Grading Celtics-Nets deal for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce

SI article from 2013 gave Boston a grade B and the Nets a B+

https://www.si.com/nba/point-forward/2013/06/28/boston-celtics-brooklyn-nets-trade-kevin-garnett-paul-pierce-grades

5 years is a good period of time to look back on the trade.

I believe that it was a great deal for the Celtics because the team had to be rebuilt.  And I thought the Nets looked good on paper but I knew that KG and PP had already passed their expiration dates.  

Since the draft position would play a critical role in the rebuild I was pretty comfortable that the Nets would not be a great team.  I did not expect them to turn out this bad however.  Over the past  5 years they won 154 games 38% winning percentage while Boston has won 221 games at a 53% clip  (regular season)

Pierce only lasted one year in Brooklyn and KG was traded to his beloved Sota after 1 1/2 in Brooklyn.

After 5 years Boston is a title contender while Brooklyn remains in a rebuilding mode.  Brooklyn went into rebuilding mode one year after the big trade but since they did not have those first round picks they have not been able to stock the team with young studs.

The Nets have had 5 coaches in 5 years.

The Nets would get an F and Boston would get an A+ if hindsight was 20/20 vision.

At the time I rated the trade in favor of Boston and would have given them an A for the sheer number of first rounders.  I would have given the Nets a C because they had assembled an aged team and parted with too many future first rounders in the process.

Danny cashed in big time with  2 golden eggs and traded the last one but picked up another that is likely to be even better.  

Danny is a gambler but at the same time he knows when to fold his hand.  It took some luck to build this team but at the same time the odds greatly improved once the Nets deal was made.

cowens/oldschool wrote:KG and Pierce were brought there to be veteran leaders and teach the younger players supposedly how to win, not carry them. Unfortunately Deron Williams started a huge tailspin that has him out of the league for awhile now and the other young talent Brook Lopez broke his foot again and missed last half of that season. If Lopez didn’t go down, with Joe Johnson and KG’s all around game and Pierce’s big shot ability, that team could have contended. Even in the playoffs vs Heat/Lebron each game was competitive, down to wire, despite no Lopez and DWill getting exposed....

But shit that trade got us 2 J’s, incredible 2 wings that good, potentially great on the same team!!!!

Cow,

Agreed, 100%, although I'd add it also gave us Marcus Smart, Kelly Olynyk and Terry Rozier.  If the Brooklyn trade hadn't happened we wouldn't have had the #6 pick the next year (Smart) because we would still have been good enough to make the playoffs, albeit probably not good enough to win.  Every year that went by in which KG, Pierce and, yes, even JET were still Celtics was another year of good but declining quality resulting in mediocre, and probably not lottery, draft picks.  

Look at it this way:  remember James Young?  He was drafted in 2014 @ #17, the best non-lottery pick you can have.  Without the Brooklyn trade we would have drafted James Young (if Danny was willing to take him @ 17 he certainly would have taken him @ 20+, and nobody else was going to take him first) but no Smart, who was also in the 2014 draft and was a non-Brooklyn pick.  We got Smart because WE sucked, not Brooklyn, and we sucked because of that trade.  That would have been an AWFUL draft year for us.  As it is, thanks to that trade, we got the poster child for ganas and who just resigned with us.


bob


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After 5 years it seems pretty apparent that the Nets gambled and lost big time although some publications like SI saw them as winning the trade.

I remember when the Lakers added Malone and Payton. That did not turn out so well.

We give a lot of credit to Brad Stevens and rightfully so but the architect of this team is Danny Ainge and he also learned a lot from his first rebuild to a championship team. He learned that you can win with veterans that are in their prime but the window is short and age and injury seems to be reluctant bedfellows.