The real issue with pulling off a big trade right now

[justice]

It's really easy to come up with and suggest a trade scenario that may look good for both parties on paper, where we end up with an all-star/superstar player and give away picks contracts and good role players.

The problem is, unless a team is a) on the decline and needs to begin a rebuild and b) has an AGING star that is too old to be part of a rebuild, it's unlikely a team is trading their star(s) (except for another true star).

Not every team is competing for a championship, but if you have a great player on your team, you aren't looking to trade him, period. Doesn't make sense from a marketing perspective, and most importantly, it doesn't make sense from a basketball perspective.

The NBA a star driven league, and if you're a team that feels you are a piece or 2 away from being a contender (literally almost every team in the NBA can rationalize their situation this way) and you have a star already- why do you trade him, unless you can get a better star (which Boston really doesn't have).

Back in '07, great timing came into play with acquiring KG and Ray Allen. Both Seattle and Minnesota basically got to a point where they were treading water, realized they needed to begin a rebuild process and had 2 aging stars. Luckily, they still had some tread left and we benefited.

When I look around the league, I don't see obvious teams like this... You could argue Chicago, maybe, but Butler is still young enough to be PART of a rebuild. Possibly Memphis as well- with Gasol and Conley, but they are probably too old for us.

With the salary cap exploding, almost every team will have boatloads of $$$ to spend and believe they are just 1 or 2 pieces away from contention.

Bottom line- I see trades for Boston this summer (perhaps in the next 36 hours), but someone like a Nerlens Noel (nice piece) is probably as big as the names are going to get. And that's fine... We're making great progress, and when the timing is right, we'll be in great position to pull off something big. I just don't think it will be this summer...