The Tanking Celtics Train

Jordan Crawford was the latest Boston Celtic to be traded.  Will more trades follow?

The Boston Celtics won their first game in awhile yesterday after losing 9 straight games in a row.  It was especially tough to watch if you were a Celtics fan, but it felt even worse to watch if you were solely a basketball fan since they did so many things fundamentally wrong during their losing streak.  They committed errant passes, dribbled out the clock, didn't pass, and jack up so many shots that they weren't even worth watching.  Then again, the Celtics have been like this the whole year.  With no Rondo, and a new roster led by new coach Brad Stevens, it's clear that they're tanking to get a top pick in the 2014 draft, or do what they did back in 2007-2008 and trade for star talent.

Do I think this is a smart plan?  In a lot of ways, I do, since it was clear the Celtics had to rebuild after their championship window closed, which quite honestly, was open much longer than it should have been.  That's a testament to the players they had and Doc Rivers, who became arguably the best coach in the NBA in that time span.  The Celtic fan in me wishes they kept Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett and went on another title run with the old crew, but with no Ray Allen, things didn't feel the same for me.  Not to mention, looking at how they're both playing in Brooklyn now, it's safe to say both are closer to retirement than contributing.  A sad thing to see for someone who's such a fan of them.  But you can't dwell on the past, you have to focus on the future.

That's what Danny Ainge is doing though, focusing on the future.  If he can't trade for anyone, he'll have to rely on the draft, which isn't a terrible thing this year if he can get a top pick, since everyone says this is the deepest draft in years.  I don't know much about the players as a whole, but you'd have to be oblivious to not to have heard the names Wiggins, Parker, Randle, Smart, Gordon, etc.  They're potentially franchise changing players, so everyone is paying attention to see who goes where in June.  I personally have no preference who the Celtics take or what they do in the end, as long as they get back to winning because as much as I love basketball, I can't stand to see them tanking and playing so bad.  Yes, this is necessary for some teams to get back to the top, but if our team loses, we at least deserve to watch good quality basketball, which is something I haven't seen consistently this whole year. 

Hopefully, things change, but only time will tell...

Will the Celtics get one of these guys in June?  They want one of them, but it's up to the ping pong balls if things fall their way

Jeff Green For Kendrick Perkins: The Trade Revisited

The Then

Yesterday, the Boston Celtics failed to end the Miami Heat's 22 game winning streak, falling to them 105-103.  They were up by as much as 17 points, but couldn't stop Lebron James, who had a dominant game with 37 points/7 rebounds/12 assists/2 steals/2 blocks, and a thunderous dunk over Jason Terry.  Not lost from the game though, was Jeff Green, the soft spoken Celtics bench player, who had 43 points/7 rebounds/2 assists/2 steals/4 blocks.  The game was Jeff Green's best game of his career, and something we Celtics fans have been waiting to see since Danny Ainge pulled the Kendrick Perkins for Jeff Green trade three seasons ago.  At the time of the trade, Celtics fans thought it was a huge mistake, but now, they are still beginning to reap the rewards.  Was the trade still bad, even with things the way they are now?  I say no.

The Celtics trade with the Thunder wasn't terrible for various reasons.  First of all, they were building for the future, which is a must in the NBA with young teams and superstars like Lebron James or Carmelo Anthony.  Yes, the Celtics had The Big Three at the time, but their team was old that year.  Jeff Green gave them the scoring and youth they lacked so much.  Secondly, Kendrick Perkins had no value that year.  He got a few rebounds, and gave defensive toughness, but he was injured for most of the year, and he wanted money that he didn't deserve.  The Oklahoma City Thunder benefited with him one year, but they still haven't won a title with him, and he does next to nothing.

I'm not saying that the trade had no ramifications because it did, but in the long run, the Celtics won that trade.  They got Jeff Green, a younger player with much more upside.  Sure, they had to overpay him on his contract extension, and he had open heart surgery, but that just made him stronger/better.  Kendrick Perkins on the other hand is doing nothing for the Thunder now besides taking money.  He was so bad at one point that the Thunder were thinking of amnestying him because he wasn't worth the money he got.  Because of his contract, that made the Thunder unable to keep James Harden, so they traded him.  All the naysayers can say the Celtics made a bad trade, but at the end of the day, they added someone better, while the Thunder lost someone better.  And while Kendrick Perkins can't/won't improve, Jeff Green can and will.

The Now