season).
once not all three are on the court it’s a 2 on 5 or 1 on 5 situation. plus take into account that whoever does come off the bench KNOWS he won’t be the one taking the shots and you get a very unhappy locker room.
they gave up on two first round picks so the future is, well, history. A team can take a year to get their act together even if it’s full of professionals (which will be the official excuse for this year) and in two years the players can each go his own way.
it’ll be interesting to watch but i don’t think they can win a conference title not to mention become champs

By: Sauce

Sauce — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 05:05:11 +0000

I love Other Matt’s take.

The Spin: you put your best front-court defender on Garnett to bother his shot. You can assume Rondo and Perkins and the entire Boston bench some defensive room. You will get burnt a little by the jacking shots of Allen and Pierce, but you will make up the difference by keeping the free-for-all from happening inside and outside.

Golden State and Phoenix and plenty of other teams (including Detroit, Cleveland series 07) will tell you that living on the perimeter eventually is a losing proposition.

I would get angry by Scalabrine and Perkins feeds for the dunk and resulting fist-pump, but I clearly wouldn’t feel comfy with getting ruined by KG on both ends of the court.

Pierce and Allen, in comparison, are not threats on defense - especially Allen.

By: The Spin

The Spin — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 03:58:59 +0000

The Celtics are big winners in this deal. It is a win-now situation, as this core trio won’t be around for more than a couple years. The positive to it all is they’re all still in their primes. They will be exciting to watch and make defenses squirm and give them headaches. How do you double team Garnett when you leave Ray Allen open?
I can’t figure it out either…
Check me at http://www.clutch3.com

By: PistonsGirl4Life

PistonsGirl4Life — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 02:55:31 +0000

Crazy busy so I can’t really say too much but ummm yeah… ANYONE who seriously thinks all this does for Boston is make them a 7-8 seed is freaking insane. Injuries aside (and we’d be talking SEVERE ones, not the kind that make a dude miss 8 games), this is a VERY legitimate contender in the East.

You’re forgetting that Paul Peirce is the worst player of those 3… by a lot. KG is going to OWN vs the two types of bigs who populate the east (Fat, unathletic, overpaid or Skinny, weak and overpaid). Honestly as a Piston’s fan I consider this move quite troubling.

Of course depth is the weakness and “The Trio” in Boston isn’t any better than the one SA, Dallas or Phoenix uses. But umm it’s QUITE a bit better than what the Nets have and whenever they’re healthy they win the Atlantic and make at least the second round.

By: Other Matt

Other Matt — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:37:23 +0000

The Celts are legit, but as we’ve found out the hard way, you can’t play your stars a bazillion minutes to carry you through the regular season and not expect a significant drop off at around the 90-95 game mark. And KG has about 290,000 miles on the odometer. There’s NO WAY he can play 40 minutes a night all season and then not have the wheels start to come off around the conference finals. Make no mistake, he’s going to have to play 40 minutes a night, have you seen the rest of their front court? Egads.

John Paxson should be fired immediately. How do you not give up Ben Gordon, Nocioni, the Knicks pick from this past year, PJ Brown’s expiring deal, and another part (either Sefalosha or Thomas, whoever) and get KG? They’d have absolutely won the East had they done this, had somebody to match up on Duncan, and basically play 4 on 4 with Ginobli and Hinrich taking turns flopping uncontrollably. I think the 8 man game benefits the Bulls, anyway. I find it hard to believe the Bulls wouldn’t have been competitive with Hinrich, Deng, KG, Big Ben, and whoever. Plus, who’s not to say that Minnesota wouldn’t have waved Brown immediately freeing him to return to Chicago (a la Hunter in 04)? I’d be pissed if I was a Bulls fan.

