The Pierce-Garnett trade is the gift that keeps on giving

We've been over this a few times before, but it is worth re-visiting again after the latest deals shook out.  That trade that sent away the face of the franchise and the franchise savior was hard to swallow at the time of the deal, but looking at what we got for those guys, it sure did set us up for a promising rebuild.

By now you know the tale of the tape, we sent out Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett and got back matching salaries and oodles of draft picks.  Oh yeah, and there was a traded player exception created in that deal too, but nobody ever uses those, ...right? (Wrong, but we'll get to that in a moment).

Since that initial trade Danny has been busy making a lot of moves which has turned some of his assets into other assets or actual live bodies on the court.  So let's take a look at the updated tale of the tape via Brian Robb of the Globe.

Explaining How the KG/Pierce Deal Enabled the Celtics to Acquire Isaiah Thomas - Celtics Blog - Boston.com

If we trace back our steps and add the Thomas trade to Boston’s haul for Pierce and Garnett, here’s the updated breakdown of notable assets Ainge received via the blockbuster deal:

--James Young (2014 first-round Nets pick)
--Isaiah Thomas (acquired via 2016 CLE first-round pick and Marcus Thornton. Both of those acquired via $10.4 million Nets trade exception)
--Tyler Zeller (acquired via $10.4 million trade exception)
--2016 unprotected Nets first-round pick
--2017 option to swap first-round pick with Nets
--2018 unprotected Nets first-round pick

Again, it is some kind of wizardry that Ainge was able to utilize that TPE to get a solid center and dynamic point guard.  He also has several other picks and TPEs acquired though other trades (Rondo, Green, etc.) and will have every option open to him this summer.  That should be a lot of fun.

Meanwhile, we can bask in the glow of the Nets trade that keeps getting better. It remains to be seen just how good those future picks the Nets owe us will be, but I've got high hopes for that 2016 pick at least. Oddly enough, neither Pierce or Garnett remains with the Nets any longer.  Both could very well be retired by the time we collect the last of those picks in 2018.