Is it me or does everything seem up in the air?

[DarkAzcura]

I tend to get over-hyped about the draft when the Celtics have a top pick to make.  I nearly threw my shoe at the TV when Andy Katz broke the story that the Celtics were trading the 6th pick (could have gotten Brandon Roy or Rudy Gay) for Sebastian Telfair.  I cursed Ainge for such an awful trade.  How could he do that??  Of course, we did get Ratliff's contract which expired a year earlier than LaFrentz, which turned out to be critical in making the KG trade work the following year.  And Danny snapped up Rondo at 21 (or was it 22) in that same draft, which turned out to be brilliant.  So what do I know??

Danny acquiring Rondo really saved his behind. Trading the 6th pick just to shave off a year of Raef's contract was a pretty horrible move (I believe the trade to acquire Raef was his worst move as a gm, but I won't go there).  Imagine if we traded this year's #6 and Gerald Wallace for an expiring and say, Shabazz Muhammad, because that is essentially what he did back then.

I understand that Ratliff's expiring helped acquire KG, but that doesn't make the initial trade acceptable - snatching up Rondo did, however.

I wouldn't say it "saved" his behind. A lot of people had Danny taking Rondo with the #7 pick. If Danny believe Rondo could be had later, he took a chance and went for the expiring. He took the expiring because he probably thought the draft sucked and in retrospect there was no one taken at that point who was worth more than that expiring. The 2014 draft is a different beast, though. If Ainge did that again in this draft, he'd be gone.

[erisred]

I think "Plan A" so to speak is to get Kevin Love in a trade.  I think we have a reasonably good chance at that.  Plan B, may be to take a run at Carmelo, whether we get KL or not.  I don't think it is very likely we get CA in either case.

If we get Kevin Love, then follow up deals for good complementary players such as Asik or Eric Gordon or Kevin Martin or ...... would likely be in play.

If we don't get Kevin Love or Carmelo, I think it is likely that Rondo gets traded and we go full rebuild and we would not bother pursuing any of the complementary players mentioned above.

If Danny asked me, I would tell him I support this strategy fully.

Yeah, things have been sort of on hold during the Finals, the NBA wants it that way. I think, that's why things seem so unsettled, "up in the air." Nothing is likely to be settled prior to draft night, though, so we have another 10 days to bat rumors around.

Then it will be quieter for a bit before rumors pick up steam in early July.

[LarBrd33]

Everything is completely up in the air.  We could trade up, trade down, trade out, trade picks for a star, trade Rondo for picks, trade Green, trade Wallace + pick for cap space, trade exceptions for talent, trade talent for exceptions...  Everything is on the table.