In the media we always say we want unfiltered honesty from our subjects, but I must say I’m always surprised when we get it. The latest example comes from Boston Celtics GM Danny Ainge.
The Celtics are officially in a rebuilding phase, but had a championship window opened for multiple years when they acquired both Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. While they did win one title in 2008, it appears that a move could have been made to perhaps sustain that championship window for even more years.
Courtesy of NESN, we find out that Ainge had a trade in place to acquire Chris Paul for Rajon Rondo. To help the Celtics even more offensively.
Ainge made an appearance on Toucher & Rich on Tuesday and had some interesting, if not exactly new, things to say. He confirmed that Rondo will not be ready for the start of the season, he reiterated that he is not looking to trade the All-Star point guard and he alleged that there was a trade in place to swap Rondo for Chris Paul in 2011.
Ainge, who paid lip service to Rondo at the time as the best point guard in the league, apparently thought changing out Rondo for Paul would have fixed the Celtics late-game scoring issues.
“Over the last few years, our biggest weakness was scoring in the last six minutes of games,” Ainge said. “Even with Ray and Paul and KG, we couldn’t get over the hump. I thought Chris Paul could provide a lot of that. We thought his offense at the time was better than Rondo’s. We’re excited to still have Rondo. Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make.”
It’s hard to imagine just exactly how things would have turned out in the Eastern Conference back in 2011 had Aine pulled the trigger on this deal.
Would the Celtics, with CP3 running the show, have been able to beat LeBron and the Heat? It’s hard to say. I will say, the difference between Rondo and Paul to this day is substantial. So at the very least, it would have made the Celtics better.
Read more at: http://nesn.com/2013/09/danny-ainge-tried-trading-rajon-rondo-for-chris-paul-to-get-over-the-hump-offensively/
Read more at: http://nesn.com/2013/09/danny-ainge-tried-trading-rajon-rondo-for-chris-paul-to-get-over-the-hump-offensively/