Boston Celtics

With the trade of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets - the Boston Celtics are officially rebuilding. Much has been made of the Celtics now having 9 first round picks in the next 5 years but little has been made of the core of young players Boston has in place. Rajon Rondo, Avery Bradley, Brandon Bass. Jeff Green, Jared Sullinger and now first round pick Kelly Olynyk - that could be an entertaining core of players to watch. Maybe even more entertaining than watching minutes being rationed for KG and Pierce while trying to make one last playoff run.

Being the optimist I can't help but think that if there is a sign and trade agreement in place between the Celtics and Atlanta Hawks for Josh Smith then the 2014 Boston team is playoff caliber. And if somehow cap space is available to sign unrestricted free agent Al Jefferson - then suddenly this team has a real shot to contend. ESPN's Marc Stein earlier reported that the Utah Jazz might just let Jefferson walk. I would take that team over the Nets roster - wouldn't you?

A few additional Celtics thoughts:

- People keep saying that Paul Pierce deserved to retire as a Boston Celtic. Who is to say that Danny Ainge didn't offer Pierce the choice and Pierce preferred to take one last shot at another ring?

- People also keep saying that the Celtics may be planning on tanking in 2014 to get a shot at the lottery. maybe its a better chance that the Nets implode in the next year or so and the lottery pick comes from Brooklyn. Remember the Celtics have the option to take the 2017 pick if they want.

- An interesting Vegas bet would be who will have more wins next season - Doc Rivers with the Clippers without Kevin Garnett or rookie coach Jason Kidd in Brooklyn with KG.

Olympic Basketball Team

Here's who was chosen for the US basketball team:

G Jason Kidd
G Deron Williams
G Chris Paul
G Michael Redd
G Dwyane Wade
G Kobe Bryant
F Carmelo Anthony
F Tayshaun Prince
F LeBron James
F Carlos Boozer
F Chris Bosh
C Dwight Howard

A couple of thoughts on this team - if they fail to win the Gold then the blame will fall squarely rightly or wrongly on Kobe Bryant's shoulders.... I don't like the makeup of the team. They have 6 guards and one center? How does that make sense? An Al Jefferson or Kevin Garnett would have greatly helped the team because neither player needs the ball on the offensive end but could add rebounding and strong defense to a team of ball-hungry players. Replace Jason Kidd and Tayshaun Prince with Jefferson and Garnett and the team is 100% better... Speaking of Garnett - where are the big three? No Garnett, no Paul Pierce? No Ray Allen? Didn't USA Basketball learn anything from 2004 or from watching this year's NBA Finals?...

Celtics Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous Boston Celtics thoughts and observations.

Did you realize that the Boston Celtics are 12-0 against teams from the Western Conference? Playing the tough Western Conference teams was supposed to be their Achilles heel... Lies, damn lies and statistics. Al Jefferson of the Timberwolves is actually posting better numbers than the man for whom he was traded - Kevin Garnett. Jefferson is averaging 20.8 points and 12.1 rebounds per game while Garnett is putting up 19.5 and 9.8 numbers. I doubt you would find a single basketball writer willing to say for the record that Jefferson is better than Garnett. It should be obvious to anyone that Garnett is better than Jefferson (not to say that Jefferson won't mature into a great player like Garnett)... The Patriots would go 19-0 if they won the Super Bowl. If I ran a casino I would have a prop bet that would couple the Pats perfect record with the Celtics perfect record again Western Conference foes. The Pats would be the first half of the parlay and the Celtics going 13-0, 14-0 and so on all the way up to 19-0 against the West would be the second half of the parlay. The first games would be even money but if you bet both the Celtics and Patriots going 19-0 then the odds would be 1,000 to 1... I bring up the Al Jefferson and Kevin Garnett comparison because some people seem to think that Dirk Nowitzki is the equal of Larry Bird just because the numbers are similar. It really bugs me when I hear that comparison because not only does Bird have better numbers in points, rebounds and assists - Larry Bird won things - like NBA Championships.

Johan Santana and Jacoby Ellsbury

Last week it was the Eagles having the blueprint to beat the Patriots. This week the parroted sports media meme being tossed about by all the talking heads is to compare Jacoby Ellsbury to Al Jefferson.

