We’ll Miss You Al Jefferson

When asked about rejoining a team that included Mark Blount , Al Jefferson broke down on his kness and cried “just when i thought i was out they pulled me back in ! ..”

when will it be official?…KG better lead this team to a title and sign an extension or else…..he is replacing a very likeable and albeit a popular player.

Big al will make the C’s pay for trading him.

Is the deal done?

danny match up KG’S extension with the extension big al gets from minny, then in 5 years we can get him back with all the cap space we will have lol,heres to dreaming at least

I will miss you too, Big Al. Agree with Bankshot. Is the deal done?

Is Doc included in the deal?

how do we know the deal is done?

Maybe we can get lucky with the pingpong balls in 2011.

Would I miss him? Let me put it this way, I want some heads rolling if don’t win the Championship next season.

Like Gorman said, you don’t want to have KG,PP RA entering their mid 30s and haven’t won anything yet….

I am going to miss Big Al. Best young post up player in this league! I am kind of sad. Only banner 17 will help me forget about how great of a prospect Jefferson really is…

Our window just got very very tight.. two years. In three years we become a very old team.

Are we putting the cart ahead of the horse? Has the trade become official? Im 8 hours ahead, and while I was out for the last 2 hours, I have yet to see, hear, read anything about it being final.

Personally, as much as I would like to see KG in green/white, I don’t want to see AJ leave.

Not to mention, we would still have the need for a backup PG, and our whole at the middle, just got larger.

Still stinks of desperation

this just sucks. I hope it’s not true.

I hope word gets out that AJ will refuse to resign with MN if the trade goes through.
I know this has been debated in just about every post, I love the thought of KG in a green uniform, just not at the expense of AJ!

right now, I expect AJ to be handcuffed to the radiator by his own doing.

No one from either of the Boston dailies has commented on this rumored deal. If the story had that much steam, you’d think there would at least have been a few lines written somewhere.

I feel this will be a monumental mistake, compounding the error of trading for Ray Allen. These players will not win the conference, let alone a title, without more consistent point guard play than they should expect from Rondo. They are very thin up front, unless you consider Powe, Davis and Scalabrine suitable subs for Garnett and Perkins.

McHale, on the other hand, will be looking pretty good with Jefferson to go along with Randy Foye and Corey Brewer. He’s got some nice building blocks.

WEEI says it’s Green/Jefferson/Telfair/Ratliff/Multiple picks but we keep Rondo. :D

The Globe has someone other than their regulars posted on their blog now, just regurgitating the national stories.

We are now the best team in the East hands down and a legit contender to go all the way. When you think of all the NBA teams that are trying to reach that goal you have to give Danny a lot of credit for developing mostly mid-range lottery or worse draft picks to get here.

If Pierce, Allen, and KG were all 3 years younger, I’d love what Ainge has done. But no one seems to understand that all 3 of these players are at the age where NBA bodies start breaking down.

Even if they stay healthy for the rest of their careers, how many years of contention do they give us? Two, maybe three at the most. Then, we will have no young talent and no high draft picks. We’ll be starting from scratch, rebuilding all over again. I wish Danny and ownership would’ve stayed the course with developing a young core of talent(with a better coaching staff in place) that would be competing for the Eastern Conference title on their own in a year or two anyway.

All that said, the C’s should theoretically contend for a championship for at least a year or two(barring injuries to the big 3) so that’ll be fun while it lasts.

If they give up Rondo and/or too many/good draft choices – it’s a bad deal, period.

Remember when the Vikings traded for Herschel Walker?
I’m just sayin…

On a positive note – when these contracts expire, the Celts will have tremndous salary cap flexability.

Jeff you knew this was coming days ago — I am imressed.

say it aint soo…please
i wouldn’t trade big al straight up 4 garnett

I have a feeling that they deal will be 100% agreed upon but the T-wolves owner will say “NO” at the very last moment.

side note, this deal would be great for the nba. The get a story for a couple days that is positive.

Jeff,

During you say we were entering the “DOG DAYS” of basketball summer.

