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Plan A - trade #5 pick + West for Allen and Jefferson/Gomes + last years lotto pick for Garnett has been awesome.

What would plan B have looked like? Seeing Durant up close with a few years under his belt and I would say it would have been pretty damn good. How would this starting 5 and bench look?

C Perkins
PF Jefferson
F Pierce
SG Durant
PG Rondo

Bench: Gomes, West, Glen Davis, plus (Minny#6 pick = Flynn, Curry or Jordan)

I would have traded Jefferson straight up for Gasol - a point that got me more negative assaults than Twolves is getting for his endless Rondo threads - because I still believe he and Perk cannot coexist defensively and that Jefferson cannot defend PF position.

Or things could have gone similarly (since PP and Doc both admitted in Peter May's book that they wanted to trade that pick)

We may have done something like that Ray Allen trade (though maybe differently, since the Jeff Green draft pick was part of it)

Instead of giving up Al Jefferson, we may have still acquired KG by giving up Durant. It may not have happened in the same sequence or timeframe but it could have gone similarly

Doc Rivers is on record twice (and if you read May's book after the 08 title, you'd have seen this) as saying how much he thought about pairing Kevin Garnett and Al Jefferson (yes, the folks in Minny aren't the only ones who envisioned Al as a 5).

Who knows how that would have worked. We may have had to give up Perkins in one of the trades to get KG or Allen or whoever.. Maybe even Rondo (though if Durant and not Jefferson were involved - doubt that the Minny owner could have demanded Rondo like he did in actual fact till the end).

Regardless - imagine a frontline rotation of KG, Big Al and Perkins. Sure it is hard for you to imagine Al Jefferson next to KG given how defensively potent Perk and KG are and defensively deficient Al is. But it's the same reason the Celtics considered Amare. You put a such an offensive superstar big man like Al next to KG (one of the greatest passing and shooting bigs) and they would be unstoppable. It's a richer offensive version of what the Lakers have going in Bynum and Gasol.

and Glen Davis and Rondo don't ever, ever quite become the players they are without the learnings and experience of working with KG and Ray Allen - and they'd be the first to admit it.

So the starting lineup to consider had we got Durant is this:

PG: Rondo
SG: whoever (maybe they still would have got Ray Allen eventually)
SF: Pierce
PF: KG
C: Big Al

Bench: Perkins, House, etc. etc. etc.

Plan B, I believe would have been.

Draft Durant, trade Pierce.

Wait another 15 years.

I like the idea of maybe being able to keep Big Al and trade durant. There is no way we keep Durant and Pierce one of them had to go. p2 didnt want another season of losing on a young team. Maybe you could have gotten a lot for him who knows. We know we could have had portland pick and CP3. i like it the way it is better.

Just curious. Did Ainge say at the time that he would have chosen Durant over Oden?

i was thinking something along these lines watching the games but why not keep Durant and Pierce? This line up would be fun in 2007-2009 and, by 2009-2010 with a couple trades, I don't think it would be ridiculous to think that this team might contend:

PG: Rondo, Delonte West, Telfair
SG: Pierce, TA, West, Green
SF: Durant, Gomes, Green
PF: Jefferson, Gomes
C: Perkins, Jefferson

I like the idea of a Perkins, Jefferson, Durant front court dominating the league for a decade. With Rondo running the team, P-Dub as the veteran leader (and eventual sixth man) and a young scorer SG sixth man (to eventually replace Pierce as starter) this team would kill. Its probably right that KG and Allen made Rondo and Perkins better players but I think those two also could improve if they were challenged by their more talented contemporaries (Durant and Jefferson) and hounded by the Pierce acting as the sage vet.

While I am at, I think Birdman and Mario Chamlers would round out this team real nice. Birdman because he is a defensive force who would put pressure on Perk and Chalmers because the Cs could've gotten him in the 2nd round and because he would give Rondo serious competition.

The assets of West, Telfair, TA, Green and/or Gomes could probably get some solid player(s) too if offered at the right time.

I am almost positive I remember Ainge saying he would've taken Durant #1 if he won the lottery, but now I can't find any links.

Did he actually come out and say it or was this just speculation at the time? I do remember Ainge getting fined for talking to Durant's mom during a Texas game that year. Obviously he liked Durant, but the reality is that most teams would have gone with Oden. Do we have proof that Ainge would've done otherwise?

Pierce wasnt staying for another rebuild. If we take Durant then Pierce starts demand a trade, unless we do other trades and establish a contender. But maybe we could still make the trades but instead of getting Ray and KG we would get much more (Durant>>>>>Jeff Green) or maybe given up less, and turned out better.

And last thing, Durant isnt a SG and cant play one, PJ Carlisimo tried Durant at the 2 and he got fired after going 1-15, and then Scott Brooks came, and maximize Durant's abilities by playing him at his natural position (SF) and shiftin Jeff Green to the 4 (which also worked quite well)...