The meme goes something like this - "a few months ago Boston fans were against trading the young Al Jefferson for Kevin Garnett but now they are all happy with the result. Including Jacoby Ellsbury in a trade for Johan Santana would be the same thing."

I have problems with this line of thinking. First in basketball one player can make a much bigger impact because there are only five players per team and a guy like Koby Bryant can take 40% of the shots. In baseball a player can't take 40% of the at bats and a pitcher like Santana can only pitch once every 5 games. Maybe if Al Jefferson played every game but Kevin Garnett was only allowed to play once every 5 days then the comparison would hold more validity.

It's apples to oranges and just wrong. The meme being picked up and repeated over and over shows a lack of original thinking on the part of the Boston sports media.

Kevin Garnett to the Celtics

Kevin Garnett is coming to the Celtics and I'm very happy about it. This trade is almost the definition of the five nickels for a quarter type trade (although with Al Jefferson included in the deal - it is more like one dime and four nickels for a quarter).

Garnett is a Hall of Fame player. Yes he's at the tail-end of his career but that's OK because he's still one of the five best in the game. In the NBA a quarter always has way more value than the five nickels.

The key for Minnesota is Al Jefferson who as a 22-year old averaged 16 PPG and 11 RPG. When KG was 22-years old he averaged 20 and 10. I think those numbers give false impressions though because this year garbage time started in Celtics games during the first quarter. Jefferson will be an excellent player in the NBA but he will never be Kevin Garnett.

OK - that's the dime - what about the nickels? Theo Ratliff was thrown in because of his expiring contract. Gerald Green probably will never be a starter for a playoff contending team. I think Danny Ainge made McHale take Sebastian Telfair off the Celtics hands as part of the trade. The only player I'm not real happy about giving up (besides Jefferson of course) is Ryan Gomes. I think Gomes is a solid contributor. However, I think the Celtics must feel that his numbers can be made up by rookie Glen "Big Baby" Davis.

Five nickels for a quarter. You always give up the nickels to get the quarter.

Celtics Trade

I love the trade that sent Ray Allen to the Celtics in exchange for the 5th pick (Jeff Green) plus Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West. This will make a huge difference to the Celtics and I think it puts them in the running for the Eastern Conference Championship next year. The move gives the Celtics a mini-Big Three with Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Al Jefferson. Those three will match up well with any three from any team in the East.

I know that Ray Allen is about to be 32 (July 20th) and that Paul Pierce is 30 but Al Jefferson is just 22 and is coming off a season where he averaged 16 points and 11 rebounds per game. If the Celtics can make it to the playoffs with those 3 players healthy - then anything can happen.

Besides the 22-year old Al Jefferson, the Celtics also have a core of young players like 21-year old Gerald Green, 21-year old Rajon Rondo, 23-year old Kendrick Perkins, 25-year old Tony Allen and 25-year old Ryan Gomes. With Ray Allen and Paul Pierce that's 8 players who can go uptempo and tire out some of the older teams in the East (Toronto being the team that most worries me).

Rounding out the bench would be USC guard Gabe Pruitt who was taken yesterday with their pick at No. 32, LSU's Glen 'Big Baby' Davis who was taken at No. 35 plus Theo Ratliff who not only has a big expiring contract but who also is still a big help on the defensive end when healthy.

Many people are looking for the Celtics to make another move to further upgrade their roster but I think the roster is fine as currently comprised. Sometimes too much tinkering is a bad thing. If the Celtics do make another move - I hope it is just to move the unwanted contracts of Brian Scalabrine (nothing personal Brian - you seem like a fine fellow but I would just as soon not see you in a Celtics uniform next year) and Sebastian Telfair (punk).

When you look at what the Celtics gave up to get Ray Allen - it makes you like the move even more. Jeff Green will be a good but not great player who would have competed for minutes with the Celtics with both Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes (Seattle hopes that Green will be as good as Al Jefferson but he may be closer to the under-rated Gomes). Wally Szczerbiak has a contract that is huge in comparison to what he brings to the court and lets not forget that he's starting to look a bit brittle. Delonte West played both the point and shooting guard but was not great at either position.

I like this trade a whole lot.