LOL,

I think we are relevant again with this trade. Also I don’t think that Danny is finished putting the team together. We still have the mid-level exemption.

Neither ESPNews or Mike and Mike in the Morning has picked this up yet. It’s probably going down, but you never know.

i think Scal is going to have to go into the deal to make it work. this will leave us no tradable assets, so if we’re going to surround these guys with some vet help, it’s going to have to be via FA, with the likes of PJ Brown, Knight, etc.

Minn gets 1 pick…..probably the one they owe us .

I can just hear Doc Rivers in the background pimping for the Garnett deal. Revolting.

This is a move for “relevance”, nothing more. If they were truly committed to winning, Doc Rivers wouldn’t still be the coach.

The saddest part about losing Jefferson is that he wanted to be a Celtic. This whole thing just stinks. We’re about to fall into another 10 year hole, and the organization deserves every bit of negativity it’s going to get when this doesn’t work.

Here’s a positive:

When the KG deal was going down at draft time, the Celts were going to give up the #5 and Theo’s contract — instead they used the #5 for Allen and Theo’s contract for KG. Even though I am not supporting this (like that really matters!) we have to give Danny his due in the way he used his chips.

Now let’s hope that Perkins is the man

I must say this might be the 3rd saddest event of my celtics fan life if this goes through.

1. That heartbreaking lost in the E.Conf Finals- I cried
2. The Paul Pierce Stabbing
3. Big Al leaving

I will like KG being on this team but you start to like these players that you watch on this team, for once in these last few years we had some sort of constant with the team and I was wishing that Big Al would be part of the future. I think he will take it harder knowing the true Boston fans that aren’t as cutthroat complain and complain about losing will def miss the guy. Everyone that wanted the Celtics to get better right away is getting their wish. Long term most will be back to complaining in 3 years.

Reggie Lewis doesn’t make your list?

Antmac:

I’d rank it in the top 5.

1. Reggie Lewis’ death
2. Len Bias’ death
3. 85 finals loss
4. 87 finals loss
5. Big Al leaving

If we resign Garnett, almost 50% of our salary will be blown on one aging guy!

I was born in November of 86. Meaning I’m only 20

Most kids don’t catch on to Sports and names that early in life. Don’t know how old you guys are.

Oh I should have put Red on that list

 As we all have seen DA the master of the bad trade. To Big Al I will still root for you in Minny. I hope in the future you want to come home!!!

Brickowski…haven’t you been posting ad nauseum that Wyc & Co. are too cheap to go into luxury tax land? Now that they are going to break the bank for 3 players you don’t like it.
 
I don’t like this trade as I think 2 post-30 vets is do-able, 3 is too expensive for the current year and mortgages your future.
There is an esprit-de-corps that you see in the winners – Duncan/Spurs, Nash/Suns – that I believed the Celtics were building out from Jefferson. KG has always been that in Minny but will he/can he bring it here with two other stars. With the $$ thrown at Rashard Lewis, re-signing Al was going to be expensive, but a lot cheaper than extending KG. Is KG worth more…YES! But you need talent around them and that costs money.
I don’t like giving up on G.Green. He started playing ball as a HS soph, was a bball prodigy from there at a poor-academic HS..so how mature could he be? But he can shoot and jump out of building and is 21 yrs old. He will be a star when he gets some maturity.

I was alright being better next year but 7-8 in the East, 5-6 year after that and then a challenger with our home-grown core.

Conclusion….McHale clobbers Ainge.

Quick thoughts:

Love Big Al, but we have to do what we have to do. Hope Al has a great career, and will root for him as I will root for the Blazers in the West.

To any thinking we can’t compete for a title with KG, Pierce, Ray Allen, wake up and smell the coffee. We are in the JV East!

To any thinking that KG won’t resign, etc; it’s all about the Benjamins. $125M for 5yr and wow, suddenly KG changes his attitude! An old Cnydi Lauper song, “money changes everything”.

As I’ve posted and posted, get this done asap so everyone can get adjusted during the regular season, etc. Finally Danny listening to some sound advice.

