The 80's Celtics would have been better if they did one thing...

[xmuscularghandix]

NEVER trade Maxwell for Walton. It turned out cool that one year (1986) when we won the championship, but Maxwell had a a good season with the Clippers that year also.

The next season Walton was hurt again and would basically never come back. Meanwhile Max had another decent season off the bench for LA/Houston.

I think if we had that extra front-court depth in 1987 we could have got the extra health to get by LA. Instead we were stuck the The Redheaded Corpse and a platoon of 5th/6th big men.

Plus this could have extended Cornbread's career...

[Andy Jick]

Disagree...  Without Walton, we do not win in '86.  HE was the difference, as the Lakers did not have a capable backup center (Thompson showed up a year later, and HE was the difference for the Lakers).

Also, Max's trade was also about attitude the betterment of the team off the court.

I'd still make that trade...

[More Banners]

Nope, Max/Walton is a deal I'd still do in restrospect.

The Gerald Henderson deal, on the other hand...

[Brendan]

Sent someone to chaperon Len Bias after they decided to draft him.

[xmuscularghandix]

Sent someone to chaperon Len Bias after they decided to draft him.

That's a good point.

But i still think the Walton deal was overrated.

[Roy Hobbs]

There were lots of missteps the 1980s Celts made in hindsight...

1) They drafted horribly.  After Kevin McHale, Reggie Lewis was the only draft pick that became a solid contributor for the team. 

2) They traded Gerald Henderson, and took Len Bias with the draft pick they got in the deal.  This should have been an all-time great trade, but in hindsight, it hurt.

3) They let Kevin McHale play on a broken foot in '87.  It turned out to be all for naught as the Celts lost in the Finals, and it hurt McHale's career.

4) They traded Danny Ainge for Ed Pickney and Joe Kleine.  The window was pretty much shut at this point, but trading Danny didn't help.

I agree with others that Bill Walton was essential to our title run in '86.  With Max in place of Walton, it could have closed the window one year earlier.

[MaxwellSmart86]

Sent someone to chaperon Len Bias after they decided to draft him.

Actually, I think it was Danny Ainge who dropped him off at the airport in Boston for his trip home...grrrrr.

[Roy Hobbs]

Sent someone to chaperon Len Bias after they decided to draft him.

Actually, I think it was Danny Ainge who dropped him off at the airport in Boston for his trip home...grrrrr.

I'm not sure who dropped them off, although Bias flew home with his father.  Unfortunately, after they went home, Bias decided he wanted to go out later that night, and the rest is the stuff of nightmares.

[More Banners]

There were lots of missteps the 1980s Celts made in hindsight...

1) They drafted horribly.  After Kevin McHale, Reggie Lewis was the only draft pick that became a solid contributor for the team. 

2) They traded Gerald Henderson, and took Len Bias with the draft pick they got in the deal.  This should have been an all-time great trade, but in hindsight, it hurt.

3) They let Kevin McHale play on a broken foot in '87.  It turned out to be all for naught as the Celts lost in the Finals, and it hurt McHale's career.

4) They traded Danny Ainge for Ed Pickney and Joe Kleine.  The window was pretty much shut at this point, but trading Danny didn't help.

I agree with others that Bill Walton was essential to our title run in '86.  With Max in place of Walton, it could have closed the window one year earlier.

Some great points here, Roy.  I sometimes think Larry got shorted by finishing with "only" 3 rings.  A stronger bench would've likely helped, as they were rather thin at most positions.  The draft was surely a factor there, but why didn't players want to come to play 6th man in Boston?

The Ainge trade was pretty bad, too.  Couldn't a Potapenko/Fortson type guy have been available?  If memory serves, there was some hope that Pinkney would develop into a solid starter.  Oops...

[tenn_smoothie]

Nope, Max/Walton is a deal I'd still do in restrospect.

The Gerald Henderson deal, on the other hand...

no way we should question the gerald henderson deal - it worked out brilliantly and would have been viewed on the same level as the deal for parish & mchale (drafted) if len bias doesn't have a freak accident with drugs.

lenny bias was a 6'8" michael jordan and larry wins a few more rings while cancelling the lakers out, then Red builds around bias and reggie lewis after that.

just no way to have seen the bias tragedy coming - no way.

you can say all you want about the bumbling 90's .......... and rick pitino was an ego-maniac who had no business being GM ........... but i believe that we never recovered from lenny bias.


until now.

[Andy Jick]

We could have drafted Tim Hardaway instead of Michael Smith...  Yeah, that hurts too...

[the_Bird]

Bird wanted Max out of there, IIRC from Jackie Mac's book.  Max has spend the previous season Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline.ing and moaning about everything, his contract, coaches, everything.  Might not have intended to be, but was being disruptive to the team.

[xmuscularghandix]

We could have drafted Tim Hardaway instead of Michael Smith...  Yeah, that hurts too...

We also traded Jon Barry and a 1995 second rounder (Eric Snow) for Alaa Abdelnaby... for all the great moves in our history there sure are a few goose eggs.



Note: I'm not saying that Jon Barry is a franchise changing player, but in retrospect Alaa Abdelnaby is a name I've never even heard before.

[ibby]

If we had been able to get Dino Radja over here when we drafted him in 89 could have extended Parish/McHale's career.  I also remember hearing about a story involving a McHale trade that Red turned down.  That may have extended the window some.

[Roy Hobbs]

We could have drafted Tim Hardaway instead of Michael Smith...  Yeah, that hurts too...

We also traded Jon Barry and a 1995 second rounder (Eric Snow) for Alaa Abdelnaby... for all the great moves in our history there sure are a few goose eggs.



Note: I'm not saying that Jon Barry is a franchise changing player, but in retrospect Alaa Abdelnaby is a name I've never even heard before.

I think that one was pretty much garbage in, garbage out.

I definitely remember Alaa, though.