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 22:30:41 +0000

for a shot at the playoffs? Are you serious? they have 3 of the top 25-30 players in the league, in a weak division, in an average conference. Unless the wheels fall off, Celts are 2-3 seed in the east and in the conference finals. It’s the move that chicago should’ve made. All the noise about no bench? As long as doc keeps any one of them on the floor at a time, there’s scoring threat. Defense won’t be a strong point, but when’s the last time any team had 3 players of comparable talent playing in close to their prime? The rockets did with dream, clyde and barkley, but all 3 were showing significant signs of age at that time. I think the celts are legit.

By: Ohad

Ohad — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:26:17 +0000

looks like they gave away the whole roser and some fuure picks for a shot at the playoffs….

“The Boston Celtics announced today that they have acquired 10-time All-Star and 2004 MVP Kevin Garnett from the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff, Sebastian Telfair, a 2009 first round draft pick (top three protected) and a return of Minnesota’s conditional first round draft pick previously obtained in the Ricky Davis-Wally Szczerbiak trade. Minnesota also receives cash considerations in the deal.”
http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/press073107-garnett.html

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 19:36:41 +0000

Wonder how Larry Bird and Pacers missed out on the Boston reunion?

I hope the Celtics wallow is misery forever.

KG in the Celtic green? yuck.

By: farlane

farlane — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:38:47 +0000

I think it’s a good deal for both teams. Obviously makes the Celts better, but not Championship better and Minny was losing KG soon anyway. They’ll have an exciting young core and the $$ to grab a vet or two … assuming there ever are any available.

Love the Nerf deal Sauce, and my names for the Donaghy Dufuses are:
Kyle Korver, Richard Jefferson and Starbury.

By: Sauce

Sauce — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:15:31 +0000

All we need now is Donaghy’s allegations of several Sixers, Nets, and Knicks players in on the scandal to turn up true, and David Stern’s same day attempt to pacify the disinterested youth by dropping Spalding for Nerf.

By: Sauce

Sauce — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:11:35 +0000

The deal’s a wash, straight up.

Boston has no depth, and not even Chris Webber can help them. He’d bog it down so slow out there, worse than Ervin Johnson for Minny in 03-04. Ervin fit better with Cassell’s pace, but Rondo’s on full tilt speed during seemingly every possession.

Minnesota has prospects and picks, but the same problem in Boston is in Minnesota. They have horrible GMs. If Kevin McHale drafts those two first rounders, it will not work as well as people expect.

The NBA continues to bore and irritate.

By: joejoejoe

joejoejoe — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:25:49 +0000

Ryan Gomes is a similar player to Corliss Williamson. He’s a good rotation player heavy on the offense, light on the defense. When I played around with the RealGM Trade Checker around draft day I was always trying to include Ryan Gomes as a backup at SF/PF for the Pistons. Gomes might go 15P, 7R, 2A, 1.5TO and shoot 48% from the field and 80% at the line next year. Not awesome but not hurting you either.

By: Keegan

Keegan — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 11:50:20 +0000

At the very least, Ainge will be selling a lot of tickets.
Minnesota’s going to rely heavily on Jefferson. Blount is decent, but their bigs are spares. Craig Smith’s only 6′9″. Ratliff has a lot of miles on him. Madsen, anyone?

By: Brandon

Brandon — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 06:17:34 +0000

This is the deal Danny Ainge HAD to make. Even with Jefferson included. When he shipped the #5 for Ray Allen, he chose the present over the future. That trade was a huge debacle without this follow-up move. Everyone’s right, Al Jefferson will be dominant for years to come, but he and Gerald Green weren’t going to get Ray Allen and Paul Pierce anywhere near the finals in the next 2-3 seasons (which will be all Allen’s going to have left). Neither were any of the other guys included in this trade. KG gives them legitimacy over that time frame.

On the other side, if they had kept the 5th pick, they would have had no choice but to deal Paul Pierce, because he won’t be the same contributor in 4-5 years - when Jefferson, Green, and the #5 pick would be potential contenders.

In the east, it’s hard to believe that a team with 3 true all-stars will not compete for home court in the playoffs. Ainge probably saved his job with this one.