It's unfair and inaccurate to say that Ainge was "handed" Garnett and Allen.
He was ready and able when Minnesota and Seattle - seems to me that Sam Presti was on the other end of that pantsing, too - decided to sell both at pennies on the dollar. Clearly, Ainge was able to acquire both without giving up significant value, but the beauty of that was the Celtics had no future as a franchise with that group anyway.
The Garnett and Allen deals were no risk, high reward moves, but you can't make them if you don't have cap space and at least a player or two that interests your trading partners.
Right place, right time, good sales pitch. That's not being "handed" anything.
By "selling for pennies on the dollar" you mean "getting as much in trade as other teams generally do for players of that magnitude"? "Right place, right time, good sales pitch" means "outbidding other teams who were trying to obtain the same players"?
No, I mean exchanging very little of value for two superstars. Do you want to re-live the nonsense of three summers ago, when people contended we traded value for Garnett and Allen? Didn't happen. We gave up little of true NBA value - which should surprise no one; the team those trades came from was one of the worst in Celtic history for a reason - for two first-ballot NBA Hall of Famers.
Basically, we gave up a top-end lottery pick - which we now have back - a second-tier inside player who was chronically overrated on this board and a bag of Danny's trash for Garnett and Allen. Jefferson's another player whose myth on this blog FAR eclipses his actual value as a player.
The Knicks paid a MUCH higher price for Anthony.
First of all, the player you claim was chronically overrated by this board was also apparently chronically overrated by nba executives, as Ainge had a lot of offers for Al before he made the trade he did. Secondly, even ignoring the fact that the Knicks got Billups, you don't seem to have much of an idea about relative value of players.
Ray Allen, 31, coming off of double ankle surgery. 3 years and $53M left on his contract. Getting close to the age when most shooting guards start to show a dropoff in production. Carmelo Anthony, 26 years old, 5th in the league in scoring and just entering his prime as a player. Which player is worth MUCH more than the other?
Now we're going to conflate Jefferson's value, eh? These discussions are truly entertaining. Remind me again. What was Al No D's line in the All Star Game.
Sure. Right after you name all the players in their early 20s that can give you 20/10 that they passed over to get Al.
I'll help. He didn't make it. Again. Ainge isn't perfect - no one is - but the only thing of value he traded for Garnett and Allen is wearing No. 8 tonight. The rest of it was just fodder for hyperbole - and continues to be, apparently - on this blog.
Al's starting for a playoff team and giving them 18/9 or so. He's not perfect, and he's had a lot of injuries, but saying he has no value is a lot of hyperbole. And there were other offers for Al than just the Minny deal, so "this blog" must include at least a few NBA GMs.
Enlighten me. Where's the Wilson Chandler in the Garnett and Allen deals? The Ray Felton - I can't wait for this one; I pine for the rhapsodic ramblings about the great Sebastian Telfair. The Gallinari?
Haha. Did I miss those three players in the all-star game, or should I expect to see them there next year? Get serious. A couple of halfway decent wings who aren't as good as Billups let alone Melo and a journeyman pg that was available for the MLE last year? Please. You act like it's a king's ransom. And are you really going to scoff at Al's defense and wax poetic about Gallinari? Wow.
Denver traded two great players. The Celtics acquired two great players for nothing. Let's check back in four years and see if all of the above in Nugget blue are footnotes in the failure of their franchises, like Jefferson et al. are in the Celtic record book.
Ok, I'll bite. How many all-star appearances do you expect from the three of them in the next two years?
In the meantime, let's recognize the Garnett and Allen deals for what they truly were - salary dumps by the sellers.
Sigh. Ok. So Ray was somewhat of a salary dump. Think about it, though. You're claiming that Presti got pantsed on a salry dump when he ended up with a top 5 pick, and you're also criticizing him for getting less in a salary dump than Denver got for Melo.
Topic: A Salute to Cold, Hard, Calculating Danny Ainge (Read 22896 times)