Love to Cavs: Danny's Doing?

[Rida]

Just wanted to get your take on this.

When we gave up our 10 Million exemption for Zeller a first and Thornton did Danny know that he would make the Cavs contenders for love?

That trade essentially gave them the space to sign LeBron, I am just wondering if it crossed his mind that it could also make the Cavs players for Love.

 or

Did Danny still have plans on Love and just wanted more assets (Cavs first) to throw at the T'Wolves in a trade.

I think Danny was partially blinded by his desire to break up the Big 3 in the East and didn't realize that he was giving the Cavs the tools to build another big 3 in Cleveland.

Simmons broke the story that Celtics had a deal of shipping out Bass to GSW with the exception and I am wondering why he didn't just do that trade instead of basically creating an arms race in the East.

On another note

It ironic that the Celtics have been intertwined with Lebrons career so much. From the 2010 game 6 Cavs meltdown that ended his first stint in Cleveland to the 2011 playoff performance in game 6 that saw him finally beat the Celtics, to the Celtics giving the Cavs the tools to re-sign him this summer

[Chris22]

Who cares?
Danny made our team better by making something out of nothing.

[Jiri Welsch]

Who cares?
Danny made our team better by making something out of nothing.

I think the OP cares because he made a thread about the topic.

I am almost certain Ainge knew his deal with the Cavs would help facilitate a Love deal to a destination besides Boston. However, you have to believe by the time the trade was made in July Ainge had a pretty good idea the Celtics weren't realistic players in the Love sweepstakes. Ainge certainly had talked to Saunders before then, and the signs seemed to point to Min not liking what we had to offer.

I think Ainge saw the option of Zeller, another 1st, and a big expiring as more enticing than getting Bass off the books.

Bass and Thornton, though we'd love to get rid of them tomorrow, will be decent assets for teams at the deadline. Teams who have given up hope after believing they could compete this year and want to shed salary, or teams who feel they are one piece away from a run. Though we won't get 1sts for those players, we could get some decent NBA-level skill for either of the two.

[Who]

Ainge knew that if he didn't make that trade with Cleveland, then the Cavs would have just have found a similar deal with someone else.

Better Boston gets something out of it than nothing at all.

[obnoxiousmime]

Ainge knew that if he didn't make that trade with Cleveland, then the Cavs would have just have found a similar deal with someone else.

Better Boston gets something out of it than nothing at all.

Yes, this was exactly it. Let's put these threads to rest.

The current NBA is not like the past when most teams were cap-strapped and expirings were valuable. Nowadays teams are better managed and you can always find a team under the cap to dump salary if you give up an asset or two. Ainge took the deal because the Cavs would have found another partner anyway and he decided he might as well get something for the trade exception which was going to expire.

The fact is once LeBron decided to join the Cavs and Cleveland agreed to include Wiggins in the deal, Love was going to Cleveland one way or the other. It was just a question of what minor maneuvers here or there were necessary to make the numbers work.

[BitterJim]

The trade involving Bass to the Warriors was us trading him there and them absorbing him with the TPE they have (possibly making us a TPE in the process, I'd need to look at our cap numbers).

We would not have been able to use our TPE to send away salary, only to absorb it.

Also, the Warriors were the ones that didn't pull the trigger (probably because they were/thought they were still in the hunt for Love), not Danny, who was ready to go through with it

[Donoghus]

Ainge knew that if he didn't make that trade with Cleveland, then the Cavs would have just have found a similar deal with someone else.

Better Boston gets something out of it than nothing at all.

This.

Danny was doing what was best for the Celtics.  The fact that it helped open up things for Cleveland to bring in Love is just a side effect.   Danny was try make something out of nothing and he did.

[Rida]

Ainge knew that if he didn't make that trade with Cleveland, then the Cavs would have just have found a similar deal with someone else.

Better Boston gets something out of it than nothing at all.

See this is thing that I don't agree with, they had a deal in place with GSW for Bass and the exception.

This could however have also given GSW the cap space to faciliate a Love trade too.

[D.o.s.]

Ainge knew that if he didn't make that trade with Cleveland, then the Cavs would have just have found a similar deal with someone else.

Better Boston gets something out of it than nothing at all.

