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Boston Celtics Daily Links - news, rumors, and opinion

2013-05-18T19:51:38Z

All the Celtics news you need in one convenient place.

Herald Execs split on C’s chances
Rest assured, no surgery for KG
Globe A collision of Celtics nostalgia and reality
Celtics Green Ainge Making Decisions With One Hand Tied Behind His Back
A Few Summer League Notes
Stephen A Smith Stirring Things Up Yet Again
No Surgery Needed for KG
CelticsBlog Ainge elaborates on comments about Pierce and Garnett
2013 NBA Draft Prospect Profile: Gorgui Dieng
Celtics may be looking to move up in NBA draft
Celtics Life Karl on the Kayak Episode 7- Featuring Dan the Camera Man
Projected top pick Nerlens Noel interviews with Celtics
ESPN Satisfaction guaranteed?
Report Card: Chris Wilcox
Lex Nihil Novi Sidney Wicks Drops 35 & 15 as C's Dump Bucks
Cowens' 33 Goes for Naught, as DJ and the Sonics Prevail
Celtic Nation What Went Wrong? A Quick Recap of the 2013 Season
CLNS Radio Exploring the Celtics' Trade Options for Paul Pierce
Red's Army Greg Oden comeback update: He looks unbelievable
What do we do with… Brandon Bass?
Your Morning Dump… No surgery for Kevin Garnett
CSNNE Bass ready to go to work on his game this summer
Should the Celtics sign Greg Oden?
NESN Report: Celtics Assistant G.M. Mike Zarren Turned Down Sixers’ General Manager Job
Celtics Share Old Footage of Tony Allen Touring Whole Foods to Celebrate Grizzlies’ Playoff Win
Celtics Town Washburn: Paul Pierce’s family is preparing for relocation
Green Street What Doc Rivers’ return means to the Celtics
Mass Live 2013 NBA Draft: Boston Celtics potentially looking to move up?
Celtics Hub Danny Ainge is Waiting on Talking Future with Kevin Garnett

Boston Celtics Daily Links 5/18

2013-05-18T15:05:18Z

All the Celtics news you need in one convenient place.

Kevin Garnett will not have surgery on his ankle/foot

2013-05-18T13:14:54Z

While we still don't have any word on Kevin Garnett's status for next year, we do know that his doctors have said that rest is the better option to surgery on his ankle/foot.

Rest assured, no surgery for KG | Boston Herald

President of basketball operations Danny Ainge reports that Garnett will not go under the knife to deal with bone spurs and other issues.

"I think there was some question whether he was going to have surgery on his foot," said Ainge. "but the last I heard, which was a few days ago, is that he won't need surgery."

I think that sounds like good news, but I have to admit I don't know enough about the condition of bone spurs to know. It seems to me that you'd want those buggers out of there but perhaps it isn't worth having surgery and months (or whatever) of rehab when the issue might just go away on its own. We'll see.

Celtics may be looking to move up in NBA draft

2013-05-18T03:11:39Z

This year's draft is widely seen as a pretty weak one compared to some of the better drafts. However, the draft still presents the best opportunity for teams to pick up cheap, quality talent that can grow into franchise changing players.

The Celtics have the 16th pick and haven't drafted this high since the Kevin Garnett trade. It is possible that Ainge is looking to up the ante even more and get himself into the lottery.

2013 NBA Draft: Boston Celtics potentially looking to move up?

Apparently based on who the Boston Celtics have interviewed at the 2013 NBA Draft combine – a list that includes projected top-10 picks Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller, plus other possible lottery picks Mason Plumlee and Kelly Olynyk – Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix suggested Thursday that the Celtics could be looking to move up.

An aside on Boston. C's met with Victor Oladipo, who will likely be gone in top-ten. Met with Kelly Olynyk, too. Could be looking to move up
— Chris Mannix (@ChrisMannixSI) May 17, 2013

How he would go about doing that is an interesting question. We certainly have some trade chips outside of Pierce and Garnett, but aside from Bradley or Sullinger, I don't any of them would net us a lottery pick in return by themselves. Still, if someone wanted a shot at kick-starting Courtney Lee's career, it might be worth it if they are simply swapping picks. Moving from say the mid lottery down to 16 isn't a huge drop and if the team isn't that impressed with anyone on the board, they wouldn't mind moving back.

