Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
Danny Ainge does not want to see another decline in the franchise like the one that happened after the Boston Celtics’ original Big Three dried up, and he’s reportedly willing to break up his current star trio to ensure that.
The only problem is that he’s not seeing any worth while deals to make.
The Celtics have limped to a 5-8 start behind 34-year-old Paul Pierce, 35-year-old Kevin Garnettand 36-year-old Ray Allen. Ainge, the Celtics’ president of basketball operations, told The Boston Globe that he would consider a trade if it would help the team get younger and be poised to be competitive in the next era.
Ainge saw the Celtics pass up deals when Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish were aging, and the result was a steady deterioration that saw Boston not make the playoffs or advance beyond the first round from the 1992-93 to 2000-01 seasons.
“First of all, it’s a different era,” Ainge told The Globe. “I sat with Red (Auerbach) during a Christmas party (in the 1990s). Red was talking to Larry, Kevin, and myself and there was a lot of trade discussion at the time, and Red actually shared some of the trade discussions. And I told Red, what are you doing? Why are you waiting?
“He had a chance to trade Larry (to Indiana) for Chuck Person and Herb Williams and (Steve) Stipanovich and he had a chance to trade Kevin (to Dallas) for Detlef Schrempf and Sam Perkins. I was like, ‘Are you kidding?’ I mean, I feel that way now. If I were presented with those kind of deals for our aging veterans, it’s a done deal to continue the success.”
Injuries caught up to Bird, and he retired in 1992 at age 35. McHale hung on for one more year, averaging only 10.7 points per game, and also called it quits at 35. Parish played one more season in Boston after McHale retired, and at age 40 averaged 11.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. He left as a free agent, and the Celtics were left with nothing to show for the superstars.
“After those guys retired, the Celtics had a long drought,” Ainge said, according to The Globe. “But those (types of fruitful trades) aren’t presenting themselves. In today’s day and age with 30 teams in the NBA, 15 teams know they have no chance of winning a championship. They are building with young players. It’s a different era that we live in. It’s easy to say conceptually, but you have to always weigh what are real opportunities.”
The numbers are down for every member of the Big Three this season, and Pierce has been battling a heel injury. Last season’s 56-win team was led by Pierce’s 18.9 points per game, Allen’s 16.5 and Garnett’s 14.9 points and 8.9 rebounds.
This season, Allen leads the team at 15.6 points per game, with Pierce at 14.9 and Garnett at 13.5 points and 7.5 rebounds. Still, Ainge isn’t ready to panic and do something rash.
“We haven’t played as well as we’re capable of playing,” he said, according to The Globe. “I know we’re a better team than we’ve shown. I’ve seen it in spurts, but just not in consistency. There hasn’t been any consistency.”
Although they’re only 13 games into the lockout-shortened 66-game regular season, the Celtics are currently ninth in the Eastern Conference, which, unlike recent history, has some of the strongest teams in the league. Boston could be faced with a first-round road playoff series against the Magic or the Hawks, and that’s if they make a serious push up the standings. If they squeak in, the Celtics are looking at the young, deep Bulls or Heat in the first round.
Ainge is taking a long, hard look at his roster.
“Identify the real reasons instead of looking at the record, and we’ve gone through bad stretches before with teams that have won championships and teams that have gone to the Finals,” he said, according to The Globe. “We have gone through some really ugly, bad stretches before, and so I have to be careful to not overreact to a situation that’s going bad versus a situation that’s not going to get better or even if it does get better, it’s not going to be good enough. That’s my job to evaluate.”
–ESPN