See this is thing that I don't agree with, they had a deal in place with GSW for Bass and the exception.

This could however have also given GSW the cap space to faciliate a Love trade too.

Golden State was forced to abandon their TPE because they couldn't swing a Love trade right way.

[Chris22]

I think the T Wolves got the best of the trade.

Two young stars and a draft pick for a guy who was leaving anyway.

[Celtics4ever]

Two young stars

Bennet was not a star last year.  In fact, he had the worst rookie season in the last 24 years.

http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/1/14/5305228/anthony-bennett-rookie-season-statistics-cleveland-cavaliers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lt3Xw_8oMI

just because he is a former number one pick means nothing.

[kraidstar]

Two young stars

Bennet was not a star last year.  In fact, he had the worst rookie season in the last 24 years.

http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/1/14/5305228/anthony-bennett-rookie-season-statistics-cleveland-cavaliers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lt3Xw_8oMI

just because he is a former number one pick means nothing.

+100000
i don't get why all of a sudden bennett is this great asset. don't get me wrong, i might take a flyer on him, but he's been awful compared to guys like olynyk and sullinger. and the cavs pick minny got will likely be late first-round... wiggins is far more valuable than the other two assets, and if he doesn't pan out, then the wolves might really end up with very little from that trade.

[BitterJim]

Ainge knew that if he didn't make that trade with Cleveland, then the Cavs would have just have found a similar deal with someone else.

Better Boston gets something out of it than nothing at all.

See this is thing that I don't agree with, they had a deal in place with GSW for Bass and the exception.

This could however have also given GSW the cap space to faciliate a Love trade too.

No, they didn't have a deal in place with GS involving our trade exception.  You can't trade trade exceptions.

We discussed a deal with GS where we gave them Bass.  We did not give them a trade exception, they would have been using theirs to take in salary (think of it like a mid-level exception:  It lets you sign someone over the cap, but it's not a tradeable asset)

We did not step away from a deal with GS to make one with the Cavs, they stepped away from us to keep cap space open for a potential Love deal.

I cannot stress this enough, our TPE would not have been used in a Bass deal.  Our TPE was used to absorb salary without sending any out, and getting Zeller, Thornton and a pick for it is a great haul, better than most, which just expire unused (like GS's ended up doing)

And had we not stepped in, another team, like the 76ers, would have taken on the salary to get a pick.  The writing was on the wall already, he just took advantage of it

[Moranis]

Two young stars

Bennet was not a star last year.  In fact, he had the worst rookie season in the last 24 years.

http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/1/14/5305228/anthony-bennett-rookie-season-statistics-cleveland-cavaliers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lt3Xw_8oMI

just because he is a former number one pick means nothing.

+100000
i don't get why all of a sudden bennett is this great asset. don't get me wrong, i might take a flyer on him, but he's been awful compared to guys like olynyk and sullinger. and the cavs pick minny got will likely be late first-round... wiggins is far more valuable than the other two assets, and if he doesn't pan out, then the wolves might really end up with very little from that trade.

Anthony Bennett was injured and out of shape for almost the entirety of last season.  Towards the end of his season (i.e. late January and February) he started to show some flashes and he has continued that this summer. 

And that article was posted January 14th, prior to Bennett starting to pick up. 

Anthony Bennett will have a better season than Kelly Olynyk this year.  I have the utmost confidence in saying that as Anthony Bennett is better than Kelly Olynyk.

[Mr October]

Ainge knew that if he didn't make that trade with Cleveland, then the Cavs would have just have found a similar deal with someone else.

Better Boston gets something out of it than nothing at all.

See this is thing that I don't agree with, they had a deal in place with GSW for Bass and the exception.

This could however have also given GSW the cap space to faciliate a Love trade too.

The Celtics were more than willing to uphold their half of the deal to move Bass to Golden State, but Golden State decided they didn't want him. Therefore there was no deal in place for Boston.

In the unrelated Thornton deal, the celtics had 3 days to use or lose the trade exception. And if they didn't use it, the Lakers, Sixers, eat would have been happy to swoop in for a pick. Ainge struck first.

Good deal for the Celtics. Once Lebron decided to go to Cleveland and Cleveland was willing to swap Wiggins for Love, the deals were going to happen regardless of Boston.