Trade Rumors du Jour

Outside and TJ,

I notice that neither of you even referenced the first-rounder that I had included to sweeten the deal for Gortat. I'm glad you think the Celtics will finish so high that a pick this coming June would be of little value.

Allow me to focus specifically on the possibility of trading either

Bass and Wilcox and this season's first rounder or

Terry, Collins, Melo and this season's first-rounder

for Gortat. Whattaya think?

Sam

sam,

ive heard reports that this season's draft class wasnt supposed to be all that steller.. if thats the case then trading away the pick to improve ourselves here and now is certianly a good option.

Melo though, i'd kinda like to keep, more so than Bass or Wilcox the kid could end up being somebody, even a contander.

sam wrote:Outside and TJ,

I notice that neither of you even referenced the first-rounder that I had included to sweeten the deal for Gortat. I'm glad you think the Celtics will finish so high that a pick this coming June would be of little value.

Allow me to focus specifically on the possibility of trading either

Bass and Wilcox and this season's first rounder or

Terry, Collins, Melo and this season's first-rounder

for Gortat. Whattaya think?

Sam

Sorry Sam, that's my fault.
I didn't remember that you mentioned a 1st round pick in your second paragraph.
A 1st round pick can have considerable value especially since Boston is hovering around .500 and Rondo is out for the year.

Take two

Bass and Wilcox and this season's first rounder for Gortat
Boston - Yes!
Phoenix - Meh

Terry, Collins, Melo and this season's first-rounder for Gortat
Boston - Yes!
Phoenix - Meh

So not much changed other than that the draft pick makes the first option a little more palatable.

Bass's stock has fallen off dramatically. Maybe a change of location would do him good, but he's not an attractive chip considering his contract.

Wilcox is what he is at this point, and at age 30, he'd have limited appeal to a franchise that is in a multi-year rebuilding process.

Terry would have even less appeal for a team in rebuild mode. His appeal would be to a "win now" team.

I'm not sure what Collins's appeal would be other than to Igor in Young Frankenstein.

Melo at least has potential, and Phoenix could be patient enough to see that to fruition, but he's not a lock. Will he be at the DeAndre Jordan/Nikola Vucevic end of the scale, or more like Hasheem Thabeet? He's pretty much the same as the draft pick at this point -- an uncertain asset.

In both scenarios, Gortat is the only known asset of good value, so both trades are weighted considerably in Boston's favor.

I don't believe the Suns' main goal would be to get players who can help them now as much as to prepare for the future. I'm wondering whether the Suns would bite if they would be shaving a million bucks and getting a pretty decent future prospect plus a potentially good draft pick plus a serviceable PF who, despite what some would call a millstone contract, could be trade bait.

Who knows? If the Celtics can keep playing as they have in the last two games, they might be ill-advised to make a trade anyway, as even guys like Bass and Terry might look more valuable. I wish I thought Wilcox could maintain his current output level long-term.

Sam

Yesterday in an interview with Danny Ainge, he made it sound like he would be uninterested in giving up a draft pick. He said that most teams are not giving them away easily and that teams are holding on to their picks. I can only imagine that the deal would have to be so sweet that he would be swayed into giving his pick away. Of course, this is Danny in an interview, what he says behind closed doors is another thing

Rosalie

Thanks for that info, Rosalie.

Sam

I agree that Boston shouldn't give up their 1st round pick this year.
Without Rondo I don't think Boston will be able to be title contenders.
I could be proved wrong, but Rondo really steps up his game in the playoffs and carries his team.

I wouldn't trade Sullinger, Bradley or Melo just to get a little better this season.

I don't see the problem with giving up a first round pick as part of the deal for Gortat. It will be a lower-middle of the first round pick, center is the biggest gaping hole in the roster, and you'd be thrilled if you could use that pick to come up with a guy who develops into a player of Gortat's caliber a few years down the line.

A draft pick is a risky, unknown quantity, and Gortat is a known quantity who fills the biggest need Boston has. Either scenario Sam proposed would easily be worth it.

TJ and Outside,

I think (and definitely hope) that it's currently impossible to predict how the Celtics might fare without Rondo.

As far as I'm concerned, the current Celtics are morphing from a Cousy-centric model to a DJ/Ainge model. I'm NOT comparing the quality of the players of the various eras, but I am suggesting that both a PG-oriented model and more egalitarian model can work under the right circumstances—especially if the team has a point forward type available (e.g. Havlicek and Larry).

IF the Celtics can continue playing this way AND IF they also could acquire a Gortat, I'd be quite optimistic about the rest of this season and the playoffs. However, I gave up predicting when Russ retired.

I used to predict and bet all over the place during his reign. And they were virtually all sucker bets. I'm just sorry the only money I risked involved my 20-to-zero bet that they'd win a given "big" game. (And I never once lost my $20.) That was the combined confidence/arrogance acme of my career as a Celtics fan. Now I hope rather than predict.

Sam

Sam:

If you hoped anymore, you'd have to change your name from Sam to Bob. (lol)

MD!

MDCelticsFan wrote:Sam:

If you hoped anymore, you'd have to change your name from Sam to Bob. (lol)

MD!

I resemble that remark
Keep Hope Alive (watch an "On the Road" movie).

bob (full of) hope.

Bob:

You can resemble any remark you like as long as it doesn't HecKle me! (lol)

MD!