Spears' latest Big 3 / Big 4 departure story, with an added point by Doc

Some comments offered up by Doc Rivers in bold italic. Barring trades or strong draft additions, of course; one angle that no one seems to be considering for next year...

Celtics’ Big Four could scatter after season

By Marc J. Spears, Yahoo! Sports


Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett were standing in front of the Boston Celtics’ private jet during a recent Western trip when they decided to have a picture taken. The Celtics’ stars have taken plenty of photos, but this one was different: Just days before the NBA’s trade deadline, Pierce, Garnett, Allen and Rondo jokingly questioned whether this would be the last shot of them together.

Though none of the four were traded, they all know their time together is running out. The core that carried the Celtics to the NBA championship in 2008 and another Finals appearance in 2010 will likely be broken up this summer.

Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett will both become free agents after this season.

“I’ve been [sentimental] since the beginning,” Pierce said. “Every day since we’ve been together I just appreciate being on the court with these guys. [A breakup] could’ve happened last year or the year before.

“I appreciate every moment I have with them, but even more so this year because Kevin and Ray are in the last year of their deals. This could be our last run.”

The Celtics’ Big Three came together before the 2007-08 season when trades brought Garnett and Allen to Boston to join Pierce. Rondo was an unproven, young point guard and has since become a three-time All-Star. Pierce, Allen and Garnett are all in the twilight of their careers – a fact Celtics general manager Danny Ainge knows well.

Ainge once told Red Auerbach that the late Celtics patriarch should have traded Larry Bird when Bird still had value near the end of his career so the franchise would have an easier transition to its next era. Ainge sent center Kendrick Perkins to the Oklahoma City Thunder last season and seemed like he was prepared to disassemble the rest of the Celtics’ core this season. With the Celtics in a fight to just make the playoffs, Rondo, Pierce, Allen and Garnett were all discussed in trade talks.

“It’s a part of the business,” Garnett said. “I’ve been here for a while and I understand what it is.”

Allen was viewed as the most likely of the four players to be dealt, but he didn’t sweat the trade deadline nearly as much as his family.

“Obviously, you don’t want to go anywhere, but that’s part of the game,” Allen said. “The last two or three years I’ve been dealing with it more. If I was one of those people that stayed online looking, it would have probably been nerve-wracking because I would have been wondering if something was going to happen. I wasn’t that guy.”

The Celtics offered Rondo to the New Orleans Hornets for Chris Paul before the season began. As the trade deadline neared, Celtics officials stressed they would part with Rondo only if they received an elite player in return. To move Pierce, they also wanted a young star. League sources said the Celtics asked for first-round picks in this year’s draft for Allen and Garnett.

Minutes before the trade deadline, Rondo asked a Boston Globe reporter at the team’s hotel in San Francisco if any moves had been made. “Am I still a Celtic?” Rondo said.

“I’m glad it’s over with so everyone else can stop talking about it,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.

Regardless, this summer is expected to bring significant change for the Celtics. Garnett, 35, and Allen, 36, will be free agents. Pierce, 34, also will have just one year remaining on his contract (worth $16.7 million), which makes him tradeable.

But even if the Celtics clear significant salary-cap room, this summer’s free-agent class isn’t deep. Dwight Howard has opted for another season with the Orlando Magic, leaving Deron Williams as the biggest potential free agent. If Williams leaves the New Jersey Nets, he’s expected to strongly consider signing with the Dallas Mavericks. The remainder of the class will likely be filled with older veterans like Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, Chris Kaman, Andre Miller, Jason Terry, Jason Kidd and Kirk Hinrich – the same kind of players the Celtics currently have in Garnett and Allen.

That’s why Rivers thinks the Celtics’ core could return intact next season.

“I’m always sentimental with them,” Rivers said. “I won a title with them and lost another one in a Game. 7. I think people assume they won’t be back next year. I don’t know why there is that assumption. [Garnett and Allen] are free agents, but you can sign your own free agents last time I checked.

“I don’t know if we will sign them both. We may sign one. But they’ve been great for us. Our [free agents] are probably the best ones and we will have the most money.”

Rivers said he believes Garnett’s preference would be to return to Boston. “When he doesn’t think he can help a team, he’d stop playing,” Rivers said.

Allen’s free-agent options are up in the air. The Miami Heat are expected to make a strong run at signing him this summer, one league source said.

“First of all, the team has to be willing to have me back,” Allen said. “Then you have to look around to see what’s acceptable and who is capable of having me on the team and then you go from there. It’s hard to really say.”

The Celtics (24-21) hold the Eastern Conference’s seventh playoff seed. How they do in the playoffs – assuming they make it – will play a role in how the roster looks next season.

For now, even Garnett admits to feeling sentimental about the possible final days of the Big Three.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t,” he said. “I try to look at this thing for the long haul. That’s where my mindset is.”

Nothing foolish there Rosalie.

Looks like there won't be much to choose from regardless of how much cap space is cleared. I get much more sentimental over thoughts of the 80's team: Bird, Parrish, McHale & DJ. They were more talented than this group of today, and played better over a greater period of time against better competition.

MD!

ive never understood the notion that this group would go off in seperate directions after this season.. why would they?

resign KG and Ray with team freindly deals so they can stick it out with Paul use the rest of our money to bring in the best Bigs we can buy and go from there.. as Doc pointed out, our guys are still among the best f/a's out there.. why not keep 'em?