No excuses, no tanking, no youth movement, get banner #17!

Does PP also draw pay as Celtic GM?

Do I have this right? KG does not want to come here and Al and GG do not want to leave here. So the trade is still going to happen?

I think you’re right Jeff. We certainly WILL remember Al Jefferson… when Pierce, Allen, and KG are retired and he’s DUNKING on us!

I realy don’t know what to say about this deal. Very torn.

The sensible, business-oriented part of me says this is more of what ails us: trades for big money players whose best years are—or soon to be—past; a salary cap so constipated even DRANO couldn’t get things moving; yet another shift in strategy. We’re trading an inexpensive growth stock with great ROI, for an expensive value stock. Not the worst thing in the world, but not how you build long-term.

Also taking a big chance here. Can’t build a strong supporting cast with that payroll. One of the big three gets hurt for an extended period of time and we’re stuck in mediocre-ville, watching Al Jefferson turn into the next big thing.

On the other hand… I’ve got to admit, KG, Ray Allen, and Pierce… wow. That’s a lot. KG has been the most productive player in the league over the past five years. Pierce has been top ten when healthy. Allen’s pretty strong too. If they stay healthy and get a little lucky, you never know…

The key here is Rondo. Gotta keep him. This won’t work with Telfair or Pruitt running the show. And no more allergies to the mid-level exception or the luxury tax. We need a decent vet back-up point guard.

Bottom line: I probably wouldn’t do the deal. I don’t think it’s enough to get us number 17 (particularly with Rivers still coaching) and the results of going so old and so expensive could be catastrophic. But I have to admit, if the deal goes through, I’ll be watching and hoping.

Who says Danny can’t put together a championship team? He just did in Minny!! This deal sucks canal
water. In 3 years tops the Cs are back in full tank
mode. How do they pick GMs in the NBA? They look in
one ear and if they see daylight they hire the guy.
McHale must be pissing his pants in anticipation of
acquiring a low post presence. There aren’t 4 guys in the whole damn league who can guard AL right bleepin now!!! I hope they have a commitment from
Garnett to sign and extension or this is an even worse trade.

if this deal goes down and we lose jefferson i’m going to be really upset. It’ll be impossible not to get excited, but really I’ll be upset. Hopefully some day Big Al can return.

There was a game against Orlando last year—3rd to last of the season. Al went for 28, Dwight Howard had 10. Or there was the Phoenix game — Al goes for 23 and 17. Next to Amare Stoudemire, Al is the premier low-post scorer in the league under 25. He’s exactly who you build around.

Wish it could be done without trading Big AL.

If this were to happen it would be interesting for Rondo at times all 3 all stars are used to being the primary option what does he do and who does he throw the ball to? Will we be a total half court team with an occasional Rondo to Tony Allen fast break. The last time 3 superior all stars were together was in Houston, Barkley, Drexler and Olajuwon they made it to Conference finals and lost in 6 games to the Utah Jazz.

Barkley, Drexler and Olajuwon are light years ahead of our new so-called big three.

Houston Rockets. Thats depressing. They had a 1 year run and then went 41-41.

You shouldn’t create articles without knowing the facts!! Big AL is not departing like you said he was! is this the inquirer??

I could get into this if there were ANY decent, affordable free agents to fill out the roster. There aren’t.

You can’t win with 3 superstars and no defense. Spurs/Dallas/Suns are still better. Its too bad Ainge didn’t listen to the fans.

I can’t believe that Al is leaving. All those up and under moves I saw done time and time again got my hopes up.

I always wanted KG here prior to Al.
It’s easy for me to sit here and say we should package Gomes , Raliff, Green, Telfair and two picks for Jermaine O’neal or Odom.

I actually think that might be a better team!

Big Al was the stud that made this happened. Garnett is an outstanding defender, we will be formadible with he and Perk (if healthy and playing smart) in the middle on D. Let the games begin.

how bout this trade?? al jefferson for banner 17. do ya do it?? ;)