Of course, Ainge could be simply doing his due diligence in looking at all the options available. But as Jay King points out, teams are only allotted 18 interviews and it would be foolish to waste time on too many guys that don't have a chance of falling out of the lottery. So we'll see.

Update: Here are some quotes from Ainge on this subject.

Rest assured, no surgery for KG | Boston Herald

“We’re always having discussions about moving up and moving down and moving out,” said Ainge. “That’s just like every other year. But I don’t know what the chances are of that happening.” He feels confident the Celts will have choices to make regarding deals involving picks. “Sure, I think I will have chances,” Ainge said.

Stephen A. Smith back with more Doc Rivers rumors

2013-05-18T03:01:14Z

Stephen A. Smith is hearing buzzing noises again. Maybe he should get that checked out.

Stephen A. hearing more Celtics whispers - Boston Celtics Blog - ESPN Boston

"According to my sources, Doc Rivers has intimated to people he’s close to that (leaving the Celtics) was something that he thought about, in terms of moving forward. As far as I’m concerned, he’s still thinking about it," Smith said. "But he is under contract with Boston. Boston would have to let him out of his contract and give him permission to talk to somebody else, and I’m not sure he’s that willing. It would have to be a great, great opportunity."

As for Danny's comments about Doc being the coach next year, Smith was very dismissive.

"Danny Ainge's words, in this matter, mean nothing to me. Absolutely nothing."

To be fair, it does sound like Ainge has not "officially" asked Doc if he's returning. If you read the quotes carefully enough, it sounds like Ainge is just assuming based on his interactions that Doc is returning.

Danny Ainge: Enough! Doc’s our coach | Boston Herald

"I don’t even know why I get asked this question," he said. "Doc is coaching next year. As far as everything I know, he’s going to be our coach. "I haven’t heard anything other than Doc’s coaching next year."

Perhaps he knows that Doc would consider another opportunity if it was presented but doesn't want to admit that publicly. I don't know, I guess we'll see.

Personally I'm going to take what he says literally. Until someone tells me otherwise, Doc is coming back.

With that said, Doc could squash this pretty easily by coming out and saying flat out "I'm going to coach the Boston Celtics next year." Hopefully that is coming soon.

Celtics offseason trade ideas

2013-05-17T18:38:52Z

There's no telling what is going to happen. Here are a few things that may or may not be good ideas.

Danny Ainge's comments and actions seem to indicate that he'd like to find a way to trade Paul Pierce and move on with the next era of Celtics basketball. Maybe I'm reading too much into his comments yesterday, but he said his first decision would likely be to decide what to do with Paul Pierce (after a lot of "discussions" with all the parties involved). He also said that he expects Pierce to play and and that the Celtics were more than one player away from a Championship.

Also, go back to the last trade deadline and you'll find that he was pretty close to moving Paul Pierce to the Mavericks - as outlined by Wojo (and hat tip to the forums poster "chambers" that unearthed this article from back in early March).

After trade talks to send Paul Pierce to Dallas fell through, Celtics make another spring run - Yahoo! Sports

In a three-way deal that would've secured Josh Smith and surrendered Paul Pierce to Dallas, Atlanta wanted Boston's first-round draft pick, too. The Celtics were in talks to send Paul Pierce to Dallas at the trade deadline. (AP)As much as any of the proposed deals discussed in February, perhaps this had been the closest Pierce had come to parting with the Celtics, sources told Yahoo! Sports. Dallas had constructed a package that included Jae Crowder, Brandan Wright and Dahntay Jones to Atlanta, with the Mavericks and Hawks exchanging positions in the 2013 NBA draft. Nevertheless, Boston wouldn't relent on the pick and the deal died on meeting-room grease boards in three cities.

So apparently that deal fell through in part because of the draft pick. I have to wonder how much of it also hinged on the KG deal that apparently the Clippers pushed away from the table on (per Bulpett).

Add it all up and I don't think it is too big of a stretch to wonder if all the parties might be interested in talking again.

Atlanta never traded Josh Smith and he's a free agent to be this summer. You get the feeling that the Hawks and Smith appear to be eager to move on, but Josh would like to get the most money possible - so a sign and trade makes sense as long as big contracts aren't coming back to Atlanta (so they can maintain the cap flexibility they worked so hard on). They will make a push for Dwight Howard and maybe even Chris Paul.

Dallas has lots of cap space too, and will also likely push for Dwight Howard and/or Chris Paul. But the chances of either player going anywhere is highly in doubt and if they re-sign or sign elsewhere, both teams may seek a plan B. Perhaps Dallas would be interested in a year of Paul Pierce and Dirk Nowitzki playing along side each other.