Matty:

Ok say we keep 'em. The pool of free agents is wafer (not Von) thin. There just isn't much quality with any degree of youth and ability to add especially since Howard is commited to the Magic for at least one more year, not that the C's had more of a snow ball's chance of getting him. Prospects for an improvement next season better come from the draft, and Doc better make up his mind to give Johnson & Moore meaningful minutes for the duration.

MD!

Matty wrote:ive never understood the notion that this group would go off in seperate directions after this season.. why would they?

resign KG and Ray with team freindly deals so they can stick it out with Paul use the rest of our money to bring in the best Bigs we can buy and go from there.. as Doc pointed out, our guys are still among the best f/a's out there.. why not keep 'em?

Spot on. As long as KG and Ray restructure enough to give the team some room to sign big men. Make a play for Roy Hibbert, maybe Brooke Lopez, who knows.....just as long as there is a bit more cap money to play with - I think KG and Ray are still in the top 5 at their positions.

KG & Ray may well be re-signed for next year. I agree with you MR give a shot to acquiring either Hibbert or Lopez. However, chances of that are slim since the Russian millionaire, Prokorav can match our offer to Lopez so the Brook won't flow to Boston, and Larry Bird will make sure the Georgetown 7' grad. will not migrate to the Northeast.

MD!

mrkleen09 wrote:

Matty wrote:ive never understood the notion that this group would go off in seperate directions after this season.. why would they?

resign KG and Ray with team freindly deals so they can stick it out with Paul use the rest of our money to bring in the best Bigs we can buy and go from there.. as Doc pointed out, our guys are still among the best f/a's out there.. why not keep 'em?

Spot on. As long as KG and Ray restructure enough to give the team some room to sign big men. Make a play for Roy Hibbert, maybe Brooke Lopez, who knows.....just as long as there is a bit more cap money to play with - I think KG and Ray are still in the top 5 at their positions.

Kleen and Matty,

I think the point the two of you are making is exactly what Doc was getting at and I think you're both using the thinking man's approach to keeping the Celtics a contending and building (notice I didn't say "re-building") team. I feel the two of you are preaching the smarter approach.

• There aren't any free agents coming out that we really want in 2012.

• Outside of Howard it doesn't look like a bumper FA crop in 2013.

• This years draft is deep and talented and we have several picks.

• Our only trading pieces in high demand are our picks and Rondo.

• We have what could be three key young players under development in Bradley, Moore and Johnson.

• We have two serviceable and fairly inexpensive rotation players that provide depth with defense and scoring in Bass and Pietrus.

I'm sure you're both right in thinking that KG and Allen might very well accept short-term deals to stay. Realistically, where else are they going? Ray has value because of his incredible conditioning and the fact that he may be the best shooter anyone has ever seen. He does seem to have a preference for staying local and despite his conditioning how big a contract will he secure elsewhere because of age? If he goes anywhere it's probably Miami in order to get a ring. KG? To be blunt he probably is number 2 on the depth chart anywhere but here. He's still a good PF but probably better suited to C now. I doubt he goes somewhere else to have his minutes drastically reduced when he knows he can play here.

This team's future is in this year's draft. Our needs, and probably in this order, are C, SG, SF, PF and PG. With where our first two picks are likely to fall we can probably get a C capable of playing right away and a very good SG. It won't be hard to find a promising talent in the second round this year either.

If we trade these valuable picks for a young but established player, that's great too. If we need money to fund part of that we can always entertain letting KG and/or Allen walk then, but shouldn't fail to negotiate with them prior to that situation happening.

We could potentially have Johnson and one or two other frontline players we draft developing over the next year and KG could provide enough juice to let them work out the kinks. Ray can still put up some big numbers for a year while we see if Pietrus can get healthy or a hot young draftee might be found to run with Rondo.

If we're smart, this can be a very good transition. We may not have to blow it up this summer in order to get where we want to be.


Regards

I think everyone makes good points, but the overriding need I see in addition to the ones NYCelt listed is patience. It's all about championships, right? There's no free agent to instantly transform the team, trading for a player like that is possible but unlikely, so building through smart draft picks and free agent signings is the most likely route. That takes time to bear fruit.

I would hope the Celtic fan base can be more patient than the Warrior one showed itself to be recently (booing the new owner because they traded Monta Ellis), but humans are apparently evolving into a 24/7 data feed, I want it NOW creature that disdains patience as a quaint relic. But the most likely route to a championship contender should be viewed as a multi-year process. Smart draft picks and free agent signings, the occasional trade that presents itself, develop the talent.

KG and Ray can be invaluable assets in this process. They can tutor the new guys and show through their example how champions and professionals work. Those intangibles can make a huge difference to young players who, for the most part, have gotten by their entire athletic lives on superior talent and been surrounded by people fawning over them. As long as the capability and willingness to learn are there, KG and Ray can lead the way to the next level much more quickly.

Outside

Outside,

Patience.

What an amazingly good point. Simple. True. Overlooked.

We were spoiled in '07 by going from worst to first. Some would claim it was 22 years of patience that was rewarded; they too have a point. Perhaps this revision and that one should not be viewed the same. They won't be the same.

Failing lightning striking twice or an NBA version of the '69 Mets, it will take patience.

I think we do have the right ingredients available to stay viable. That is to say I think we can be tough enough through the next few years to remain a contender for a playoff spot. I can see us being far enough along already to possibly be a perennial presence in the playoffs. But fans may need to remember that for now, that may need to be enough. That may also be more than what a number of teams get.

Enjoy the journey. Watch the team develop. Cheer each step.

Patience. What a concept. What a great idea.

Regards