Yes it was.
The other alternative would've been NOT trading for Kyrie....keeping IT4.....shutting him down due to his injury until NOW....trying to THEN convince Gordon Hayward to come to BOS...
So many If/ands/buts....
If we had shut IT4 down once he initially got hurt (March 2017, against MIN) then I doubt we would've went as far in the playoffs as we did....which would've/could've lead to BOS being a Less-than-idea landing spot for FAs.........
Would GH have come to a 1st round exit BOS team?
With IT4's desire to win perhaps outshining his desire to get healthy I wonder if he would've even listened or been accepting of being shut down? His desire/will is SO STRONG...True Celtic.....
If no trade, then what about Jae Crowder? If GH would've STILL came to BOS could he and Jae co-existed?
Just an unfortunate set of circumstances with the whole thing. But Danny is not a bad guy, here. He won't be a bad guy IF Kyrie leaves, and neither will Kyrie.
I cannot remember the sequence of events, but I have a feeling Gordon Hayward signed with Boston and later in the summer, IT was traded for Kyrie.
For the record, I believe that the trade was definitely worthwhile, but for the sake of argument let's take this down a different path:
1. IT would be signed for approximately $15mm per year.
2. If GH would not have signed with us, we would have not locked up $30mm per year on him, which looks like it is a tremendous overpayment.
3. We likely would have kept signing role players.
Would the team have been better or worse than it is now? Potentially, Tatum and Brown could be 17-23 ppg scorers now and have the ball in their hands during crunch time. Alternatively, we would have been allowed to trade for AD, who may be more willing to sign long term with us.
The possibilities are endless, but my takeaway is that Brad Stevens and Danny Ainge have built a system that puts us in perpetual contention, if we don't mess it up. It seems like the players can be rotated in and out and regardless of what path the team takes, they will still be competitive for a long time. I am very thankful to be a Celtic fan.