You could still conduct a three way sign-and-trade sending Josh Smith to the Celtics, Paul Pierce to Dallas, and whatever the Hawks want back from Dallas. The Mavs can take back more salary than they send out because they are under the cap and the Hawks would get the added benefit of getting a trade exception to use in the next year. Picks might be part of this and the cap particulars would be complex*, but I believe it could be an option.

On a similar vein, the Mavs might indeed want to clear max cap space by making a similar trade - sending matching salaries out and waiving Paul Pierce for the $10M in cap savings. That might be more difficult to pull off if the Hawks don't want their pieces but it sounds like it was close at the deadline.

A lot of complicated factors have to go into something like this happening, but you can bet that a lot of scenarios like this is at least being discussed internally, if not on the cell phones between teams. Get ready for a long summer of rumors and ideas like this. In particular as the draft approaches. Note: The Celtics have to make a decision on Paul Pierce's contract by the end of June, so timing could be very critical in this.

I know that the topic of Josh Smith is a huge debate among fans. Obviously the topic of trading Paul Pierce is also a huge subject of interest with Celtics fans. Reports suggest that Danny was ready to make that swap at the right price a few months ago. So will he revisit that move again? What do you think?

*Note: Red's Army suggests that the Celtics would likely have to make another move prior to this, shaving 2-3M off the books in order to get under the cap "apron." I don't understand all this but see here for details. Obviously this is pretty complex, so see your local capologist for further details.

Ainge elaborates on comments about Pierce and Garnett

2013-05-17T12:32:35Z

Steve Bulpett has some longer quotes from Ainge about Pierce and Garnett. Here's a sample but check out the whole article.

‘Big’ decisions await Celtics | Boston Herald

"I think that I have to base my decision on basketball things only," Ainge said. "Listen, I love those guys and I owe a lot to them. They know that, and we know that. And I think there’s a chance that they come back together, but I have to base our decisions on basketball and what’s best for us and the continuity of our franchise."

And Ainge would like to have a better idea of what that is so he has more answers when he chats with Garnett. "Look," he said, "we’re moving forward no matter what. Right now we’re preparing for the draft, and then we’ll prepare for free agency. But somewhere along the time, I will have a conversation with Kevin. I don’t know when that will happen. But I want Kevin to take some time and think about it. I’m not making any decisions over the next week, so at some point we’ll have that conversation. "But we know we have to find ways to get better, and that’s the same whether Paul and KG are here or not."

Waiting on news about Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett

2013-05-17T12:18:22Z

We're waiting!

Last week Danny Ainge said something about waiting a week to make calls to guys like Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to "let them breathe" after the season. So the logical question is "well, did you call them?"

The answer is no. In fact, it sounds like he's in no particular hurry at all. In particular with Kevin Garnett.

Ainge: Rivers will return next season -Celtics blog - Boston Globe basketball news

With Rivers back, the Celtics can now begin formulating their roster for next season. Ainge said he has not talked with Kevin Garnett, who will turn 37 on Sunday and is considering retirement. "I don't think I have the answers that Kevin will want," Ainge said. "So I gotta figure there's a lot to do (before we talk) and I think there's a lot of questions in Kevin's mind as there is every year, to determine whether he's coming back. I'm not ready to answer everything that he will want to know."

Reading between the lines a bit, it seems that Ainge hasn't come to a decision on Paul Pierce yet. Without that "answer" that KG is looking for, Kevin isn't going to have an answer in reply. So there's no need to make that call until things with Pierce get sorted out.

It doesn't say anything about Ainge not speaking with Pierce. So make of that what you will.

Taking another leap into that white space between strings of text, I'd have to imagine that Ainge is busy making calls around the league to gauge exactly how much value Pierce might have in a trade. As we get closer to the NBA Draft and the June 30 deadline to make a decision on Paul's contract, we'll probably get a better idea of what options are out there and what are not.

Timing-wise, draft night is a logical time for teams to make smaller trades because GMs can target specific players. They can even make contingent trade agreements based on who might be available. Typically, however, larger trades with big name players happen a few days before or after the draft since there are usually so many moving parts. There's also the free agency period that teams will be highly interested in starting July first.

Basically we've got a good few weeks before any of this is likely going to be resolved. So buckle up and enjoy the rumors and speculation rollercoaster.