What's the worst Celtics trade or Free Agent signing ever & why?

[SShoreFan 2.0]

Welcome to the dog days of summer my fellow Celtic bloggers.  Seeing that we've recently saved Jsaad's nuptials and are stooping to debating the pros and cons of the AFC East now that Captain Overrated has joined the NY J-E-S-T, what can we talk about? 

That's right time for another installment of SSfan's Best & Worst whatever of all time.  Last time we pondered the greatest Celtic trade of all time.  Today I am proposing we explore what was the worst Celtic trade or free agent signing ever.  There's oh so many to choose from, but what blunder takes the cake?  Dominique?  Wicks & Rowe?  KG?  (just seeing if you are paying attention).

So what do you think is the biggest Green Team stinker and why?



(Monday we'll have another installment)

[CelticsWhat35]

Welcome to the dog days of summer my fellow Celtic bloggers.  Seeing that we've recently saved Jsaad's nuptials and are stooping to debating the pros and cons of the AFC East now that Captain Overrated has joined the NY J-E-S-T, what can we talk about? 

That's right time for another installment of SSfan's Best & Worst whatever of all time.  Last time we pondered the greatest Celtic trade of all time.  Today I am proposing we explore what was the worst Celtic trade or free agent signing ever.  There's oh so many to choose from, but what blunder takes the cake?  Dominique?  Wicks & Rowe?  KG?  (just seeing if you are paying attention).

So what do you think is the biggest Green Team stinker and why?



(Monday we'll have another installment)

Hey, Dominique did good in his short stay with the team.  Granted, he was well past his prime, but he helped lead a poor team to the playoffs, and they played the eventually EC champion Magic pretty tough in the first round.  Of all the bad moves that have been made over the years, that should not be on anyone list for the worst.

Now since you said trade or free agent signing, does that preclude draft picks?

[Roy Hobbs]

I'll get the ball rolling by throwing Vin Baker's name out there.  Chris Wallace traded the team's starting point guard for an alcoholic on a max contract, all so Gaston could save a tiny bit of money in the short term.  This move was a work of genius.

[dooyork]

Trade: Kenny Anderson for Vin Baker.  Or Chauncey Billups for Kenny Anderson.  There's probably worse trades, but those are the first that pop into my head.

Worst free agent signing: I'll go with Dominique.  When the Bird/McHale/Parish era ended, it should have been time to rebuild, starting with 1 or 2 really horrible years with high draft picks (there were some very good drafts in the early 90s, btw).  Instead, the Cs decided to keep adding just enough quality players to ensure they finished somewhere in the middle of the pack every year, so that they never had a shot at the title, nor at the top draft picks, and instead kept drafting players like Acie Earl.  The question Wallace or Volk or whoever was in charge at the time should have asked about Dominique was: Is this going to help us win a championship at some point in time?  The answer to that would have been an unequivocal "No."  That's the only question that should matter to a GM.  Instead, it seemed like the point was to bring in a guy with name recognition in order to sell tickets in the upcoming season.  Horrible, horrible free agent signing.

[Redz]

3 #1's for Bob McAdoo was a bit of a clunker back in the day.

Long term hindsight trading Billups & Joe Johnson for rentals doesn't look so hot.

#1 for Potapenko

Vin Baker may be the worst free agent signing (edit: just read the post above me and yes that was a trade)

[Redz]

The late 70's had some real tough ones

Kermit Washington, Sidney Wicks, Curtis Rowe

[JSD]

This is up there:

Celtics Sign Knight at Center

Free-agent center Travis Knight reportedly signs seven-year, $22 million contract with Boston Celtics

I'm still cringing...

[Emmette Bryant]

Paul Silas for Sidney Wicks.

Ouch

[wdleehi]

This is up there:

Celtics Sign Knight at Center

Free-agent center Travis Knight reportedly signs seven-year, $22 million contract with Boston Celtics

I'm still cringing...

That's what I thought.  Especially since it meant that Fox and Wesley were let go for nothing. 

[EJPLAYA]

I don't think there is one worse than Vin Baker, but one that came to mind as another bad one was Pervis Ellison.

[StartOrien]

02/20/02: TRADE: The Celtics traded Joe Johnson, Milt Palacio, Randy Brown and a conditional 1st round pick to Phoenix for Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers. The Pick is reportedly top-8 protected for 2002 and top-5 protected from 2003-2007

anybody know who the pick turned out to be?

[pbon]

As for recently it has to be Scal he is like the fourth highest paid on the team and pretty much untradeable with his salary

[CelticsWhat35]

02/20/02: TRADE: The Celtics traded Joe Johnson, Milt Palacio, Randy Brown and a conditional 1st round pick to Phoenix for Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers. The Pick is reportedly top-8 protected for 2002 and top-5 protected from 2003-2007

anybody know who the pick turned out to be?

Casey Jacobsen; although Taysuan Prince was drafted right after him and Carlos Boozer was still on the board as well.

[StartOrien]

so in a "perfect world" for a monday morning quarterback.

we're looking at Joe Johnson and Carlos Boozer for Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers

[CDawg834]

I will go with the Vin Baker deal. It may not have been the worst in terms of talent (the C's didn't give up a ton to get him) but the financial aspect of the deal buried the team for a couple years.  Paul Gaston did it to save money that season so he could sell the team, knowing that the same deal would screw up the C's salary cap for years after he was gone.