According to two league sources, a deal that would send Mark Blount to Minnesota or Memphis could be completed soon. One source described a deal as ''imminent." The most likely scenario would have the Celtics shipping Blount to Minnesota for 7-foot, 270-pound center Michael Olowokandi. The Celtics play the Timberwolves tomorrow night at the TD Banknorth Garden.
Both Minnesota and Memphis are mentioned as possible trading partners. The Grizzlies were one of the suitors who offered Blount essentially the same deal he signed with Boston a year and a half ago, so they have history as well as interest. They also have the expiring contract of Lorenzen Wright to offer. Both teams share another thing in common: they are second-tier playoffs teams still trying to win around solid existing post players. The T-wolves perhaps figure that with Garnett they can bear Blount's deficiencies at rebounding and defense. Memphis may feel the same way about Gasol, although they would have less reason to. Both teams are trying to improve their rosters in a market with incredibly few PF/C of any talent out there to be had in trade, let alone an efficient-scoring PF/C on a $6M/year contract. Lastly, both McHale and West (with all due respect to the logo) have made their fair share of poor personnel decisions in the last several years. Perhaps they'll blow this one, too. We can only hope.
I have been putting the outline together for a much longer review of the current state of the Celtics which I'll go ahead and spill the punch line to now: short of at least one (and more likely it would take 2-3) dramatic and improbable trade(s) the Celtics have almost no chance of becoming a serious playoff team in the next 2-3 years, and little chance of competing for a title in the next 3-4. You'll have to wait for the assessment of the roster/luxury tax situation that leads to this but the upshot is that the window for winning a championship with Paul Pierce on the roster may already have closed. This regardless of whether he chooses to exercise his option in a year and a half and bolt town for a team that's not a train wreck.
Before and during last season ('04-05) the Celtics assembled a group of complementary veterans (Payton, Blount, Walker) to see if they could simultaneously become a competitive playoff team while cultivating the young potential on their roster. This clearly failed as the team went no further (first round playoff exit) in the big picture than it had during the previous year's Jim O'Brien/John Carroll disaster. Following the loss to Indiana 9 months ago management clearly decided to ditch the 'compete now' strategy, got rid of the veterans they could, and committed to going with their youth. Unfortunately, and I suspect unexpectedly for the guys running the team, the results have been far uglier than they hoped. The 'young talent' has shown itself this season to be far more limited and flawed than the anyone expected. While fans in Boston seem to be scapegoat Rivers and scream for him to be fired I think the larger truth is that the young talent on the roster in years away, at best, from making up the core of a real playoff team. Most of them will never be more than role players in a league where winning and losing is a function of which teams have top talent.
With the strengths and limitations of the current roster in more focus I think it's time for the team to stop the half-arsed way they've been trying to rebuild the last three years. If Blount and Ricky currently have value then the time is now to trade them for younger players, expiring contracts and/or picks. The same goes for Paul. It is very likely that the only result of him staying in Boston for the next several years is to ensure we continue to have the 10-15th pick in the draft instead of the 1-5th. I don't have many illusions about dealing Raef's contract. If Blount, Pierce and Davis can get us Luol Deng, the Knicks #1 pick in '06, Kandi's expiring contract and another #1 in '07 (supposedly a very deep draft for big men), then I pull the trigger. In the short term we would be Toronto Raptors-bad (probably worse, lacking a stud like Bosh) but hopefully the inevitable collection of top lottery picks and good drafting can lay the foundation for something good in the future. As I will explain in my longer review there is almost zero chance in the near future of this team adding the kind of significant talent they'll need to go deep in the playoffs through either trades or free agency. For the next several years the future of the franchise will rest almost entirely on the draft.
I hope the fact that Blount is surfacing in recent trade rumors is a sign that the team is getting ready for a more serious commitment to rebuilding.
1 comment:
R.M. wrote via email:
I don't have time to write a long reply, but I just want to say--it's about time you came around! A year ago, when your team was trading for Walker and pushing for a playoff spot, you were excited about the move even though the Celtics never had a chance to win anything meaningful in the foreseeable future. As I said at the time, the Celtics are schitzophrenic, and need to choose between rebuilding and contending because they can't do both. Struggling to get a low playoff seed with a mostly veteran starting 5 does nothing but ensure you'll get a low draft choice.
In my opinion the biggest mistake the Celtics made was the first Walker trade, which stuck them with LaFrentz's bloated deal. They're stuck with that stiff for years to come, and the presence of his contract on the roster means that you can't get cap room without getting rid of Pierce. Walker had an expiring deal and you would have been able to get some picks for him anyway without taking on a bloated contract like LaFrentz. Ever since the LaFrentz deal, the Celtics have been kidding themselves into believing that they had future stars on their team that would develop around Pierce, partly because free agency could never be in the cards with LaFrentz+Pierce around. Now, Pierce is the one who has to go.
Ainge has been drafting fairly well, and the Celtics have some young talent (particularly big Al) and will get more for Pierce. I think the Celtics have some bright days ahead, something a lot of other sub-.500 teams don't have right now. I'd rather be the Celtics than the Bobcats or Hawks.
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