I understand and appreciate what Vinnie and others are saying—this is the Boston Celtics, best team in the history of basketball, racial groundbreakers, and so on. The banners, the parquet, the mystique. I love it too.
But transitions are always hard. It'll always be tough to say goodbye to legends, and I'm not sure there's a truly "good" way to do it (other than ending their career with a title, which is rare). Letting players just retire has its perks, but ultimately the only practical benefit is cap space. That doesn't do as much for a rebuild as a trade that brings back draft picks, expirings, and other assets. It's a bit cold and cruel, but Danny's not getting paid to think with his heart (even though he did, in my opinion, by keeping KG and Pierce together and sending them to a pretty good team).
What did we get for Bird, Parish, and McHale? Little to nothing, if I remember correctly. Sure, the deaths of Bias and Lewis really set us back, but getting virtually nothing for the big three also hurt the team, didn't it?
And let's not pretend that the C's haven't been bad before. Just before Bird's arrival, and for most of the 90s, and just before KG arrived (18 straight losses!)—there were some pretty bad teams in there. It was only 7 years ago that things were looking pretty bleak for Boston: One good player in Pierce, and a bunch of castoffs, rookies, and no-names. And then Danny made great moves that led to a title only one season later.
Listen, I don't pretend to know everything Danny's thinking, and I don't know how soon before we'll be good again, but I don't think it'll be a long time. I'm gonna try my best to enjoy watching guys like Rondo and Sully and whomever else might be on the roster, and knowing that Danny's always thinking of ways to improve the team, and that it probably won't be long before he pulls off another KG-like acquisition.
To be honest, as much as I like watching KG and Pierce, last season was difficult to watch, and another season of them in Boston without enough help (which Danny was not in a position to provide) was possibly going to be even uglier than last season. If I have to watch ugly, I'd rather it be up-and-coming ugly than over-the-hill ugly.
So Danny really did them a solid by putting them on a team where they can have the help they need. Let's face it: they have more hope with that Nets team than they would've had here next season.
Breaking up is tough. But we've been here before. Let's just see what unfolds next.
You are forgetting or minimizing the injury to Bradley to start the year and then Rondo and then Sullinger. Jeff Green was just coming back from his open heart surgery..the possibility for a run this year was there. 2 years ago they took Miami to a game 7.
But most of all you are weakly tolerating the disrespect to Paul Pierce, he had earned the right if not more to determine his own fate. Should Bird have been dumped, Russell...what happened tonight is shameful, not a grin and bear it and you will feel better in 5 years.
I agree that the injuries hurt the team badly, but we also don't know how well or good Rondo and Sullinger will be after their surgeries, or if Jeff Green will continue on an upward trajectory, or if KG and Pierce could play more than 25 effective minutes on a regular basis—in other words, a lot of question marks existed.
I also don't think it's as simple as "trading legendary player X = disrespect." I'm sure that, in a vacuum, Pierce and KG would like to retire as Celtics, but I also know they want to win, and they'll have a better shot at a title next season with Brooklyn than with Boston ... so maybe that's a sign of respect towards them by Danny.
Anyway, I feel your pain, seriously. I just think that the status quo would've resulted in further downward spiraling next season, and I see these developments as Danny cutting off that spiral before it hits rock bottom. You see it differently, and that's fine, and I totally get it. But maybe, just maybe, the truly disrespectful thing would've been to keep a declining Pierce and a declining KG on a declining team, where they would have no real hope of another title shot, and they'd end their careers with more of a whimper than a bang.
Topic: What it means to be a Celtic now? (Read 4289 times)