Moving Pierce is key to Rebuilding

[Michael Anthony]

I am not sure what direction this club should take - tweaking or demolition, but the following post is based entirely on the premise of blowing things up.

If you are going to blow it up, you have to start early, and the key objective has to be the aquisition of a top five player. There may be two available soon, and I am going after Dwight.

We need to do three things to get him. First, we need to clear the cap space. Second, we need to have a team that is one specific player away from a championship. Finally, we need to send Bill Russell on a recruiting trip.

Pierce is set to earn $17 million in 2011-2012. Say what you want about Jeff Green, but in two season he will likely be as effective at 1/3 the cost.

We can't just dump Pierce. He is also key to the second step - building a team that is one player away. That means a power forward with a little range.

Pierce still has a lot of value around the league - DEN, LAC, DAL, ORL would love to have him. The team I am targetting is Sacramento. They have three players that I think would be perfect next two Dwight, the cap room to absorb Pierce, plus owners just goofy enough to make it happen.

Pierce for Jason Thompson, Marcus Thornton (S&T) and Fransisco Garcia

Thompson is an athletic, 6'11" power forward that rebounds, defneds, and has range out to 18 feet.

Thornton is the perfect sixth man, think Jamal Crawford with D.

Garcia is a decent reserve wing that can shoot and handle, plus his contract is a little heavy and Sac would want to dump it.

I would be suprised if Denver matched a full MLE offer to Afflalo, and he would be my second target this off season.

Re-sign West and Krstic for front loaded deals two year deals.

Heading into the 2011-2012 off season, out rotation would look like this:

Rondo / West
Afflalo / Thornton
Green / Garcia
Thompson
Krstic

We would also have a couple of rookies and second year guys hanging around, and about $17 million in cap space.

Do you agree that Pierce needs to be moved if we blow it up? Are there better options at power forward?

[Bahku]

It's not going to happen, and it shouldn't. Pierce should retire as a Celtic, and the organization should do whatever is needed to make sure that happens. No way Danny's going to let Paul end his career elsewhere, and there are many of us who would be incredibly angry if he did so.

[Senninsage]

Anything involving moving Pierce is a recipe for disaster. Absolute disaster.

Dwight Howard is not worth giving up Paul Pierce. No way, no how.

That would make the Celtics are far worse team. Think about who Pierce had to guard in this series, and he still did as well as he did.

[Michael Anthony]

Pierce retiring as a Celtic is a cute idea. I can get behind it. He meant a lot to us when we were terrible, and even more when we were champions.

Holding on to your good old players is a bad strategy, because they keep you good enough to make the playoffs, but not good enough to win.

Parish, Maxwell, Ainge and DJ all played for different teams. Tiny and Cowens did too.

[bruinsandceltics]

Pierce retiring as a Celtic is a cute idea. I can get behind it. He meant a lot to us when we were terrible, and even more when we were champions.

Holding on to your good old players is a bad strategy, because they keep you good enough to make the playoffs, but not good enough to win.

Parish, Maxwell, Ainge and DJ all played for different teams. Tiny and Cowens did too.

Pierce is retiring as a Celtic. If you accept that or not is up to you, but Paul Pierce has earned the right to retired as a Celtic no matter what he does for the rest of his career.

Pierce is good enough to be on a championship team still and that is all that matters. End of story.

[beantownboy171]

Pierce retiring as a Celtic is a cute idea. I can get behind it. He meant a lot to us when we were terrible, and even more when we were champions.

Holding on to your good old players is a bad strategy, because they keep you good enough to make the playoffs, but not good enough to win.

Parish, Maxwell, Ainge and DJ all played for different teams. Tiny and Cowens did too.

Pierce is retiring as a Celtic. If you accept that or not is up to you, but Paul Pierce has earned the right to retired as a Celtic no matter what he does for the rest of his career.

Pierce is good enough to be on a championship team still and that is all that matters. End of story.

Danny Ainge, is that you?

[j804]

He's our Captain, nuff said.

[SHAQATTACK]

I am not sure what direction this club should take - tweaking or demolition, but the following post is based entirely on the premise of blowing things up.

If you are going to blow it up, you have to start early, and the key objective has to be the aquisition of a top five player. There may be two available soon, and I am going after Dwight.

We need to do three things to get him. First, we need to clear the cap space. Second, we need to have a team that is one specific player away from a championship. Finally, we need to send Bill Russell on a recruiting trip.

Pierce is set to earn $17 million in 2011-2012. Say what you want about Jeff Green, but in two season he will likely be as effective at 1/3 the cost.

We can't just dump Pierce. He is also key to the second step - building a team that is one player away. That means a power forward with a little range.

Pierce still has a lot of value around the league - DEN, LAC, DAL, ORL would love to have him. The team I am targetting is Sacramento. They have three players that I think would be perfect next two Dwight, the cap room to absorb Pierce, plus owners just goofy enough to make it happen.

Pierce for Jason Thompson, Marcus Thornton (S&T) and Fransisco Garcia

Thompson is an athletic, 6'11" power forward that rebounds, defneds, and has range out to 18 feet.

Thornton is the perfect sixth man, think Jamal Crawford with D.

Garcia is a decent reserve wing that can shoot and handle, plus his contract is a little heavy and Sac would want to dump it.

