Golden State lands Jordan Crawford, MarShon Brooks from Boston

Awful trade for Celtics. Tank mode enabled.

 

Celtics get the best out of this trade.

Trading away 2 useless players for a first rounder and a second rounder = win.

Miami is simply doing a salary dump. ToneeeeY won't play much for them - Chalmers and Cole will play the majority of the PG minutes. Miami pays big to get rid of Anthony's contract for next year.

Golden State were looking for a backup PG upgrade over Douglas. Not sure they got one in Crawford. Very odd trade for them. Crawford is a volume chucker, and perhaps they're looking for that off the bench? Problem is that he's an awful shooter.

 

Just my intuition tells me that Ainge is setting himself up for a Melo trade at the deadline with the moves he's made the past few months....

However I'm not entirely sure of what he thinks he can do with the contracts of Wallace, Bass, Bogans, and now Anthony. That's more than 26 million dollars on the books for next year alone for subpar players. Good veterans who are declining, on bad contracts.... not good for a trade package deal.

The picks he has acquired, make a pretty good case for a team like the Knicks to look first at Boston for a deal IF they catch wind that Melo will leave them in free agency (a decision he probably makes or doesn't make by the end of the month). Look out for even another deal to happen to clear out more contracts next year as well. Wouldn't be shocked if Ainge is salivating over the Okafor contract that is burning a whole in the Suns books right now. Would Phoenix do a Jeff Green/Bogans swap for Okafor???... who knows.... maybe those two pieces would be more valuable to the Knicks in the first place that clearing cap.... I guess its just preference but I would be willing to be that Ainge is assuming a large expiring is more appealing to almost any team trading a star.

-Also I for one think that Rondo stays a Celtic for now. If they acquire someone like Melo they want to have that secondary player to compete ASAP. In that case Rondo is untouchable. The only way Ainge trades him is if he foresees NO big name star player coming available in the next 8 months, and decides to use Rondo to wipe the books clean of the Wallace/Bogans contracts in a cap clearing deal.

I think its unlikely Ainge trade Rondo just to clear cap and will try and get him an all-star player ASAP, and Melo could be available in just a few short weeks.

 

He's setting himself up for a Kevin Love summer deal, Boston is loaded with assets.

 

I Don't think that GS really got better.

 

Willing to bet they offer Hayward max money

 

Ainge is doing what Morey did, and what the Celtics did when they got KG and Allen. It is an all out asset race. Teams with smart GM's are now stockpiling assets so that they have the most assets to offer to a team when a star player becomes available.

At some point it pops, at some point teams will start giving up too many assets for a star player, but not yet.

Right now, if Kevin Love became available, the Celtics and Bulls could throw more assets on the table that Morey did for Harden or anyone has in recent memory. Ainge wants to have the MOST assets so he can make his move. Everything he has done since the KG and Pierce trade has been to increase flexibility and draft picks.

It is also why I think it will be hard (not impossible) for the Rockets to trade for a third star unless Parsons is involved and the Rockets gut their draft picks Knicks style.

It is the one reason I give the Rondo trade possibility some legs. Morey very well could deal the assets and flexibility to Ainge so that he does not have to compete against Ainge.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Miami's second rounder to Boston is a 2016 pick, league source tells Yahoo.</p>&mdash; Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/statuses/423523408107040768">January 15, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Nobody spells Amar'e or Dwyane right either haha.

 

I agree this works out very well for Ainge. The picks are a more liquid, and perhaps more valuable, trade asset than Brooks and Crawford are. It's similar to the thinking behind trading Lowry for a pick. I'd bet Boston's plan is to trade their way back to contention (around Rondo) rather than rebuild through the draft.

One aspect of this for Miami: Getting rid of the $3.8M owed to Joel A. NEXT season makes it cheaper to bring back Lebron, Wade and Bosh.

 

As others pointed out, this was a salary dump for Miami. They save $5.8 million over the next two years, and it cost them a 1st (76ers) and a 2016 2nd. Also, they may have just slipped below the luxury tax line.

 

Nevermind. I checked my math.....they are still about $4 million into the luxury tax.

Still, getting rid of Anthony probably saved them over $10 million.

 

Plus, as Bill Simmons mentioned, Miami frees up a space to sign Bynum if they so choose.

 

He's wrong about that too, they essentially gave up Joel Anthony for Toney Douglas, a 1 for 1 deal. However, they can definitely eat Roger Mason's contract to free up a spot

 

Has anyone considered the possibilities that:

this sets GSWs up for a run at Love? Lee/Thompson pretty good foundation to a Love deal.

this sets C's up for better pursuit of Asik?

 

Bogans is team option after this season. Bass is tradable (every contract has proved to be tradable, right JJ?). Wallace and Anthony, not so much.

I would be shocked to see Green traded by C's without a terrific return. And JG is not bringing a terrific return.

 

That's nothing for Douglas. Tank mode ready.

 

I mean Horrible trade for C's ^^. My bad lol.

 

Good move for warriors. Their GM has proven to be very very good at his job. Keep improving.

 

Why would the Wolves want Thompson/Lee over the mirriad of assets that the Celtics can throw at the Wolves..... or over the Bulls offer of Mirotic, Bobcats #1 they own, and Jimmy Butler or Noah? .... or over the Rockets offer of Chandler Parsons, Terrance Jones and draft picks?

Asik to the Celtics is always possible, but I think they really want to tank and Asik does not help them in that regard.