On Thursday March 15th the NBA will have its annual trading deadline and the team that will have the most buzz is the Boston Celtics, President of basketball operations for the Celtics Danny Ainge will have to decide weather to trade core players Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo and start to rebuild toward the future or to give this group of players one last run at a championship.
The Celtics are just above the .500 mark on the season and having the worst season since 2007 before they traded for Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. So the question is will Ainge pull the trigger on a trade to bring in a new breed of players and to move toward the future and being a contender then instead of now.
Ainge could make a trade of one the core players and start to rebuild toward the future. Why? Because last year Danny Ainge shocked everyone by trading center Kendrick Perkins to the Oklahoma City Thunder and sending a message to his team that you cant win a championship this year and that team had the best record in the Eastern conference when he pulled the trigger on one of the most controversial trades in Celtics history. Why would he believe in this team that looks tired, worn out, old and can’t keep consistent.
The Celtics wave of success in the last five years is becoming yesterday’s news. As new teams are moving toward the top of the league and the Celtics look like their moving downward.
The Celtics have had a hard time this year keeping with teams and their transition game like the Heat, and the Bulls. If they cant run with the best what will happen in a seven game series when they have to try and stay with them just to have a fair shot at winning the series. They will hit road blocks in the playoffs like last year when the best athletes in the game like LeBron James and Dwayne Wade go up against ageing veterans on the Celtics they will run right by them an beat them in a basketball series turned into track meet which could really convince Ainge to trade them away.
With Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen entering the twilight of their careers it would make all the sense in the world for Ainge to trade them and get something back in return and lay the foundation of rebuilding. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen are the most likely to go because both have expiring contracts after this season and it maybe Garnett’s last year and the Celtics are unlikely to sign Ray Allen in the off-season. Paul Pierce probably will stay because he has played his entire career in Boston and is determined to finish it here.
There will be a lot of controversy after the trade deadline. But when the dust settles whatever Danny Ainge does will affect the Celtics for years to come and will affect his legacy and his place in Basketball history.