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If you read internet basketball forums, you've read trade proposals like these a million times:

Someone with a catchy screen name with post something like-
"Danny Ainge is so stupid! Here's what I'd do: I'd trade Wally Szczerbiak, the fifth pick in the draft, and Delonte West to Seattle for Ray Allen. Then I'd turn around and do a bigger trade of Gomes, Jefferson, Telfair, Gerald Green, and Ratliff's expiring contract for Kevin Garnett. Throw in some draft picks too if you need to. Voila! Instant contender!"

You read those types of ridiculous posts, you shake your head, you wonder how in the world anyone could think something like that could really take place. You imagine the poster to have even less of a life than you have yourself...

...but then look what happened- Danny Ainge actually honestly just became the first GM to morph into a wide eyed, trade-checking fiend right before our eyes. This is the craziest, most outlandish pair of far-fetched deals ever to become a reality.

How do you react to this complete transformation of the roster? We can again look to hoop forums for the answer with a group of three letter exclamations: WOW! OMG! LOL! WHA?


Here's a few observations on the deal:

* The other shoe has dropped and it's about a size 50 EEE. This is a mammoth trade. Maybe the 3rd biggest in franchise history after Russell for Hagen and McCauley, and McHale and Parish for Joe Barry Carroll. Ainge has been collecting assets and trying to cash them in since he arrived, but nothing significant ever happened- until now. The damn dam has suddenly burst and ALL the assets just got cashed at once...

* Danny's turned two recent mid lottery picks and a bunch of mid to late rounders into two veteran hall of famers. He took the bad luck of landing the 5th pick in the lottery and didn't just accept his fate. He took it as motivation to make this enormous change.

* The owners have ponied up the cash. They did what they said they would- spend to put the team over the top.

* If people were wrong about Danny... and if people were wrong about Wyc... could it perhaps be that those same people have been wrong about Doc?

* This is a pretty decent defensive team, with Rondo, Perkins, and Garnett. It's a danged good offensive team with Pierce, Allen, and Garnett.

* Are they too old? I don't know, let's look at the other contenders (yes I sure did say "other" contenders!!): Are San Antonio, Phoenix, Detroit, and Miami too old to win a title? Most of them depend on players of similar vintage.

* The trade is good for both the Celtics and Wolves. Before both were caught in the middle between going young or putting together a contender. Now Boston's got the vets and Minnesota's got the youth, and both teams are on clear paths. It's a bold move for both Ainge and McHale.

* Special appreciation and good wishes to Al Jefferson, who has been just a fabulous guy to watch in green. I hope when he's 31 (or sooner) the Celtics can trade a bunch of kids for him and win some more titles. Thank you Al. Best of luck to you.

* The Ray Allen trade made this one both possible and necessary. Garnett refused to come here before Allen arrived, and once the Allen trade was made another had to happen. Once the first trade was done the second one had to come. It was either that or enter the season with pretty much the same team and perhaps be forced to trade Pierce by mid-year.

* As Bill Simmons pointed out, you're really only giving up two sure rotation players- Jefferson and Gomes (probably), for one big rotation player. Gerald was a maybe rotation guy.

* The darksiders who've lambasted Ainge for years- Jackie MacMullan, Peter May, Bill Simmons himself, love this deal.

* I'm on board too. I almost forgot what it felt like to go into a season with a swagger, ready to blow some teams out of their own gyms, ready to take some playoff series, ready to contend.


...It feels really good.