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I got a message asking if as someone who lives in Boston I think the Celtics should blow it up and what could they do. So I came up with trades for all of the starting five. In reality if they blow it up, they’d want draft picks and young players. These trades are trades that they could do and still compete. Some of them could include draft picks to even them up.

There are talks about blowing up the Celtics and I think they should. If I were Danny I’d keep Rondo (unless blown away with an offer) but no one else is untouchable. They could keep Pierce, but they could get a good deal for him. I came up with these trades that the team could do if they really wanted to blow it up. These all work financially, but while none of them are terrible, not all of them would make sense for both teams.

Pierce to OKC for Perkins and Harden.

Now this is a big price for the Thunder but Pierce could play at the 2 (which would make a big lineup and mismatches) with a lineup of Westbrook, Pierce, Durant, Collison, and Ibaka. Teams can only double one of those three scorers. They probably don’t want to start Collison, but the Celtics could throw in one of their cheap bigs like Stiemsma to add depth, or the Thunder could try to make a second move of Jackson or Thabo for a big. It will hurt losing Perk but I think the Thunder would be better with Pierce.

Garnett to Portland for Wallace and Felton.

This one doesn’t make a ton of sense for Portland (although ESPN think it would improve them greatly). One brigth side is after this season they will have room for a max contract with KG coming off the books. For this season, Felton has been moved to the bench and is in McMillan’s dog house. This would also make room for Batum to get into the starting lineup. The biggest problem is that they would have no point guard, it would probably force Crawford to start at the point. The starting lineup would be Garnett, Aldridge, Batum, Matthews, and Crawford. This would be a playoff team, but not for a deep run this year. However, next year the Blazers could make a run at D-Will or another top free agent.

Rondo to Atlanta for Josh Smith.

The Hawks have problems with Smith’s immaturity and Rondo’s immaturity isn’t much better but maybe they’d rather go forward with Rondo leading the team over Smith. This leaves the Hawks small and with two point guards. Maybe the Hawks could send Teague to the PG hungry Lakers. In a three team deal with the Rockets, the Hawks could get Luis Scola, the Lakers could get Marvin Williams and Teague from the Hawks and get a 1st round pick, Thabeet, and Terrence Williams from the Rockets, and the Rockets get Pau Gasol, who have wanted him.

This would give Atlanta a starting 5 of Rondo, Hinrich, Johnson, Scola, and Pachula (Hortford next year).

The Lakers would start, Teague, Kobe, Barnes or MWP, M. Williams, and Bynum, plus they would get deeper with Terrence Williams coming off the bench. The Lakers would probably want to add a PF if that happened.

Ray Allen for Tony Allen and OJ Mayo.

This is a no-brainer for the Griz. They get an elite shooter and a great scorer. Ray puts up much better numbers than Mayo, their biggest loss is Tony Allen’s D, but it’s worth it.

After the Celtics get Tony Allen they could flip him to the Timberwolves for Anthony Randolph.

This would give the Celtics a young big to try to build with and the Wolves would get a defensive stopper in the backcourt because none of their guards are known for their D. The Wolves are deep at forward.

Jermaine O’Neal and Dooling for Stephen Jackson.

This depends on O’Neal’s health. If he’s healthy the Bucks need a starting center while Bogut is hurt. They will also get out of Jackson’s contract, who has been in the dog house. It will open up almost 9M next season. With Dooling playing backup point for Jennings, Udrih or Delfino could start at the 2 for the Bucks. I think the bucks would do this just to get out of Jackson’s contract.

Another deal they could make if they needed a big is Bradley for JJ Hickson.

I like Bradley’s D a lot but he isn’t a starter for a team and Hickson could be. I’m not sure they Kings need another guard, they are deep at guard but they are also deep at PF.

If all these deals went down, except for Bradley for Hickson, this (below) would be the Celtics lineup. I put how many years they have left, and this years salary next to them. The team would be very deep but have no superstars, Smith would be the only current All-Star caliber player. It’s possible that the Celtics could package a few of these players for a star that they like who’s young and tied up for a while. I don’t ever want Felton running the point for a team I root for. I would expect the Celtics to re-sign RFAs Mayo and Randolph but let Felton and Wilcox walk. Pietrus, Pavlovic, and Daniels are all off the books too. That leaves 13.5M or so next season to bring in a PG. That could be Nash, Kidd, Miller, Billups, Nelson, Augustin, Hill, Dragic, Flynn, Mo Williams (player option), Sessions, Lin, Baron Davis, or Ford.

