From Sean Deveny at the Sporting News, if pierce can be moved for a trade exception the celtics would then make their offer. The two teams rumored for Pierce are Milwaukee and Cleveland. Can't link the article unfortunately....
The Celtics wont trade Pierce for the same reasons Kobe wont be amnestied in LA..They just mean too much to the franchise. If anything I still expect the Celtics to trade Garnet somewhere else..
Rondo Crawford Green Smith That's not a terrible 1-4 line up in the east, it's actually pretty solid. They're going to need a decent center to be competitive though. All they have to do is get the ok from Pierce and they are in the clear. I don't think any franchise is that dedicated to any one aging player. Usually, the problem is when the player doesn't want to leave, because the fans will then turn on the FO.
Celtics is trying to repeat their old trick: Starting from one younger star, and trade for or pick other stars later. They started with Pierce and traded for KG/Allen and picked Rondo. J.Smith is not old, so in 3/4 years they have a shot to get good pieces together.
I know you said 'decent', but they at least have some size with Sullinger and Fab Melo. Now it all makes sense. Josh Smith would be in his dream role... 3 point sniper :grin:
Such a move would keep the Celtics as middling playoff contenders for the next 5 years. In that sense, I almost hope they do it. Imagine if the Rockets big move this summer was signing Josh Smith. And that's with a better supporting cast in place. People here aren't excited about signing Smith... they're excited about adding Smith (or similar) to a team that already includes Harden and Dwight... because that's what Smith should be, a third piece with 2 other awesome pieces.
Yeah, that, and the lack of a center, would keep them from having a winning season, but they have enough talent to run on teams. That style might open up things for Crawford, Lee, and Green to shoot threes better than they usually do. You can also insert Terry at the 2 and bring Crawford off the bench for some scoring.
Not good enough to win, but not bad enough to get a good draft pick. Just keep spinning their wheels.
That's brilliant. It's like they're rebuilding immediately upon losing 2 of their big 3. I'm impressed with Ainge's idea here. Get them a center that is top 15 in the league and they look solid once again. Building a team around Rondo/Smith will probably work out.
One thing I learned from fantasy basketball, no matter how cool it may seem, never pair Rondo with Smith. Ever.
