Well the LaFrentz deal brought Ratliff, whose expiring contract enabled the Garnett Deal. Also, pick #7 was Randy Foye, not Brandon Roy. The pick swap had nothing to do with the Celtics. It was just a bad move by the Wolves.
Right.
McHale gets a lot of flack for that deal, though the two were projected to be very similar players on draft day. I think constantly trying to play Foye as a PG, instead of his natural SG position, hurt his performance and development in way that Roy never had to deal with. Roy is clearly the better player, though.
Personally, I didn't like the deal. It was a money deal, not a basketball deal. Those suck. The deal didn't help us in the short term, and the long term impact is questionable, even in spite of the KG trade*. Perhaps the best long-term outcome is the C's (at times) stubborn refusal to take on anything that may become a bad contract, perhaps so they never have to make money deals again.
I expect Danny to work diligently to reload the cupboard this offseason, regardless of what happens in the playoffs. Trading away draft picks just doesn't make sense.
*Nothing wrong with Rondo/Roy/Pierce/Al Jeff/Perk, right? And we still would've had the assets MN wanted for KG plus Delonte and whatever the 2007 pick would've been, except Ratliff, so it is still possible it could've gotten done, IMHO.
Yeah nothing except no chance for a championship.
Not necessarily. The parts are still there for the Ray trade which would have been the encouragement for KG to come here. The difference is that we'd have to convince Minny to take Raef instead of Ratliff. Since Raef had one more year than Ratliff, we may have had to sweeten the pot more OR maybe Big Al, the rookie of the year Roy and either Gomes/GG/C's future #1/Minnie's own future #1 would have gotten that deal done instead. We may have been able to move a little less in the KG deal if we hadn't made the Portland trade by having Roy as extra tradebait.
On the flip side of that, Rondo/Roy/PP/Al/Perk is a very good starting 5. The Ray deal is still possible since we'd still have Wally, Delonte and our first round pick if we wanted to do that but I wouldn't. Roy was ROY and I'd be reluctant to move him for an aging Ray coming off surgery. We'd have TA (who wouldn't have been in the situation of getting injured on that stupid play because the game scenario would have changed with Roy on the team --> alternate reality concept so just go with me on that) playing like a budding star and Delonte as the bench guards. Gomes as the backup 3/4 and Powe as the backup 4. The 1st rounder that year could have gone for Oden/Durant/Horford/Noah .(again, alternate reality-->with Roy, the team would have a different record and probably finished higher than 1 other team and possibly more. If they jump 1 team, they have the 6th pick and can still get Noah which would solidify that team's weakspot of center. If they jump 2-4 teams, based on the lottery results of the 4th through 6th worst teams getting the top 3 picks, they wind up with one of Oden, Durant or Horford). for that matter, throw in the early second rounder that year and based on the team's roster, maybe Danny still selects either Pruitt or BBD or maybe selects one of the several players taken after them that other posters here have suggested Danny missed such as Marc Gasol. If any of that came to pass, we'd be over-the-top optimistic about this team's future regardless of not having a title in 2008 and set to be a contender for years. (potential line-up rondo/roy/durant/Al/Perk bench: delonte/ good-TA/ PP/ Gomes/ Powe/ Marc Gasol. No bad contracts on the roster either since Raef's contract expired. Tell me you don't think that roster would be a contender
Thanks for visiting the alternate reality, and enjoy the TP as a door prize!
It's important to learn from prior moves as we set out to reload/rebuild in the fairly near future, so I think it could be valuable to look at the picks that were traded for those veterans. We gave up even more than you tallied:
Having Roy would've made trading for Ray unnecessary, so we'd have kept the pick that became Jeff Green, too(of course, it may not have been the #5 and JG, etc.).
Without KG either, then, we have the Rondo/Roy/PP/Al J/Perk starting 5, which looks pretty good, below KG-2008 level but moving in the right direction. We may also have Jeff Green (or another stud) catching oops from Rondo, Roy, and PP. AND we also would still have had Minny's 1st rounder (#6) that they used on Jonny Flynn, but we could've used o almost anyone (Curry? Maynor? Collison? Taj Gibson?) and our own pick that Minny used on Wayne Ellington.
So with a Rondo/Roy/PP/Al/Perk starting 5, we'd still have tons of talent in Curry, Jeff Green, and Ellington coming off the bench, along with Gomes, TA, and some other pieces.
We would be different, and 2008 may not have been a title, but we'd be looking forward with excited anticipation to the next decade, rather than wondering how Danny will pull off the near-miracle it would take to make us contenders over that span, with neither high picks nor young talent to work with.
If we learn anything from both the Ray and KG trades, it's that young talent is needed one way or another, to develop or to bait a trade. Also, smart teams trade for talent, not contracts.
