Why it makes no sense to blow this team up

First of all, I don't think that from an objective point of view this team has a serious chance of contending for a championship. They're not really even a dark horse.

Of course, I doubted them two years ago when they were heading into the playoffs coming off of losses to the Knicks (the freaking Knicks), the completely offensively inept Bucks, the crippled Shaun Livingston and Lapdance Tuesday Andray Blatche led Wizards...you get the idea. Things weren't looking too good.

And then they turned on the switch.

(the next couple of paragraphs are just ramblings of an overly sentimental fan so just skip to the * if you don't want to read my nonsense)

They were a monstrous 46-point (!!!!) game by Wade away from sweeping the Heat, which were by all measures a pretty bad team. They killed (this may be an understatement) the spirit of Lebron and Cleveland's championship aspirations in any sport (I'm not overexaggerating right?). They put the Magic in a 3-0 hole that they simply couldn't get out of. And they were half a quarter and one Rondo-Pau mismatch, that still haunts me to this day, away from a second, seemingly improbable championship.

This team will always be my favorite team.

The next year started at an all time high: they thoroughly dismantled the Heat, Rondo was playing at a monstrous (16 assists per game!) level, we had SHAQ!, KG was catching alley-oops and dunking with vigor again, we were arguably (not really) the best team in the NBA.

Then the Perkins trade happened. Based solely from a personnel and need standpoint, this was a great move. We had ridiculous depth at the pivot and we needed that wing off of the bench. But it completely and utterly destroyed Rondo's spirit. Then Shaq's calf just wouldn't cooperate. Then they started losing. Then people started complaining that Jeff Green wasn't as good as advertised (he's honestly just not THAT good). Then Glen Davis started thinking he was a real person (sorry, that last half of a season made me realize how insufferable Shrek is without his donkey).

We lost before the playoffs even began.

I still cheered, I still hoped and speculated that they would just turn the switch on, and it still sucked when they got ousted by the best team in the NBA. In the back of my head, however, I knew that this team had no chance: there was no more ubuntu. There was no plan to monitor everyone's minutes before the playoffs they were just losing. They weren't playing for one another anymore even if they did care deeply about one another.

This season has been up and down to say the least. And the struggles and very obvious flaws (old, jumpshot reliant, can't rebound, lack of starting caliber center) have led a healthy amount of "realists" begging Ainge to blow it up.

*

And, ignoring the fact that I really do love this team, I'm all for it if the opportunity presents itself. So lets assess our tradeable assets.

We have our two first round draft picks (one from the Clippers, which will almost definitely be a later pick than ours) and the Big Four. Let's go from easiest to hardest to assess.

Kevin Garnett: My personal favorite player of all time and I would never want to trade him. So it's a relief to me that his contract makes him virtually untradeable.

Ray Allen: He's probably the easiest to trade because of his relatively small contract and his incredible ability to play as a complementary (not role) player. The spacing that simply having him on the floor provides is incredible and can help any team.

Paul Pierce: He's still got a year or two of borderline (this means deserving but not surefire) All Star level play in him, maybe more. But, really? Manageable contract, not great but moveable, but once again could you see him retiring in anything but green?

The problem with trading these three players (really just Ray Ray and Pierce) is that they have no use to any noncontending team. Maybe we can wrest away say a Paul George or Evan Turner with either one of these players since both the Pacers and the Sixers could use their offensive abilities, but even that is unlikely at best and maybe impossible considering their contracts. So what's worth more to you, an expiring contract and a late round draft pick or Paul Pierce and Ray Allen?

My point is that all three of these players were at one point worth young, promising players and draft picks...and that point was four years ago.

So that leaves us with Rondo.

He is to say the least a polarizing player, at least amongst Celtics fans. But one thing that I don't think is debatable is that the front offices of other teams don't value him the way our front office and we do. And their concerns are warranted: he can be moody, he is a bit thin skinned in a profession that requires otherwise, he barely has a jumpshot, he may be a product of the system (he's not), and so on.

So with all of this in mind why would you sell low on a player that's worth so much more to this organization than any other organization? His contract makes it easier to trade him, but it also makes it easier to rebuild around him; his team friendly contract also applies to this team.

It isn't that we shouldn't rebuild or that we have to, instead I think we should rebuild if we're given the right trade, the right opportunity to do so, but given the circumstances it seems unlikely.

Feel free to leave any possible trades (realistic, please) that you can think of in the comments section. Or you can tell me that I suck and I'm wrong, but if you do please at least tell me why.

And if you actually read all of this, congrats. Oh, and I know I transition from they and we a lot, so...my bad.