Problem: Too few trade partners

[oldutican]

The NBA is so imbalanced that there are few contending teams willing and able to give up assets or able to take on salaries. We all know whom the Celts would like to trade,but try finding a match with Heat, Pacers, Warriors, Thunder, Spurs, Nuggets or Blazers.

That leaves the Rockets and Asik. I thought Celts had upper hand in these trade talks, but Rockets know there isn't a market for our guys making $6 to $12 million.

[Fafnir]

The NBA is so imbalanced that there are few contending teams willing and able to give up assets or able to take on salaries. We all know whom the Celts would like to trade,but try finding a match with Heat, Pacers, Warriors, Thunder, Spurs, Nuggets or Blazers.

That leaves the Rockets and Asik. I thought Celts had upper hand in these trade talks, but Rockets know there isn't a market for our guys making $6 to $12 million.

Right but the C's aren't in a position of needing to make a move. Clearly it sounds like Danny would like to acquire Asik. But there is no urgency to moving Bass/Lee/whatever for him.

The Rockets need pieces to win now and clearly want to turn a highly paid backup C into pieces that can help them win while Howard's on the court.

[Quetzalcoatl]

On the one hand we can't immediately cast off all our bad pieces because there isn't anywhere to send them, but on the other hand, there will be less teams bidding against us when a marquee name is going to be traded.

[Chris]

Well, the saving grace is that there are also a number of teams that are trying to lift themselves up to contender status...or something resembling it, who would also be in the market for some of the C's players.

Teams like Detroit, NY, Brooklyn, Washington, Charlotte, Cleveland, possibly Toronto, possibly Milwaukee (owners want to win badly), Dallas, Minnesota, New Orleans, Phoenix, and Sacramento.

All of those teams still have some desire to try to get better immediately, and could still be in that position come the deadline, and many of them have needs that could be filled by guys the C's could move. 

And then there are also teams who are at the bottom, who could be interested in trading some longer-term contracts for some of the expiring deals the C's have, which brings them into the equation too.

There are plenty of trade partners out there.

[Lucky17]

We're still 6 weeks away from the trading deadline.

Seems every year, there's a conventional pessimism about the prospects for trades league-wide. And then the third week of February comes, and boom.

[hpantazo]

I think most Gms are just afraid to make deals untill the deadline approaches in case they miss out on a bargain that pops up at the deadline.

[csfansince60s]

The NBA is so imbalanced that there are few contending teams willing and able to give up assets or able to take on salaries. We all know whom the Celts would like to trade,but try finding a match with Heat, Pacers, Warriors, Thunder, Spurs, Nuggets or Blazers.

Even though those top teams (record-wise) all may not be good trading partners with us, there are more than one or two other teams who would want to trade for relevancy or expirings for flexibility or get rid of a "problem" player.

The Cavs, HornCats, Knicks, Nets, Wash, Sac, Raps, Bucks and Suns all come to mind as possible trade partners.

I think that Danny will have lots of options before the trade deadline.

EDIT: Chris, plus 1....didn't look carefully at your post. Obviously, I agree.

[Chris]

I think most Gms are just afraid to make deals untill the deadline approaches in case they miss out on a bargain that pops up at the deadline.

That, and because so much can happen to their team over the next month, that could change the direction they want to go.  It is generally pretty rare for many deals to be made between the beginning of the season, and a week before the deadline.

[green147]

The NBA is so imbalanced that there are few contending teams willing and able to give up assets or able to take on salaries. We all know whom the Celts would like to trade,but try finding a match with Heat, Pacers, Warriors, Thunder, Spurs, Nuggets or Blazers.

That leaves the Rockets and Asik. I thought Celts had upper hand in these trade talks, but Rockets know there isn't a market for our guys making $6 to $12 million.

Right but the C's aren't in a position of needing to make a move. Clearly it sounds like Danny would like to acquire Asik. But there is no urgency to moving Bass/Lee/whatever for him.

The Rockets need pieces to win now and clearly want to turn a highly paid backup C into pieces that can help them win while Howard's on the court.

I agree. The nice part of having 9 first rounders in the next five years and rights to swap in 2017 is that we don't have to make any moves. DA could do nothing and we'd still be in really good shape. Although, I seriously doubt he stands pat.

[dreamgreen]

Well, the saving grace is that there are also a number of teams that are trying to lift themselves up to contender status...or something resembling it, who would also be in the market for some of the C's players.

Teams like Detroit, NY, Brooklyn, Washington, Charlotte, Cleveland, possibly Toronto, possibly Milwaukee (owners want to win badly), Dallas, Minnesota, New Orleans, Phoenix, and Sacramento.

All of those teams still have some desire to try to get better immediately, and could still be in that position come the deadline, and many of them have needs that could be filled by guys the C's could move. 

And then there are also teams who are at the bottom, who could be interested in trading some longer-term contracts for some of the expiring deals the C's have, which brings them into the equation too.

There are plenty of trade partners out there.

I agree with  Chris.

I have to believe that Bynum will be moved in the next few days and Asik by the trade dead line. These moves could cause domino effects.

Another important factor is a team like the Celtics could be either buyers or sellers at the dead line depending on what deals are out there. What if this happened:

We trade Green and filler for Bynum (maybe we can get a pick out of it?), waive Bynum

Bass + Lee + pick for Asik

Take our TE and couple picks and trade for Gordon Hayward (whom I think that they like with Stevens there)

Leaving us with:
Rondo
Bradley
Hayward
Sully
Asik

[PhoSita]

I think it's definitely safe to say that it is a buyer's market this year.  Many more teams in sell mode for one reason or another.

[ummidkme]

The Cavs and Jazz are discussing a deal involving Utah’s Richard Jefferson, according to Marc Stein (Twitter links) and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com.

R. Jefferson for Bynum works on ESPN Trade Machine.