Banner 18 > Retirement Party !!!!

As I listen to the rumblings emanating from the celtics nation, I constantly hear the same trade ideas being thrown out for us to consider, most of which have the same recurring theme. Let us give you our "aging, tired, future HOF'ers" for your young, athletic, allstar!!? The only thing is "IT AINT GONNA HAPPEN"!!! BUT, we can make our team better, for those that hate to read, LOL, here is a brief summary (followed by an in depth explanation)

BOSTON sends RONDO,WILCOX,DOOLING to PHOENIX for NASH, R.LOPEZ, 1ST RD PICK (TOP 7 PROTECTED)

BOSTON sends J ONEAL, BRADLEY, BOSTON 2013 1ST, PHOENIX 1ST to UTAH for P. MILSAP

BOSTON sends B. BASS, CLIPPERS 1ST to ROCKETS for C. LEE, G. DRAGIC.

The THREE reasons that a GM would explore a trade for one of their players is if it makes their team better now (contending team needing a piece to get over the top)ie., sending a Ray Allen to Chicago for example. Another reason a GM would trade a player for is to clear up a logjam at a position, in order to play a younger talented rookie on a rebuilding team, ie., Minnesota and their current logjam at the PF position. The third reason for a GM to trade a player is to clear up cap space and / or acquire picks to either get younger or to make room for a max contract free agent pursuit ie., Dallas sending C. Brewer & R. Fernandez to Denver for a 2nd ound pick, so that they can try to persuade D.Howard and D.Williams to come to Dallas this summer. As I look around the league, the teams that are in contention either have no high draft picks, no good young assests to trade for,(that wouldn't affect their chemistry or if they have someone that we would like to acquire, then they would also want us to take back a crappy contract ie., Hedo. So, that eliminates about a third of the league. The next group of teams would be the bottom dwellers, ie., lottery teams that if they have one or two up-n-coming young stars on rookie contracts, why would their GM have ANY interest in trading multiple young stars for one of Big 3?? That GM would be out of a job in 24 hrs. So that eliminates another third of the league. That leaves us with about 8 to 10 teams to consider as trade partners. So, what do we have to trade??? Expiring contracts, some bench players and a few draft picks. BUT, this is enough to put us in the position to make a run this year, and set us up for the future. Let me explain how DA can get this done WITHOUT trading any of the Big 3. This works on espn trade machine.

STEP ONE - Trade Rajon Rondo, Chris Wilcox, Keyon Dooling to PHOENIX for Steve Nash, Robin Lopez and a future 1st (top 7 protected). Why would the Suns do this? While the Suns won't actively pursue trades for Nash, the chance to acquire a top 5 point guard with one of the best value contracts in the league,plus two affordable bench players with expiring contracts, for a expiring contract, a back up center and a 1st round pick is certainly a very good return for Nash who will walk at the end of the season.

STEP TWO - Trade J Oneal, A Bradley, Phoenix 1st, Boston 1st (2013 or 2014) to Utah for Paul Milsap!!! Why would Utah do this?? It would clear up a serious logjam at the forward position (Kanter, Favors etc...) give them a young PG with potential, clear 8.6 millon from their 2012-2013 salary, and gives them two additional 1st rd picks.

STEP THREE - Not totally necessary, but it would round out our roster and give us two additional good young pieces for our future. Trade Brandon Bass, Clippers 1st to the Houston Rockets and our good buddy Kevin McHale for SG Courtney Lee and PG Goran Dragic. Why would the Rockets do this They get a talented, young PF to help them compete this year, with an expiring contract as an additional assest, plus acquire another first for the strong 2012 draft.

SO, what does this do for the Celtics? We get a young 23 yr center, a 26 yr power forward, we get a 26 yr SG, and a 25 yr PG, it gives us Steve Nash who would do a masterful job of running our offense for his best shot at a championship, plus this would make for a roster that looks like this!!

2011-2012 Roster

STARTERS C - G. Stiemsma (until R.Lopez learns the system) PF- P. Milsap SF- P. Pierce SG- R. Allen PG- S. Nash

BENCH C - R. Lopez C - G. Smith NBDL PF- K. Garnett PF- JJJohnson SF- M. Pietrus SF- Elijah Milsap NBDL (pauls little brother) SG- C. Lee SG- M. Daniels,. PG- G. Dragic ET Moore

This would preserve our veterans legs, give us a REAL chance at making #18 a realistic goal this year, allow us the option of bringing back Ray and KG if they choose not to retire this year (imagine the Big 3 retiring together NEXT year, while sticking around to mentor the younger guys, plus get another shot at Banner 19 !!!)

This is a MUCH better team this year and these are PROVEN NBA players that are worth more than the two 1st round we are giving up. If Ray and KG decide to retire this year then we will still have about 20 - 22 million in cap space going forward. Let us all sign a petition and forward this to DA, GET IT DONE DANNY!!! Thanks.