The 2nd Walker trade may be least favorite move of the DA era. It was so pointless. Sure, we only gave up a 1st rounder, but for what? A first round playoff exit?
I loved that trade as a fan. It brought so much excitement to the team. It sucked that we didn't go farther in the playoffs, and it turned out that Danny had no desire to re-sign him, but it was an exciting time.
It was a trade that was good for the fans, and probably good for Wyc's bottom line. It probably wasn't particularly good for long-term planning, but luckily we were able to re-acquire the pick. (Although it did cost us a shot at Afflalo or Splitter in 2007.)
I also, was one who loved the trade. At the time, though, I had not yet realized how smart Danny Ainge was at his job....he basically didn't really give up any thing for re-trading for Toine since we were able to re-obtain The Glove afterwards.
That '04-'05 Celtics team, after retrading for Toine, went 11-1 over their initial 12 games, losing at home 99-97 to a KG (
21p/13r/9a !!!) led T Pups team, along with Wally World (20/4/4), Sprewell (bad game). It was MIN's bench that won them the game, outscoring our bench 38 to 18. Doc could have played Big Al more than 6 minutes.
A 1st rounder to rent Toine and juice up your fan base, your team's locker room, and first year C's headcoach for Doc....was well worth it, IMO and it seemed worth it for Ainge and the owners.
After that inital 12 game jolt.....the riding the high of that wave seemed to taper down, the team lost 4 in a row including a shameful 25 points loss to the Knicks in NY.
After that 4 game losing streak, the team seemed to find itself again, closing the season 7-4.
The team was 18-9 in total since re-acquiring Walker, though walker missed, I believe 3 games due to some injury or illness, sorry do not know the exact details.
To be fair, the last two losses that season, Doc and the Celtics didn't really care too much to win those last two games since the C's had already locked up the Atlantic Division over Jim O'Brien's Sixers about a week before. Both PP and AW didn't play more than 30 minutes in either game, maybe one or two Celtics played 30+ minutes in either game.
That playoff series with Indiana was exciting, though a big let down. Big Al got a taste of playoff action and, I believe he hit a big shot in OT of Game 6 and a key assist on an Antoine 3 pointer, all ended up helping us win in Indy.
But we lost Game 7 in Boston by 27 points.......yowzers!!
It was a 35-32 game at half time, Indy in the lead. We were better scoring wise in the 2nd half, scoring 38.....but Indy was also better scoring in their 2nd half....
netting 62 points after half time.In that G7, we could not stop Stephen Jackson (24p 5-6 threes). Jermaine O'Neal and Reggie Miller were not really good that game....or that entire series for that matter.
The story of that Game 7 was the Celtics supporting cast, or lack of support. [PP & AW 39 points on 46.6% FG shooting, entire rest of C's team 31 points on 30.2% FG shooting.]
So it makes some sense that the C's lost by nearly 30.....when the parts of your team is shooting 3-10 from the field......yea....it's gonna be ugly!
Oh, as an aside, but somewhat hopeful future......Big Al Jefferson has player's option for '15-'16 season @ 13.8 million.
Any chance he declines? Any chance Danny could trade our many draft picks? Would we give up a top 1st rounder for Big Al? Do we want Big Al back? Can he play Center?
More questions to be answered haha!