Celtics clean house

We knew it had to happen eventually.  That probably doesn't make it any easier for Celtics fans, but a re-building stage was inevitable.  The first domino to fall was the departure of coach Doc Rivers, who was let out of his contract last week to allow him to take over the head coaching spot with the Clippers.  After that, we had to expect the rest to come crumbling down.  Boston then broke out the dynamite by dismantling the core of what was once a championship team in a blockbuster deal with the Brooklyn Nets.

The Celtics will send Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry to Brooklyn in exchange for Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries, Keith Bogans, MarShon Brooks, Kris Joseph, and three future first round draft picks (2014, 2016, 2018).

If that sounds like an underwhelming haul for two future Hall of Famers and a former Sixth Man of the Year, well... maybe that's the point.  This team may need to get worse before it can get better.  Even at this late stage of their careers, the talent being exchanged is completely lopsided in Brooklyn's favor.  Boston wasn't expecting to get back any solid building blocks in this deal (although GM Danny Ainge has always been enamored with Brooks).  Those draft picks are the key to the deal.  The rest is just garbage thrown in to make the salary cap math work.

Most of the salary Boston is taking back are from players on expiring contracts.  Brooks is still on his rookie contract, so the team will have the option to keep him beyond next season after giving him a trial run for a year.  The part of the deal that makes it tough for Boston to swallow is Wallace's contract, which still owes him $30.3 million over the next three seasons.  Dumping Terry's deal on Brooklyn helps offset some of the pain of being saddled with one of the league's worst contracts, but it's hardly ideal for a rebuilding team to take on so much long term salary for a player not expected to be in the team's future plans.  On the other hand, had Boston not done this trade then there was no chance of them getting under the salary cap this season and it's unlikely they would by next year either.  Hanging on to a bad contract doesn't hurt quite as much if there was no cap space to make a splash in free agency anyway.  In year three, Wallace's expiring contract could become a valuable trade piece.  Another interesting wrinkle is that the new CBA agreement includes a "stretch" provision, which could allow Boston to waive Wallace before he ever plays a game for them.  They could then pay his salary in $4.3 million increments over the next seven years, shedding $6 million in cap space in each of the next three seasons.

Being stuck in the middle is the worst place for any NBA team to be in.  Not quite good enough for a playoff spot, but not terrible enough to draft a franchise changing prospect.  If this team is going to rebuild, the plan appears to be to bottom out first.  It seems they picked the perfect time to implement this plan, as next year's draft is expected to be loaded.  Andrew Wiggins may be the prize for next year's lottery winner, but this draft could be as deep with impact players as any we've seen since the vaunted 2003 draft, which produced stars like LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh (sorry Detroit, but we're leaving Darko off that list).

The 2014 draft pick acquired from Brooklyn may not be all that valuable given the low success rate of players drafted late in the first round and the expectation that the Nets are now a contender, but how do we know they will still be a contender by the time those other picks are due?  This was clearly a trade made with a win now mentality for Brooklyn.  By 2016, Pierce, Garnett and Terry could be long gone.  The rest of their core will have gotten older and Joe Johnson will make nearly $25 million in the final year of that albatross of a contract.  With their cap clogged with highly paid veterans on the decline, the Nets could be plummeting by then.  None of the contracts for players on their roster extend to 2018, so we have no way of knowing what their team will look like by then.  At that point they may be forced into their own rebuilding stage.  The Celtics are gambling that the Nets aging roster will collapse within the next couple years.  Brooklyn failed to negotiate any sort of protection on those picks, meaning Boston will get them regardless of how high the pick is.  You would have thought the Nets would have learned their lesson after surrendering a lottery pick to Portland in the ill-fated Wallace trade at the 2012 trade deadline.  That pick turned out to be last year's Rookie of the Year, Damian Lillard.  It will be difficult for Celtics fans to stomach seeing Pierce and Garnett in another uniform.  We'll wish them the best and may even root for them to win next year.  But think about how much fun will it be to root against Brooklyn in 2016 and 2018 when those guys are likely gone and Boston can benefit from every Nets loss?  So there is something to look forward to.  With a pair of first round picks in four of the next five drafts, the Celtics will have plenty of ammo to reload.

Boston still has some pieces left to build around, such as Jeff Green, Avery Bradley and Jared Sullinger.  Unless Rajon Rondo is the next star player to be shipped out of town, you can add him to that list as well.  Rondo is still recovering from ACL surgery, so with this likely being a lost season anyway, it's unlikely we'll see him back on the court anytime before the All-Star break.  There is certainly no reason to rush him back if the team plans on tanking for a high lottery pick.

Regardless of when Rondo comes back, this stripped down roster has a great chance of being a bottom five team.  Rondo is the only player on the roster capable of generating his own offense, but even with him on the court last year the team struggled to score.  Now that they've traded away three of their top five scorers from last year, this offense could be cringe worthy to watch.  On the other end, the defense may not be much better without Garnett to anchor them.  Boston made up for their mediocre offense on the defensive end, but losing Garnett will cripple the team on that end of the floor.  Boston allowed a mere 96.2 points per 100 possessions when KG was on the court, which was better than the league leading Pacers defense allowed last year.  Without KG, the defense plummeted to 104.6, which would have put them in the bottom 10 teams in the league.  Only five teams last season ranked in the bottom ten in the league in both Offensive and Defensive Efficiency.  The Celtics appear to be joining that group this season, while most of those other teams presumably will improve.

Many fans bemoaning this trade fail to realize that the team had few options.  Pierce and KG still have value, but given their age and short term contracts, the Celtics were never going to get full value.  Garnett's no-trade clause limited their options.  They were also intent on sending Pierce to a contender rather than just dumping him to the highest bidder.  Needing to make a decision on his non-guaranteed contract before the end of June left them with little time to hold out for more.  All things considered, Boston made out fairly well in this deal, especially if it results in a top lottery pick of their own or from any of the future picks from Brooklyn.  

Waving good-bye to star players is never easy.  Pierce has long been the face of the franchise.  As Captain, many of us hoped to see him retire wearing green.  Garnett has been the backbone of the team's defense and has been responsible for changing the culture of the franchise since his arrival in 2007.  These guys won a title here and one day their numbers will hang from the rafters of the Garden.  But it's time to let go.  Time to move on.  The next era of Celtics basketball is upon us.  Just expect things to get pretty ugly before they can get better again.