Ainge Can Redeem Himself With KG Deal

I received an email this morning from a friend of mine who's a Celtics fan asking me what was wrong with Danny Ainge and with this link. Apparently there's still some concern about giving up Al Jefferson and Gerald Green, but this is exactly the deal the Celtics need to make to justify the Ray Allen trade.

While Al Jefferson is emerging into one of the better young big men in the league, Garnett is already one of the top five players in the league. Obviously the Celtics have to make sure that Garnett will sign an extension to make the trade make any sense, but assuming he signs off on this, it's a great deal for Boston. A trio of Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Allen would catapult the Celtics to the top of the weak Eastern Conference. They would be one of the favorites to represent the East in the Finals and, if the team really gels, would have a legitimate shot at winning it.

Ainge was criticized after the Allen trade for supposedly not having a direction for the Celtics. That move alone would leave Boston stuck somewhere between rebuilding and contention, making them at best a low playoff seed in the East, which would leave them without a good enough draft pick to allow for major improvement. Adding Garnett would give the Celtics a true direction and would appease the disgruntled fan base. The Allen trade wasn't a terrible one, but the best thing about it was that it got the Celtics a talented player without giving up any major talent or trade assets. Ainge would not have much else to trade after this Garnett deal, giving up his two best young players and Theo Ratliff's expiring contract, but it would give the team a few years with a real shot at a title, and besides, what's the point of having big expiring contracts if not to trade them.

One could argue that Jefferson is arguably comparable to Garnett as a low-post player even now, but one area where this would make a huge difference is on defense. While Jefferson is a very suspect defender, Garnett is one of the best. He could help make up for Allen's poor defense, which, with Jefferson on the floor, would have made the Celtics a very poor defensive
team.

Garnett would give the Celtics three legitimate stars (or 2 1/2, depending on your view of Allen) and would still leave them with some quality role players in Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins, not to mention rookies Gabe Pruitt and Glen Davis. There's a lot more talent in that group than on the Cavaliers team that got thrashed in the Finals by the Spurs.

I'm sure David Stern is also hoping for this trade to go through. It would make Boston a contender once again and would draw attention away from the Tim Donaghy scandal. At this point, anything positive would do wonders for the NBA. Let's see if Danny Ainge can make it happen.