Some nice points, but I don't really consider the C's as constituted a top-4 team going into next year. Since they're old and declining, Philly and maybe even Atlanta look to equal or pass them unless Danny does some nice work in the next six weeks. Miami and Chicago still have to be considered ahead of them--and that's only in the East.
Also, I think Pierce looked better in the 2nd half of the regular season than he has in the playoffs of late, though we know he's injured. Still, I'd love to see him traded for something good like a turbo-boost in the draft.
It is great news to hear that KG should be back next year, and I'm actually optimistic that Danny could retool on the fly. This next four weeks could be his most important month for working magic in the last five years. I think it's possible he could set the franchise on course with the right deal(s) and picks.
It has been reported that the Celtics actually did try to trade Pierce to Brooklyn at the deadline for Brooklyn's top 3 protected pick (that ended up #6)... but that supposedly Pierce (or his agent) put a stop to it. That's fairly interesting... That's really a base-case scenario of a Pierce trade right there. A top 6 pick and dumping his salary would have been nice. It would have given us potentially 41 million in cap space + Rondo + Bradley + the #6 pick + the our own pick (which would have been higher since we presumably would have tanked the rest of the regular season) + Clippers pick.
As-is, I wonder if Pierce still has that kind of trade value (could you get a lotto pick and cap space for him? Doubt it). Even so, my guess is Pierce would rather retire than go play for a lotto team. Not sure he can even be traded if he has veto power.
I hadn't heard that about Pierce putting the kibbosh on the Nets trade. I don't think he gets us a lotto pick, but I'd take an upgrade for one of the 1st rounders Danny already has. Not really sure there's great potential there, so maybe packaging him and one of the 1sts for a good young big man would work.
I think there's very little relationship between what's reported on the trade front and which trades are actually discussed. The advent of twitter seems to make all the ridiculous rumors more believable because one rumor will be repeated 50 times and then it becomes almost a fact because it's being reported on so many websites.
I hadn't even heard about the Pierce thing until Chris Broussard (i think) reported it as fact in one of our playoff games. I know Bill Simmons had mentioned it several times that the Nets SHOULD have done the Pierce trade instead of the Blazers trade (never even hinting that it was discussed), but this was the first time I had heard anyone flat-out say the trade happened and Pierce nixed it.
For what it's worth, supposedly years ago we had worked out a trade that would have sent Pierce to the Blazers for Nick Van Exel's instant expiring contract and the #3 draft pick that Ainge would have used to take Chris Paul. HEard the same thing in that rumor... Pierce killed it, because he refused to play in Portland. Pierce must have some kind of veto power or maybe it's as simple as him saying he refuses to report somewhere.
Topic: The Best Part about this Playoff Run (Read 4320 times)