At the trading deadline, Boston didn’t look right on the court and while the players in the locker room believed nobody else did. Boston general manager Danny Ainge considered blowing it all up with trades.
He didn’t. He and Celtics fans were rewarded with a run all the way to Gam 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Now what? Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen are free agents. Should we have just witnessed the last run of the Big Three era, or do you tweak the roster and make a go at it?
I’m nowhere near convinced you can catch that lightning in a bottle again, but Ainge is open to all the possibilities including bringing back Garnett and Allen, he told CSNNE.com’s A. Sherrod Blakely.While free agency is still a few weeks away, Ainge told CSNNE.com that all of the current Celtics who will become free agents next month are in the talent pool that the C’s will be looking to pluck from in order in constructing the 2012-13 season.
When asked whether he was leaning one way or another in terms of which players he wanted to bring back, Ainge responded, “That’s a tough ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question. We want guys back that we have on our roster now. We’ll have good dialogue . . . and figure out who is coming back.”
It may ultimately come down to price.
Yes, Garnett showed he has something left in the tank, but he’s not coming back to the Celtics at anywhere near his $21 million salary of last season. Maybe half of that, maybe less. But when you get into that range other teams will throw their hat in the ring on a two-year deal as well. Like maybe the Spurs?
Ray Allen has to get bone spurs in his ankle dealt with and Avery Bradley has taken his starting job. How much will you pay a year for an aging sharpshooter who comes off the bench? What about other guys on the roster. Brandon Bass says he’d love to come back but he will want more than the $4.25 million he is about to opt out of. Mickael Pietrus says he wants to return, but there will be other bidders.
Then there is the bigger-picture question — when is it time to blow it all up? You made it within a game of a return to the NBA finals, but if you keep the roster basically intact is that going to happen again? Chicago will have Derrick Rose back next playoffs and they become the second best team in the East, the Heat struggled but looked better in Game 7 with Chris Bosh healthy. The Pacers are improving. Can Boston make this kind of run again with this roster?
Danny Ainge has always said he wanted to make changes sooner rather than later. He needs to do that now — this roster is not winning a ring, not without some pretty major additions. He’s right to say he is keeping all his cards on the table, his options open. But if he wants to bring a ring to Boston this is the summer where the rebuilding starts.
