The Celtics had two desperate needs going into this off-season: they needed to get smarter and younger. Appropriately their two 1st round picks got them Marcus Smart and James Young. Given that the best player on the current roster (Rajon Rondo) is a PG, not sure why they drafted these two dudes, but oh well, talent is talent. And in the internet-world this signals the impeding trade of Rondo. Maybe. Maybe not.
That said, I'm going to jump right in by suggesting a coupla trades to Danny Ainge. 1) Rondo, Gerald Wallace, Joel Anthony to the Knicks for Amare Stoudemire, Iman Shumpert; and 2) Jeff Green to the Lakers straight up for Steve Nash. The Celtics would give up their best player (Rondo), their most useless player (Anthony), their least desirable contract (Wallace), and their most erratic player (Green) for 1 year of Nash and Stoudemire and the inside track on re-signing Iman Shumpert. The Knicks get out from under their least desirable contract and they'd get a PG that could play with Melo; the Lakers salvage an interesting prospect out of the disastrous Nash era. The Celtics would have a spine of toughness (Bradley, Bogans, Olynyk, Bass), good ball handling (Nash, Smart) and good scoring (Stoudemire, Young, Shumpert, Sullinger) in an equal package of youth and veteran smarts. While I wouldn't take this version of the Celtics to win a championship, they will be fun to watch with plenty of room to grow and maximum flexibility heading into next summer. And they'd forego the unnecessary angst of deciding on Rondo and Green, two guys they clearly have reservations about. Ideally Nash helps the youngsters grow on the court and is a vital cornerstone to the evolution of Brad Stevens; at worst, you got an expiring contract and watched a hall of famer flame out. I know it sounds weird but these two deals make the Celtics more dangerous, more interesting and more flexible.
Well...it'll never happen. But its more fun to speculate on what the Celtics could do than watch what they will do. If they don't trade Rondo now then either they let him walk next year or sign him for more than they want to; if they don't trade Green now, they'll have to endure another year of his mercurial play while getting in the way of Smart, Young and Sullinger. The Wallace deal looks less imposing as time marches on (not good but not a team killer) but he provides so little that he needs to be shipped out. Solving these three problems allows the Celtics to open up and embrace the future. And while they're waiting for the future to happen, why not get one last look at the ol' Nash-Stoudemire express? The true hoop fans of Beantown will respect that even if they know its just a one-year sideshow.
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