by improving the celtics NOW, they have a realistic shot at 1 maybe 2 more champships before pierce, KG, and Ray are in substantial decline. ainge should mortgage the future if he can win now. i can live with that. no complaints.
Of course, but there are no guarantees... Celtics could try to go for it all the next couple of years, but end up with no more championships (just more frustrating years like this one) and a lot of unmoveable contracts on the books. meaning the drought between championships will be long....
it is hard to say what the right course of action is. and anyone who says they know is just blowing smoke out their... you know what.
the other big issue is the amount of financial flexibility the owners truly have (i know they say they are willing to spend, but we'll see). one of the benefit of trading ray for bench players is that a concern -- bench depth -- is addressed without going further into luxury tax area by adding more players.
frankly, I don't think folks on celticsblog are giving the last point enough consideration. the simple fact is that Ray could probably be traded for a serviceable starter and two decent bench players, which has got to be appealing to the owners.
TP to hwang.
And yes, Cman, there are no guarantees. However, I'd much rather take my chances on the best team in basketball staying healthy than on Ainge's ability to assemble the best team in basketball a second time in 5 years time. The fact of the matter is that basketball is a game dominated by superstars. Jordan, Bird, Duncan, Shaq, Johnson, and Russell are responsible for 30 of the NBA championships over the past 50+ years or so. For Ainge to really rebuild this team as a championship contender, he's going to have to nab one of the top 3 or so players in the NBA and the chances of that happening are very small.
The smart thing to do is to try to win as many titles as possible while we can. That is, after all, the goal of a sports team. It's fine and dandy to be the '90s Knicks, Pacers, or Jazz, but in the end, they really were no different than the Celtics teams of that era: they all didn't win a championship. And I'm truly afraid that if Danny starts planning for the future too much now, we're just going to waste this opportunity to be a second round exit playoff team 5 years from now.
The Celtics really need to keep Ray Allen. Is he aging? Yes. However, his shooting range and what it does to opposing defenses lets the other players on the court operate in a way that few other players can provide. Furthermore, while it's easy to say that KG made Pierce and Allen play defense and be unselfish, another big reason why both changed is because both were aging, already made most of their NBA money, and weren't worried about new contracts. The same cannot be said about the draft picks and other young players whose names are being batted around as trade matches for Ray. It's quite possible a young player comes in, cannot stretch the D like Ray can, looks for his own shot, and can't grasp the C's defense (team defense is usually the last thing young players grasp).
I also don't like this notion of trading Ray for an assortment of good players or for a big man to back up KG and Perk. In the former case, trades of good players for great players seldom work out for the team trading away the great player (see the Chamberlain trade or the Barkley trade). Basketball is a sport that really only requires 8-9 players on a championship squad (compared to the 50 or so needed on a football team), so quality is of the utmost importance. In the case of both the latter and former, I think people are ****izing Red's philosophy on sixth men. While it's true it doesn't matter who starts the game, it does matter who ends it. And if Ray is traded for two "good players," then the C's closing unit in games is going to be weakened, which will hurt them in the playoffs. Similarly, while it might be nice to have someone like Amare Stoudemire, if it means that either he or Perk wouldn't be on the floor at the end of a game, it's also going to weaken the C's ability to close games in the playoffs.
The fact of the matter is that while depth is needed for the season, come playoff time, the starters can play 85% of the game. So what's really going to matter is that we still have the best starting lineup in the NBA. So if we can get some decent bench players (as Jeff suggests in his reasonable scenario on the front page with Dice and Hill) and keep the best starting lineup in the NBA together (meaning, keep Ray!), I see no reason why we can't easily cruise to another title next year.
Topic: Trading Ray Allen debate (merged) (Read 27258 times)