NBA Sunday: Who Will Boston Trade?

By Joel Brigham
Senior NBA Writer

The End Draws Near for Boston’s Big Three

This was supposed to be the last hoorah for Boston’s aging core, one last year to make a run at a championship before the contracts of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Jermaine O’Neal expired. But as the trade deadline draws closer, it’s looking more and more like that isn’t going to happen.

The Rajon Rondo trade rumors, though abstract and non-specific, are well-publicized, but it might be easier to trade one of the expiring deals instead, if only because the expectations of what they’d return would be lower. Rondo is one of the three best pure point guards in the league; Celtics GM Danny Ainge can’t ship him off for thirty cents on the dollar just because Rondo is occasionally surly. Allen, 36, and Garnett, 35, are a different story, though, and that’s why they might be more likely to move.

According to SI.com’s Sam Amick, one team that’s very interested in working something out with Boston is the Los Angeles Clippers, who are seriously interested in Allen. It’s no secret that L.A. needs help at shooting guard with Chauncey Billups out for the season, but they simply don’t have the assets to get Boston to nibble. As Amick points out, there’s a bit of irony in the fact that the Celtics already own the Clippers’ 2012 first round pick, which came from Oklahoma City in the Kendrick Perkins trade. OKC got it in the trade that landed Eric Bledsoe in L.A.

Atlanta is another team reportedly interested in Allen, even more so than they are in Garnett, who has been rumored this past week to have been offered in a package for Josh Smith. Those talks, however, were labeled as exploratory only, and just because Rick Sund likes a guy doesn’t mean it’s a foregone conclusion he’s going to get him. However you look at it, though, Allen is perhaps the most in-demand Celtic at the moment.

Of course, all this begs the question as to whether or not Boston even should blow this thing up anyway. If Rondo and Doc Rivers truly are at odds, and the team values Rivers long-term more than their current point guard, it could potentially make sense to move him. That, however, would shoot down their only major piece for a future rebuilding effort, so ideally a trade involving Rondo would net a player who can help immediately but also stick around and help the team compete for another 5-7 years, as well.

Someone like Steve Nash or Pau Gasol, the most popular Boston trade targets in rumors and on message boards, wouldn’t fit that particular mold, but that kind of trade would perhaps allow Boston to keep the band back together for the balance of the year and make that last run at a title. Sure, the consensus is that they’re too old to have any real shot at it, but as long as they get into the postseason anything can happen. A veteran-laden, competitive team could do more damage than people realize.

Or, they could mortgage their only building block for the future as part of a futile attempt to regain the glory of 2008. When Garnett and Allen retire, which could be soon, and with Paul Pierce not too far behind, a Rondo trade for an older vet leaves Boston with zilch two years from now. They’d be left with absolutely nothing for rebuilding. But giving these guys one serious final run might just be worth it.

Whatever happens, Boston’s players absolutely will be mentioned ad nauseum in trade rumors the next eleven days, because the higher ups in Beantown really are taking stock of where the team is and where it needs to be moving forward. Maybe it’ll be Rondo, and maybe it’ll be Garnett or Allen. It won’t be Paul Pierce, but there’s a real chance the team does something at the deadline. Even for fans, it’s just hard to decide which of those somethings would be best for the team.

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Joel Brigham, go back to scooping out ice cream. What a bunch of crap from sportswriters who have no knowledge at all of what's actually going on in the Celtics organization, give this team zero props, and can't conceive of this group of players doing anything worthwhile in the post season. Anyone who saw today's victory over the Knicks owes the Celts a modicum of respect and should wait till season's end before burying their hopes and dreams for this season.

What performances by Rondo, Paul, Kevin, and Bass! I sure wouldn't want to face this team in the playoffs.