Celtics myths miss point

As we seek to learn which way the waves will break for the Celtics in this offseason, we find it interesting that certain myths have become, at least to some folks, reality.

The popular one from a few months ago — that the Celts would be better without Rajon Rondo — has been pronounced deceased even by those who kept it on life support while defying logic.

But there are others, too, from this season.

Like the one where Kevin Garnett put the kibosh on the deal with the Clippers for DeAndre Jordan and Eric Bledsoe because he refused to waive his no-trade clause.

The truth of the matter is that it never got to the point where KG was asked to vote, or even declare his party affiliation. There was, as reported here, some measure of discord within the Clippers organization on the issue. According to multiple sources, coach Vinny Del Negro was in favor of the trade, believing it would give the club the best chance to win this season.

With the benefit of hindsight, it seems certain the deal couldn’t have made things any worse for the Clips, who were, like the Celts, eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

But upper management balked and held fast as arguments were made regarding the potential for short-term success.

“The Clippers were never going to make that trade,” said one Western Conference executive. “They have to worry about what Chris Paul’s going to do after this season, and I’d really be interested to know if they talked to him about this. They had to.”

The bottom line is that Del Negro didn’t get what he wanted, and now he’s awaiting a meeting to determine whether he’ll be coaching the Clippers next season.

Another myth that got loud traction during the six-game loss to the Knicks was that the Celtics could have saved their season by getting another point guard after Rondo went down on the last weekend of January.

The short answer is, do you really think Jannero Pargo would have gotten the Celts to the conference finals?

The longer answer is, putting aside for the moment they were trying hard for a deal that would have netted them Bledsoe (see above), there just wasn’t a lot to pick from. And for the first two weeks after Rondo’s injury, the C’s still had Leandro Barbosa, who, while not a pure point guard, had picked up his game significantly with increased minutes.

The Celtics were also in a financial crunch, having butted up against the hard cap they had gotten themselves into. It may also be worthy of note that, while, again, they were trying to get a point guard, they had also won 8-of-11 games from the time Rondo was injured until the trade deadline (they would go on to win 14-of-18).

In other words, there is some revisionist anger going on here.

Now that we’re into an offseason where the Celtics would clearly like to make a major splash (though odds are heavily against it), the summer of 2007 is being raised and people are wondering in print and on the Internet whether Danny Ainge has another friend like Kevin McHale, because, hey, everyone knows the latter surrendered Garnett only because he wanted to do his buddy a favor. Ah, welcome to Mythus Majoris of the last Celtics decade.

The fact is McHale had to trade Garnett because the Timberwolves ownership looked at the salary numbers and win totals and concluded it could lose for a lot less money. This was communicated by ownership in a number of ways, including, “Why is he still here?”

In the end, the choice for McHale came down to offers from the Celtics and Lakers, whose bid was headlined by Andrew Bynum, a second-year center who’d averaged 7.8 points and 5.9 rebounds in 2006-07.

The Celtics package was led by Al Jefferson, a third-year post presence who’d averaged 16 points and 11 boards that year. The C’s also offered two first-round picks to the Lakers’ one. Bottom line: McHale was performing his fiduciary duty to the Wolves, rather than taking care of his BFF.

The problem for the Celtics this summer is that, while they have in Rondo a better player than Jefferson around whom to build an offer for a Player X, they don’t have Ray Allen and a 30-year-old Paul Pierce to put next to a new guy.

It will, therefore, take a Herculean effort by the club to get back to Mount Olympus any time soon.