All I’ve heard all day from all my close friends and Celtics fans is how upset they are about the Celtics trading for Kevin Garnett. Are you serious? The arguments I’ve heard are “It’s too much”, “There goes our potential”, “Too much for the youth movement”, the list goes on and on. To these people I say: Get over it! Kevin Garnett is not the second coming of Christ, but he is a very good basketball player. I loved watching the Celtics a few years ago when they had Antoine Walker, Pierce, Kenny Anderson and the rest of the supporting cast that saw them go to the Eastern Conference finals and pull off the biggest upset in NBA history. the Nets in that series.
But the C’s have been miserable to look at and so I haven’t seen many games in a long time. However, I’ve seen enough to know that Al Jefferson was great, Gerald Green had a ton of potential, and I know enough about sports to know the value of a first-round pick, maybe two. But one thing all these people don’t realize is that the Celtics really mean something in Boston again. The Sox sit first in the AL East over the Yanks by 8 games, the Patriots just opened camp, and there’s a lot of excitement surrounding the teams’ chances of winning another Super Bowl, but on the front pages of All Greater Boston Newspapers. The area tomorrow morning will be the face of Kevin Garnett, and the face of the “New” Celtics. No more going back to the last page of the sports section in the Globe and the Herald and seeing a little article tucked under High School Sports Scores, talking about how the Celtics just fell for the 16th straight. The Celtics are back, and in a big way.
Now for those who say that is too high a price. I think giving up half your roster for any player could always be seen as too much. But the Celtics are better off without Telfair, who they were going to do without anyway. Theo Ratliff can easily go out and Ryan Gomes, while a leader is expendable. Now you have to think about losing Big Al and Gerald. Jefferson showed a lot of good things in the short time I saw him on Green and White, but to get a big man like Garnett you have to give up some talent for it, so that’s where Al comes in. And Gerald Green, he’s probably the main reason I would say this trade shouldn’t have happened because he’s going to be a star in this league one day, but the deal did happen and it’s time to see what you got; a guy who gave his heart and soul to Minnesota, even without a fighting chance. A guy who wants to win and can help this team do it now.
As for those who talk about trading with full potential. The Celtics walked away with a lot of potential, but potential is just that, it’s the hope that someone will be as good as everyone predicts in the future. We have no idea how good these guys are going to be. Personally, I don’t think Jefferson will ever be the player that Garnett is. Green might be a 20-point-a-game guy, but he might not be. Garnett has shown his skills over 12 seasons and, at 31, he’s not going to slow down for a few more years. With the current team the Celtics had, prior to this deal it would have taken them 5-6 years before they were even close to a contender. By then the only veteran star they have, Pierce, will be 35 and Ray Allen (sort of the supporting actor) will have been older as well.
They would have wasted Pierce’s skills by not trying to win him now. Well, now they have Garnett, Allen and Paul Pierce. They have a legitimate shot at winning the Eastern Conference and could challenge for the NBA Championship this season. Will they be enough Celtics fans? I don’t know many people who can tell me that the Celtics have been fun to watch in recent years, or that they wouldn’t be more willing to buy tickets to a game with the Big Ticket listed. Everyone is out of shape in this youth movement. Well, in Boston, as far as I’m concerned… now is the time! We take great risk, but with risk comes the potential for great reward. This team could dominate (with Garnett locked up long term) for a good 3-4 years in the Eastern Conference, especially in their division.
I think Danny Ainge is one of the dumbest GMs in sports, so I’m surprised this actually got done, but that being said, ultimately I think he made a good move. He made the Celtics exist again for Boston sports fans, and he gave his team an absolute chance to win not in 10 years, but right now. KG Celtics jerseys will be flying off the shelves, and this guy will fill a lot more seats than the package shipped to Minnesota. The Celtics might even be able to hit the exhaustion mark like the last few playoff teams did years ago. This deal does all the things that the Lebron James signing did for the Cavs a few years ago, generates revenue and puts fans in seats. I guess we’ll see what happens this year, but I have a feeling that in the middle of the season, when people talk about the Cs taking the top playoff spot in the East, most of those who say otherwise will eat their words.