Obviously some of those come much cheaper than that leaving money to bring in more FAs.

The starting 5 of the Celtics are all B’s. Smith could be an A, and Felton could be a C. But it would be a decent, playoff team, not a championship contender. If the team could get a better point guard they could be a legit team.  The team would compete while giving Randolph, Harden, Mayo, Bradley, and Johnson time to develop even more. Stephen Jackson probably won’t be happy coming off the bench. It’s possible that the Celtics could turn Felton and Jackson into a better guard like a Monte Ellis (who isn’t even a true point), which the Warriors wouldn’t do but it’s just an example of a finical fit.

Celtics new lineup

Perkins 4x7.123

Josh Smith 2x12.4

Gerard Wallace 2x9.5

Harden 2x4.6

Raymond Felton 1x7.56

Bench

Anthony Randolph 1x2.9

OJ Mayo 1x5.6

Stephen Jackson 2x9.3

Brandon Bass 2x4.3

Chris Wilcox 1x3

Avery Bradley3x1.5

JuWan Johnson 4x1

Mikael Pietrus 1x.854

Review of the deals

Pierce for Perk and Harden

Garnett for Wallace and Felton

Rondo for Josh Smith

Ray Allen for Tony Allen and OJ Mayo

Jermaine O’Neal and Dooling for Stephen Jackson

Tony Allen for Anthony Randolph

Let me reiterate that most of these deals won’t happen, most likely ALL of these deals wouldn’t happen. Some make sense, some don’t, and some are completely stupid. But if I were the GM, these are some of the calls I’d make to see if we can work anything out while trying to put together a contender.

drinkupitsgoodforyou:

The 40 yard dashes at the NFL Combine of Robert Griffin III (4.41), Cam Newton (4.59) and Andrew Luck (4.67) combined into one .gif so that you can see how they measure up against each other.

Luck is an awful lot faster than I thought

   (photo courtesy of Dailythunder.com)

            Now that the first half of the NBA season is in the books and the stars have shone in Orlando, minus the dunk contest of course, the Thunder are atop the Western Conference and seemed to be gaining momentum heading into the All Star break. It was a solid showing throughout the first 24 games, *cough* except for games in Sacramento and Washington *cough*,however there are still a few things I want to see in the second half:

The Kendrick Perkins we saw against the Lakers – This is exactly what they’re talking about when they say he’s defensive presence. Perkins had Andrew Bynum in a stranglehold hold that night. Sure Bynum scored 14 and grabbed 12 boards, but his +/- was -15. As for Perkins…+13. Those are Nick Collison numbers right there.

Daequan Cook finding his rhythm – Cook’s struggles have been obvious this season. I know he’s not going to put up Harden-like numbers, but Sam Presti     re-signed this guy to be a spark off of the bench. We’ve started to see shades in the Boston game (17 points) as well as his defensive prowess start to peak out. This was a very good sign heading into the break.

Rotations – This hasn’t been a huge problem, but I still haven’t become 100% comfortable with the rotations since Thabo’s injury. There have been a lot of pleasant surprises like Royal “Heisenberg” Ivey and Cole “#freecole” Aldrich showing their chops and playing solid minutes in lieu of the recent injury bug effecting the Thunder. However, there are times when the entire second unit is out there and look completely lost. Time heals all and this should be the case for the Thunder’s rotations.

Serge continuing to round out his game – Heading into the break Serge is averaging 8.2 PPG, 7.7 RPG, and 3.21 BPG. It’s gotten to the point where most of us scratch or heads when his 18-foot jump shot doesn’t find the bottom of the net. He’s the first legitimate challenge to Dwight Howard for Defensive Player of the Year since Howard entered the league it seems and he’s even bringing back the Mutombo finger-wag. Basically I want him to keep building up swagger.

Turnovers- Enough said.

Bench celebrations – Can we please get the whole bench doing the Cole Aldrich patented 3-point leg kick? Please?! It’ll be like the OKC Rockettes…or the OKC Kick Line! Can you see it? I can.