Heading in to next season, with a monstrous draft coming up
What is our best plan of action?
There are three options. If you don't agree with any of them, what do you think we should do. I pick option 3. I think we should roll the dice on getting Wiggins or Parker if we want to compete with Miami and OKC. We already have Rondo+capspace. We have Sully and we have assets in Avery, Green and Crawford.
Here's our options:
1) "Rondo's return +KG's last dance
Keep KG around as a stretch 4 or 5 and let him have 9 months off to have surgery/recover until after all star break, then let him finish his contract with Rondo. Hopefully we can dump Pierce's deal and sign a free agent big or scorer. If we can't dump Pierce for assets and sign a decent FA then let him and KG have one last hoorah with Rondo. We probably make playoffs with or without Pierce, and if we replace Pierce with two decent scorers we potentially finish top 4, but don't have enough to get past Miami again.
2)"Complete tank/reset/overhaul mode"
let them both go and TANK hard for the super draft in 2014. Let Rondo and Green lead us to a bottom 3 standing in the East. Then, trade Green + Avery and replace him with a legit superstar in the 2014 draft. If we get the right deal, trade Rondo too and get 2-3 picks including our own lottery pick in that same draft...
Basically move Rondo, Green, Avery, Crawford for as many picks as we can, and as high in the draft as we can.
3)"Mini Re-build"
Similar to above, but in the vein of Duncan's rookie year at San Antonio, let both Pierce and KG go and tank while Rondo recovers.
Let Green, Avery, Sully,Crawford, Melo all build their trade value and naturally tank while Rondo is resting.
Ensure we are one of the bottom 3 teams, preferably last.
Bink a top 3 pick (hopefully number one or two) and sign Wiggins or Parker, whichever we can get.
Snag a potential Paul Pierce replacement and potential superstar to pair with Rondo, meanwhile trading our assets (Green, Avery, Crawford) for top 15-20 picks in the same draft- or somehow package Green, Sully +Avery for DeMarcus Cousins.
Come back 2015 with
*Rondo
*top 3 2014 draft pick (wing player)
*DMC or solid big man
*another pick netting us a scoring 2 guard that can control the game with Rondo
* plenty of money for 1 or 2 elite level free agents.
A lot of people will say TANK. I'm not sure how easy or hard it will be to watch this team rebuild and we haven't had the best luck in the draft- but tanking one season to get once in every 10 year kind of players like Wiggins or Parker (Lebron and Melo comparisons) might be worth it. I would be in favor of a mini rebuild that proposes tanking next season and rebuilding with a lottery pick, trading for a big and/or picks and letting Rondo captain a team that can make Rondo a contender for the last 4-5 years of his career. I have confidence that Ainge could sign some solid free agents with all our cap space, whilst nabbing a superstar or a rookie deal.