Today is a tough one, Celtics fans. It’s the day after what’s being viewed as potentially one of the most lopsided trades in NBA history, and we’re on the wrong end of it.
We’re not used to being in this position. The Celtics are the franchise that wins those trades and turns them into banners. Consider Boston’s greatest hits.
- 1956, Red Auerbach trades two future Hall of Famers, Ed Macauey and draftee Cliff Hagan to the then-St. Louis Hawks for rookie Bill Russell. Eleven championships ensue.
- 1980, Auerbach sends two first-round picks (no. 1 overall plus no. 13) to the Golden State Warriors for center Robert Parish and overall pick no. 3, which became Kevin McHale. Parish and McHale win three titles on their way to the Hall of Fame.
- 1983, Auerbach roasts the Phoenix Suns, acquiring Dennis Johnson and a first-rounder for back-up center Rick Robey. DJ wins two rings with Boston.
- 2007, Danny Ainge gives up young star center Al Jefferson, four other expendable players, and a pair of first-round picks for all-time great Kevin Garnett. Banner 17 follows.
- 2013, Ainge tops himself by shipping a package of players and picks – headed by two aging superstars, Garnett and Celtics legend Paul Pierce – to the Brooklyn Nets for a bunch of players and first-round picks. Two of those picks result in nine seasons of The Jays, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, becoming arguably the best duo in the league.
- 2017, the Celtics win the draft lottery thanks to the Nets trade, and Ainge completes his masterful trade trilogy. Confident that his draft target, Tatum, will be available at no. 3 overall, Ainge sends the top pick in the draft to the Philadelphia 76ers for the third pick plus a future first-rounder. The Jays win Banner 18 together.
Now the Sixers might have their revenge. The NBA world certainly thinks so. Reaction has been pretty much unanimous.
Even frequent Celtics critic Kendrick Perkins got this right.
This appears to be the first time the Celtics have traded away an all-NBA talent who’s undeniably in his prime. To be fair, we don’t yet know why the Celtics took this deal. Was it a financial decision because Brown is in line for a massive contract extension? Also, why they could not get a better return? We can only hope there’s a second trade lined up that will take the sting out of this one. But until more is revealed, all we can do is compare this deal to the most notable trade failures.
- Paul Westphal – Auerbach drafted the athletic point/shooting guard in 1972, and two years later Westphal helped the Celtics win their first title since Bill Russell had retired. However, a year later, possibly because Westphal was up for a new contract, Red traded him to the Phoenix Suns for guard Charlie Scott, who was on the downside of a Hall of Fame career. The Cs won one title with Scott, but he was gone less than two years later. Meanwhile, Westphal hit his prime, made all-NBA four times, and also was voted into the Hall of Fame.
- Joe Johnson – Like Westphal, Johnson was drafted by Boston, who already had Paul Pierce. They might’ve become the precursor to The Jays, but Johnson didn’t even last his rookie year before being shipped to the Suns by impatient general manager Chris Wallace. The Celtics received rotation players Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers, but Johnson played 18 seasons and scored more than 20,000 points.
- Chauncey Billups – Yet another young talent traded too soon. Billups was the third overall pick in 1997, but Celtics president Rick Pitino gave him just a half-season in green before exiling him to Toronto for point guard Kenny Anderson and others. Billups ultimately played for seven teams, but he also was named multiple-time all-NBA and all-defense, plus a Finals MVP with the Pistons.
- Kendrick Perkins – At the 2011 trade deadline, Danny Ainge gambled and lost. The Celtics were leading the East with a 41-14 record when Ainge surprisingly sent Perkins to Oklahoma City for short-term rental Nenad Krstic and talented wing Jeff Green. The justification was that Boston had enough other bigs (including the aging Shaquille O’Neal) to continue their run – but that backfired. The deal disrupted team unity, Shaq missed virtually the entire second half of the season with various hip and leg injuries, and the post-trade record was just 15-12. The Cs fell to third in the East and suffered a second-round playoff exit. Green also missed the entire next season due to a heart condition.
- Bob McAdoo – In 1979, the Celtics were rebuilding, and they had a new owner, the volatile John Y. Brown. Auerbach had collected three first-round picks for that year’s draft, but Brown impulsively traded them to the New York Knicks – without consulting Red – for the high-scoring McAdoo. Problem was, the forward-center didn’t hide that he had no interest in playing for Boston. Ultimately, McAdoo appeared in only 20 games in green and white, and the Celtics finished with what was then their worst record ever, 29-53. Fortunately, Auerbach salvaged the bad trade by sending McAdoo to the Detroit Pistons for the draft picks that became Parish and McHale, as described above.
That brings us back to Jaylen Brown.
All of this happened so quickly. It was just a few days ago when the Milwaukee Bucks traded Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat, rendering moot the speculation that the Celtics had offered a trade package led by Jaylen. The basketball arguments against trading Brown for Antetokounmpo included Giannis being two years older, his injury history, and not wanting to see JB suit up for a conference rival.
But what’s come to pass is worse on each of those levels. Paul George is seven years older than Brown, has played more than 56 games just once in the past seven seasons, and now Brown will be on the side of Boston’s oldest and most bitter divisional rival. The fact that this comes just after the Celtics blew a 3-1 lead and lost to Philly in the playoffs for the first time since 1982 makes the situation infinitely worse.
While this deal has similar vibes to the McAdoo trade, it remains to be seen if Stevens can imitate Auerbach and find a way to turn this L into a W. If he can’t, the unfortunate judgment here that this trade will indeed turn out to be the worst one in the 80 seasons of Boston Celtics history.
