Look we all know what the Celtics record was last year. It was a relative disaster compared to the expectations. Danny and Doc along with KG and Pierce wanted to give it one more go. KG signed a three year no trade clause deal for about 1/2 of what he was making before. Pierce had two years left on his deal (and then he would presumably retire or move on somewhere else). So Danny reloaded with Jason Terry, Courtney Lee, and Jeff Green (resign). He drafted Jared Sullenger and Fab Melo. Ray Allen left for Miami. Now what happened was that the Eastern teams like the Knicks and the Nets got stronger. The Bucks, Pistons, Cavaliers, and other mediocre teams gave us trouble early and middle part of the season. Rondo got hurt. Then Sullenger went down. Leondro Barbosa. Eventually KG and PP wore out. We sucked, We flat out sucked with our injured veterans and poor play from Lee and Terry. Doc Rivers had no answers and was probably preparing his exit strategy (which he executed to perfection - and Good Luck to you in Clipperville, sir).
Danny just dealt Doc, KG, PP, and JET away for four first round picks this decade and there is a lot of young talent to come into the league to compete against Lebron James and Kevin Durant. The cap fillers include Reggie Evans, Kris Humphries, Gerald Wallace and three other minor pieces (one of whom was a summer league hero with us last year in Kris Joseph. Reggie Evans is a rebounding monster and sorely fills a critical need for the Celtics who have been near the bottom in this category for the last two years. Kris Humphries is in the last year of a deal paying him $12 million and can be dealt to a team needing to get up to the salary floor for a bag of SWA peanuts so we can avoid a luxery tax penalty. Gerald Wallace is the one player with 3 years and 30 million left on his contract that can bring athletic ability and scoring and his game could fit with Rondo's. I just think he needs the right coach that can extract that productivity from him. He can shut down players and has kicked Paul Pierce's ass on the court while with Charlotte and once again early in the season with the Nets. He can be built up into a future tradeable asset when the time comes in 2015. The other players I know little about so I will not comment on them in this essay.
Danny's team is it will stand when the trade is official:
PG - Rondo, Avery Bradley, Lamont Jones, Marshon Brooks
SG - Courtney Lee, Kieth Bogans, Kris Joseph
SF - Jeff Green, Gerald Wallace
PF - Jared Sullenger, Kris Humphies
C - Kelly Olynyk, Fab Melo, Colton Iverson
The Celtics now need a head coach and my choice is Stan Van Gundy who is really good at working with developing young talent I am told. I also hear Rondo may be traded through ESPN sources and the Celtics are looking to this quickly. So I think Jared Sullenger, Avery Bradley and Jeff Green are now the centerpieces of this team which could well purport to a poor record for 2013-2014 but a quick rebuild through the draft. One thing I know is that we do not have Paul Ga$ton as the owner and ML Carr as the coach and GM that ran this franchise into the ground so I do not foresee another twenty year drought in championships like last time. A lot of immediate future success of the Celtics will be dependent on Rondo, Courtney Lee, Avery Bradley, Jeff Green, Jared Sullenger, and Kelly Olynyk. That talent base will probably not get us into the playoffs but with good drafting, and other teams that will be in decline, the Celtics will get back to top eight relevency in two to four seasons. The head coach and Rajon Rondo will be critical factors going forward.