Paul Pierce has publicly stated that he would have requested a trade from the Celtics (boston.com) had there not been any major improvements to the club over the summer ... the "burden" of carrying a team with no immediate title hopes, while the number of years left in his NBA career were quickly dwindling away, was becoming too much for our captain. Like so many other athletes, he was preparing himself for a move to another location, one where championship aspirations would be a little more realistic.
However, before that happened (and to many Celtics fans' amazement) Danny Ainge was able to pull off the seemingly impossible - he obliged his best player's wishes and surrounded him with two legit All-Stars ...
Now, finally, Paul has the veteran help that was necessary to take the offensive load off of him. Finally, after years of being the face of a mediocre (at best) franchise, Paul has a chance to at least compete for a championship. Finally, Paul can truly be happy wearing a Boston Celtics uniform.
So, why not just ship him off now? Hey, according to Sam Smith (chicagotribune.com), there's no time like the present:
Though the Celtics say they're committed to trying out their new Big Three, some league executives believe the best strategy would be to trade Paul Pierce for an experienced point guard. Garnett and Ray Allen move and move the ball well, but Pierce stops it as an over-dribbling forward.
Wonderful idea. Let's just scrap this whole "Big Three" concept right off the bat; hey, people seemed to be uncomfortable using that nickname for our three All-Stars anyway (boston.com), so why not just eliminate one from the equation? That way, we don't have the three big names, and we won't have to use the "Big Three" term anymore - problem solved!
Seriously, could we just see this new lineup in ONE regular season game before entertaining the notion of breaking them up? Is that too much to ask?
As has been mentioned elsewhere (celticsblog.com), Mister Smith is coming off as a bitter old man who won't accept the fact that Minnesota traded Garnett to Boston rather than some other team ... like, oh I don't know, his hometown Bulls perhaps? Hmmmm.
Sure enough, Smith adds a little Kevin McHale-bashing into the mix (which, I must admit, isn't entirely without justification):
It's bad enough Herman Munster (you see the resemblance to Kevin McHale in the old Munsters TV show) traded Kevin Garnett to the Celtics. Now McHale is saying his former team should make the Finals. The Timberwolves are becoming an unofficial Celtics farm team as the Kansas City Athletics were for the Yankees in the 1950s and '60s.
Heh, Herman Munster ...
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