I know it took Ray Allen coming to the C's to convince KG to come to Boston. But since this is hypothetical, what if KG understood the talent that is Durant. We draft Durant who becomes our Ray Allen for now, then the KG trade goes through as it really did.

Perk
KG
Durant
Pierce
Rondo

that looks like an incredible core.

Ainge has said that he might have traded Durant anyway - and thus we would get KG and Jefferson.. So don't assume that Durant would have led to a total rebuild. Or OTOH we could have done the KG trade with Jefferson and skipped the Ray Allen bit..

Either way its not logical to assume that 2nd pick would lead to a total rebuild..

Pete

You don't trade Durant for a 31-year old KG.

Let's make this a bit more interesting and point out that we ALSO could have had Brandon Roy the year before. Minny wanted Foye and traded down one spot for $3m in cash to what was OUR pick before we shipped it for Telfair and Ratliff. One can assume that we could have done the same trade and that a rookie Roy would not have changed our lottery odds much in the 2007 draft.

It gets worse... as mentioned, we retain Minnesota's 2009 pick. Fair to assume that Minny still deals KG (probably to Lakers for Odom and Bynum, but whatever) and enters a rebuilding phase. That pick is high enough to draft... Brandon Jennings.

Oh man.

Rondo/Jennings
Roy
Pierce/Gomes
Durant/Baby
Jefferson/Perkins

Am I the only one who wouldn't have done anything different?

Captain_Caveman wrote:You don't trade Durant for a 31-year old KG.

Let's make this a bit more interesting and point out that we ALSO could have had Brandon Roy the year before. Minny wanted Foye and traded down one spot for $3m in cash to what was OUR pick before we shipped it for Telfair and Ratliff. One can assume that we could have done the same trade and that a rookie Roy would not have changed our lottery odds much in the 2007 draft.

It gets worse... as mentioned, we retain Minnesota's 2009 pick. Fair to assume that Minny still deals KG (probably to Lakers for Odom and Bynum, but whatever) and enters a rebuilding phase. That pick is high enough to draft... Brandon Jennings.

Oh man.

Rondo/Jennings
Roy
Pierce/Gomes
Durant/Baby
Jefferson/Perkins

We never had Minnesota's 2009 pick. They had a significant amount of protection on the pick and it was going to become something like a 2012 2nd rounder. The Wolves owed the Clippers a 1st rounder where the protection on it decreased each year IIRC, and the Clippers still haven't received that pick. In order for us to get the Wolves first, we would've needed them to make the playoffs consistently to give up their pick to the Clippers and then we would get the pick 2 years after the Clippers got one from the Wolves. The Wolves haven't made the playoffs in years so the Clippers haven't even gotten their pick as a result, and our pick became something like a 2012 2nd rounder (which we dealt back to the Wolves in the KG trade).

If KG would've accepted the deal to us with Durant on the team instead of Ray Allen, then you basically just take out the Ray Allen deal and draft Durant and do everything else the same. Durant was very close to Ray as a rookie and has obviously leaped past him now. Whatever downgrade Durant might've been from Ray as a rookie would've been more than made up by having Delonte coming off the bench in '07-'08, so I think they still win the title for sure even without Ray and the great Finals he had.

You are a title winner/contender/favorite with KG in the present and you even have a pretty bright future with Durant/Rondo/Perk and whatever star you sign when Pierce's and KG's money is off the books. The only question is whether KG would've believed in Durant enough to accept a deal to Boston.

Right on Rondo, though had they been able to convey a pick to the Clippers, the pick we had was only protected Top 5 in 2009. But even without Jennings, that roster is still pretty freaking nasty.

IMO, if we have Roy and Durant and many other young pieces already in tow (Jefferson, Rondo, Perkins, Gomes), we have a totally different window of opportunity and would have been unlikely to trade for KG. Far more likely to me that we trade Pierce instead, and roll with:

Rondo
Roy
Durant/Gomes
Jefferson
Perkins

Plus whatever we receive in return for Pierce, and whatever we are able to draft with out own picks.

How was drafting Durant plan B? Am I missing something? That wasn't an option we had available to use, so it wasn't plan B, C, D or E...?

It's a hypothetical conversation based on the premise of us winning the lottery in 2007.

The KG trade was justified by the time we made the Finals, but it still makes for interesting discussion.

At least we know that Ainge would have taken Durant over Oden, because it looks like Greg just blew his knee out.

Plan B looks pretty good although we wouldn't have ended up with Glen Davis because he was included in the Allen trade. Still, though, we would've had a ton of assets. I agree with whomever said it first - Pierce would've immediately demanded a trade. As a huge fan of Durant this was my idea at the time: Pierce to Philly for Iggy and Dalembert. A starting five of Perk, Al, Durant, Iguodala, Rondo with Dalembert, Gomes, West off the bench would've been a reincarnation of the '05 Phoenix Suns. That team would've been so much fun to watch.