I would be suprised if Denver matched a full MLE offer to Afflalo, and he would be my second target this off season.

Re-sign West and Krstic for front loaded deals two year deals.

Heading into the 2011-2012 off season, out rotation would look like this:

Rondo / West
Afflalo / Thornton
Green / Garcia
Thompson
Krstic

We would also have a couple of rookies and second year guys hanging around, and about $17 million in cap space.

Do you agree that Pierce needs to be moved if we blow it up? Are there better options at power forward?

I'm with ya brother...
I'm for moving my OL LADY to LA , if it means D12 COMES TO BOSTON..

What ever it takes.

We got DOC  ... WHEW!!!

IF PP is part of the puzzle .  Then so be it.

My blessing

[bruinsandceltics]

Pierce retiring as a Celtic is a cute idea. I can get behind it. He meant a lot to us when we were terrible, and even more when we were champions.

Holding on to your good old players is a bad strategy, because they keep you good enough to make the playoffs, but not good enough to win.

Parish, Maxwell, Ainge and DJ all played for different teams. Tiny and Cowens did too.

Pierce is retiring as a Celtic. If you accept that or not is up to you, but Paul Pierce has earned the right to retired as a Celtic no matter what he does for the rest of his career.

Pierce is good enough to be on a championship team still and that is all that matters. End of story.

Danny Ainge, is that you?

Don't need to be Danny Ainge to realize what I said is true.

You don't hand a guy who has been with your team through thick and thin a 4 year contract worth a lot of money at the age of 33 without the intentions of having him retire with your team.

[get_banners]

We shouldn't keep Pierce at all costs...but I can't imagine moving him. Again, this team will be blown up in 2012 naturally. Unless there is an awesome trade on the table, I highly doubt any of the Big Three go anywhere until they retire. Pierce is probably going to be a little overpaid during the last year or two of his deal, but unless he declines precipitously, he won't have a horrible contract. Now, if we could somehow land a stud for him, that's a different story. But...again, very unlikely.

[xmuscularghandix]

Pierce retiring as a Celtic is a cute idea. I can get behind it. He meant a lot to us when we were terrible, and even more when we were champions.

Holding on to your good old players is a bad strategy, because they keep you good enough to make the playoffs, but not good enough to win.

Parish, Maxwell, Ainge and DJ all played for different teams. Tiny and Cowens did too.

Parish, Maxwell, Ainge, DJ, Tiny, and Cowens...

what about Cousy, Heinsohn, Russell, KC Jones, Havlicek, Sam Jones, McHale, JoJo White, Satch, Ramsey, and Bird?

[GreenBlood23]

Wow... just wow at this thread.

People hated the way LBJ went out of Cleveland, and you're actually looking at moving someone who's been the face of this franchise through the bad and the good, been loyal. We don't have to keep him at all cost because it really won't cost that much. IMO, depends on what happens next season and 2012, he either retires or gets his contract reworked again the way he did at the beginning of this season to give us flexibility with the cap.

And what does moving Pierce if ever, tells the rest of the league? Certainly not something that will make any players want to come here.

Higher chance of him going off the bench then retiring than this idea ever sniffing air.

[K.J.]

quote author=Michael Anthony link=topic=47769.msg1002287#msg1002287 date=1305212711]If you are going to blow it up, you have to start early, and the key objective has to be the aquisition of a top five player. There may be two available soon, and I am going after Dwight.

Do you agree that Pierce needs to be moved if we blow it up? [/quote]

Yes, I agree that that Pierce must be moved if we blow the team up.  Personally, I also prefer Dwight Howard over CP3 as we already have Rondo at the point guard position.  Besides, I subscribe to Robert McChesney's thesis that having a top five player is almost imperative towards winning a championship.  Our best player, Rondo, is only a top thirty player and top five point guard.  Due to his dismal free throw ability, he will never become a top five player.  In fact, he may be hard pressed to even make the top fifteen, since he has already completed his fifth season. 

Hence, we may need to sacrifice Pierce to win another banner.  In any case, he is not as immovable as it seems.  His fourth year is only partially guaranteed.

[kenmaine]

Disagree wholeheartedly with everything the OP says- the details and the philosophy.

So maybe Red A. showed some loyalty and hung onto some of his players too long- at least the Celtics stood for something. And it seemed to work out fairly well.

Danny seems to have caught the Theo Epstein disease- constantly turning over the roster for no real reason, and ending up worse than before.

Oh, and as for Jeff Green being as effective as PP in a couple of years- you mean a couple of decades, right? 

[xmuscularghandix]

Disagree wholeheartedly with everything the OP says- the details and the philosophy.

So maybe Red A. showed some loyalty and hung onto some of his players too long- at least the Celtics stood for something. And it seemed to work out fairly well.

Danny seems to have caught the Theo Epstein disease- constantly turning over the roster for no real reason, and ending up worse than before.

Oh, and as for Jeff Green being as effective as PP in a couple of years- you mean a couple of decades, right? 

Agree about Red.

Not sure what you're talking about with Theo Epstein... all the players he's gotten rid of either work for ESPN or MLBTV...

You're being a little hard on Jeff Green, his game is about spacing the floor with the open jumper and about working the post. Both of those things were done by Glen Davis (badly), and with him out of the way Jeff will really flourish. Not to mention having a training to get used to playing with a pass first pass second shoot third PG.