RealGM

This trade season was brutal for the Celtics, not because of what they did or did not do... but because their competition got stronger.

Consider that we have a 3-4 year window to win a championship (anything beyond that is hard to project). I think it is pretty clear that most teams in win-now mode got a lot stronger.

Here are the major trades and how i think they help/hurt the celtics.

*Gasol Trade - Ouch^10th power

Lakers are waaaaaaaaaaaay better then before. Bryant/Odom/Gasol/Bynum is scary. I don't even want to talk about this one, I think they are the favorites to win it all.

*Shaq Trade - Helps, especially in the next few years.

This is the only one that i don't think hurts us. Marion was a critical part of that team. Of all the teams in the NBA, Shaq made the LEAST sense in Phoenix. While they are still good, and still competitive - they lose defense, athleticism, and surprisingly rebounding. Beyond that, Shaq will only deteriorate over the next few years while his contract remains a millstone around their neck. Kerr belongs in the house of Dunces. This shocks me from a team that sold their picks (Deng, Rondo, Sergio) cause they are too cheap.

*Kidd Trade - Hurts

Personally, i think this was a crappy trade for Dallas in the long run, but Kidd is still an all star and will elevate them to a higher level. Dallas is a better team, and will be even more dangerous then before.

*K.Thomas trade - Hurts

Not a major trade, but anything that improves the defending champs is a bad thing for the celtics.

*Cavs Trade - Hurts

I can't believe all the people saying this was a lousy trade for the Cavs.
First of all look at who they traded!!! Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden!!! These guys suck. They make you feel good with nice numbers but both are soo overrated. Hughes will drop 30 points on you shooting 12-35. Gooden has motivation issues and is a total bonehead on the court ... at least Hugues plays good D.

Look at who they got and tell me they don't fit well with Lebron. Lebron is always getting the defenses attention. This will leave Wally and West on the perimeter to knock down shots. And if they miss??? Ben Wallace will be there for the o-rebound. It makes perfect sense. Ben will be extremely effective with cleveland. He can focus solely on Defense and Rebounding, like he did with Detroit. Also, he is once again the underdog since everyone is "hating" on him. Don't underestimate how much that means. Sure Wallace is expensive - but so is Hughes.

Anyways, I'm glad the celtics didn't make any trades... but i'm depressed at what our competition accomplished. The Lakers, Spurs, Mavs, and Cavs are all better then they were before. This sucks. Damn you Chris Wallace.

Well thankfully we only have to play one of those teams in the finals.
I wouldn't worry about Cleveland.
Both Boston and Detroit are leaps better then them.

think we coulda kept jefferson if we waited til the deadline to trade for KG? lol

Yep. Big arms race all around. Teams either have narrow remaining windows (Boston, San Antonio, Phoenix) or big stars to keep happy (LA, Cleveland). Plus Portland looks like a powerhouse coming down the pike, if Oden's heath returns.

It was a natural evolution.

Teams that want to win now, or in the next few years, took actions that they felt would improve their chances of winning the big one.

And after the dramatic improvement of the Celtics and Magic in the East, Cleveland knew it had to do something, particularly the way their season was going.

The Bulls have re-vitalized themselves, and with likely improved chemistry, plus another scorer (Larry Hughes), will now be a threat to knock off anyone on a given night when everyone is healthy.

The Lakers re-built themselves with Derek Fisher asking to be released out of his contract shortly with Utah, specifically so he could sign with the Lakers, after last season ended, to treat a diagnosis of cancer in the eye of his daughter; followed up with the trades for Ariza and Gasol. And they gave up nothing of consequence.

Phoenix has an inside presence in Shaq, and Dallas has Kidd to join Dirk, Stack, Terry, Howard and Dampier. Yikes.

Keep the faith.

The Finals will be tough, for whoever gets there from the East.

It's one thing to beat one of SA, Dallas, Phoenix, or LA. It's another to beat the BEST of SA, Dallas, Phoenix, or LA, in a 7-game series, with a coaching staff not famed for its playoff-series adjustments.

I hope that when the playoffs come, Doc and Danny literally talk after every game about strategy for the next one. They're friendly enough to find a way to do that. Well, I can hope.

The good news is that all the big-name guys west West. We only have to face 1 WC team in the playoffs (at most).

But yeah, it is scary how much better the Lakers and Mavs are, and maybe the Suns depending on what Shaq has left.

The way the west has been "beefing up," Doc better learn to "play big" again.... or we will be in trouble in the finals....

When we were blowing out teams it was because we were at least holding our own underneath and we were getting stellar play and meaningfull minutes from all our bigs, that seems to have gone away of late....so has our dominance...

I "blame" it all on Ainge. He went out and took a huge risk trading away the fifth pick, delonte, and wally for an "aging" star sg. Then took an even bigger risk by trading away a 20 and 10, 6' 10", young, rising star, and a sg with tons of athletic ability and potential for another "aging" star. Not only that but I'm sure he assumed it but he couldn't have known that all of these proven vets would want to sign with this team for a pay cut. The risk of getting Garnett and Allen has payed off because then the celtics were attractive enough to get Posey, House, and now maybe Cassel for good deals.
Or do I blame it on Chris Wallace for making such an awful trade and forcing the whole Western Conference to take risks to get on the same level as the Lakers?
These two deals forced teams, Cav's, Sun's, Lakers (celts deal may have influenced it, maybe not?), Mavs, to make big deals of their own, which is obviously unlikely for so many contenders to make such risky moves in one season. Even a proven team like the Spurs who are atleast on, probably already above our level made some risky moves.
Of course the Lakers trade wasn't a hard decision for them, but who knows if they would have even known that they could have gotten Gasol for that cheap if they didn't have the pressure to get on the Celtics level, to pursue him.
The Cavs trade is another big trade for a contender to make mid season. Obviously a good trade but still would they pursued it without the pressure to get even better?
The Mav's and Sun's trades are both extremely risky trades, especially to make mid season as a contender. The Mav's deal is horrible for their future but obviously felt they had to take a risk if they wanted to continue to contend. The Sun's Deal another huge risk not only for their future but mainly a huge team chemistry risk, but again obviously felt the need to take it.

Cleveland, Dallas, and New Orleans made moves to try to catch up to US. I'm not sure they accomplished that.

The Lakers and Spurs are the teams in the West most likely to make it to the Finals that can be debated to be better than the C's.

The Rockets, Jazz, Golden State and Denver are all very good teams that, on their best nights, can be compared with the Celtics but ultimately the C's are the tougher team to beat in the Playoffs.

The C's are in very good position IMO. There are about 3 teams that have around a 50% (give or take) chance of taking the C's out in a 7 game series... SA, LAL, and Detroit. All the other teams the C's likely won't have to face to win a championship or they're simply not as good as the Celtics.

Jammer wrote:The Bulls have re-vitalized themselves, and with likely improved chemistry, plus another scorer (Larry Hughes), will now be a threat to knock off anyone on a given night when everyone is healthy.

I'm not sure i really agree with this.

What does Gooden do that Joe Smith didn't?
What does Hughes bring that is better then Nocioni and Gordon?

Sure Noah can be the new Wallace, and Gooden can be the new Joe Smith, and Hughes a redundant overpaid dime-a-dozen wingman, but i don't see how we should really be concerned.

And now they'll probably trade Gordon which is probably a mistake.

delonte is a studd