AB was my favorite Celtic. Solid citizen, great teammate, phenomenal work ethic that resulted in improvement EVERY year.
I didn't like seeing him go, but understood why he had to: imbalanced roster with too many guards and a soon to be cost-prohibitive contract as well as the need to make financial room for Hayward.
For those who didn't like the trade as far as value goes, does it make it more palatable that we actually got Morris AND Baynes for AB and the second round pick?
I think that this may have actually been discussed, and it was decided to make it two separate transactions so that we got the salary space/flexibility we needed for Hayward with the initial transaction and then we were able to sign Baynes with the room exception.
Van Gundy seemed to really value Baynes and didn't want to trade him at the deadline, even knowing that he would lose him for nothing in the offseason.
"The Pistons opted against trading Baynes before the deadline despite the knowledge he could walk away at season's end. Head coach Stan Van Gundy said the team would have lost too much defensively down the stretch just to hunt down a likely lesser asset in a return, per Aaron McMann of MLive.com.
"It's really been proved for two years now that our defense is significantly better with Aron on the floor," Van Gundy said. "His communication, his toughness, the fact that he reacts quickly and is ahead of the play, really, really helps our defense. And he helps us play well on offense, too. He's a great screener, he understands the game. He helps us."
From http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2717061-aron-baynes-celtics-reportedly-agree-on-1-year-43-million-contract
I like what van Gundy says about Baynes. We got him at a "bargain" that may have actually been a wink-wink in the AB trade.