Steve Bulpett reports that Pierce would rather trade the draft pick for a veteran.Â
It isn't worth trying to cut and paste all the quotes for you when you should read them all to get a full idea of what his position is. In short, he truely believes that winning is going to take bringing in a veteran. He isn't putting any faith in the lottery to land a top 2 pick for the Celtics. The odd thing, however, is that he says later in the article that he doesn't think they should make a trade at the deadline but rather wait till the offseason to make a move. If Ainge follows that plan, we'll be able to find out if we do win the lottery or not. If that is the case, then Pierce and I (and a lot of other people) are on the same page. Trade some young talent and picks (if not in the top 2) for some veterans that can help us win now and for a long time to come.
(Oddly enough, it looks like the MetroWest Daily has run the same story only with a different byline. I would imagine that Bulpett wrote the story and the MetroWest staff put the wrong author on the story. Odd. Rough week for the online editors. Cheers to JB of CelticsStuff Live for pointing this out.)