Well....Danny just put up a sign that said "Fire sale. Everything must go. Make best offer."
I don't think that's true. Without a new contract for Rondo looming over everything, Ainge has a lot more freedom to make or not make deals. In a worst case scenario, Ainge could just let Green, Bass, Wright and Thornton walk and be over $20 million under the cap with a core of Smart, Avery, Sully, KO, Zeller and Young with multiple first round picks in the 2015 draft.
Unless Ainge can get real value, I don't think he's under any pressure to just make a deal.
Mike
Then why make a bad deal that sends a horrid message to the world? He just told the whole league "All my players aren't really worth anything, at least not to me. Feel free to lowball me."
Ainge made a good deal.
The only problem is, he should have done it sooner.
He got nothing of any value for a darn good player. No free agent has any reason whatsoever to want to come here now. From now on it doesn't matter what you do here. If you lead the league at your position in key statistics and you do it for less money don't expect to get the offer you want.
Rondo isn't that good anymore.
And Ainge got three players, a first round pick, and a $12.9 million dollar trade exception.
Ainge is a genius.
Well DA is a great GM, but it has nothing to do with the Rondo trade.
DA admitted himself that he gave away the best player. DA's hand was forced / or he forced himself to accept a low return for Rondo due to the timing of Rondo's injury, the soft market for him overall, and the fact that they didn't want to pay rondo's asking price / and or he told them he wanted out previously.
He also admitted in the press conf. that the timing of the trade was extremely important. The only reason to time it like he did was because he wants to ship out the players that just came in. Let that sink in for a minute. He just traded the nba assist leader, and the only guard rebounding in the top 30 for 3 players that he really plans to move before the deadline. He got the best he could. But it wasn't one of his finer moments.
The KG/ PP trade, yes he was a genius in that one, this one nope, not so much.