When the Green acquired Ray Allen on draft night last year, boos were heard in some quarters among Celtics faithful. Pundits were puzzled. Long-time Ainge critics scratched their heads in between giggles and looks of befuddlement. Delonte West fans screamed.
By the next morning, many fans were a little more chipper, as ESPN radio interviewed local Bostonians celebrating the move as a sign of KG's imminent arrival in Beantown. As it turned out, they were right. After about a month of haggling, KG did in fact come to Boston, and everyone in the Land of Green colletively sighed, and said "oh, now I get it."
But the Ray-Allen deal often gets dismissed to easily as the transaction that got KG interested in Boston. By itself, that would be enough to make the Ray-Allen deal a home run. But there was more to the deal that appears to make it appear one of Auerbachian proporotions.
Along with trading with Delonte West to Seattle, the Boston Celtics dealt Wally Szczerbiak and first round pick Jeff Green. Wally's making $12m this year and $13m next year, and his numbers (see link below for full stats) are at best average. Delonte continues to be a role player on a bad team, and shooting less than 40% from the field (see link below for full stats). The Sonics failed to pick up his option for next year, and word is that he is now on the block.
Jeff Green won''t be 22 until next August, and he's playing like it, averaging 8 points and 4 rebounds per game, while shooting .440 from the field (see link below for full stats).
Ray Allen, meanwhile, made the All-Star team for the 8th time, and only politics kept him from winning the MVP. True, he has struggled off an on this year. But he is performing at a more consistently high level as of late, and appears to be the type of player who thrives when the game is on the line, as demonstrated, in part, but his two walk-off home runs.
Now if that were the entire deal, you might call it a draw. Jeff Green might pan out to be a decent player in five years, at which time Ray Allen may be retired. Seattle will enjoy some salary flexibility when Wally comes off the books, and Delonte still has some trade value.
As we all know, however, that was not the entire deal.
The Boston Celtics also acquired the rights to Glen Davis in the Ray Allen trade. Admittedly, it is too early to assess Big Baby's long term value, but in the short-term, Boston's newest Bambino appears to have the goods.
He has played two mammoth games for the Celtics, and both games just happened to be against the league's best, Detroit and San Antonio. The ability to elevate your game against the best is usually a reliable indicator of a young player's potential.
In the Spurs contest, Big Baby drew the difficult assignment of guarding Tim Duncan, who is at least five inches taller, perhaps more. Duncan scored several easy hoops early in the game.
But by the middle of the third quarter, TD was catching passes 12 feet from the basket, making it much more difficult for him to sink his patented jump-hooks off the backboard. No less important than pushing Duncan out past his zone of comfort was the Baby's ability to stay out of fould trouble while guarding him. And when TD got position on the Bambino down low, Davis was able to flick a couple entry passes away, starting a Celtics fastbreak on one occasion.
Magic Johnson once said you either have it or you don't, and either way, everyone will know from the get-go. I'm not sure this postulate is always true, but it sure seems to be so more often than not.
Who knows how well Jeff Green would be playing in a Celtics uniform. But it is at best unclear whether he would be outperforming Big Baby.
So at the moment, the Ray Allen deal appears to be as lopsided as many of Red's great deals, and if the Cs win the title this year, the trade may go down as only a notch or two below the DJ acquisition.
Delonte
Wally
Jeff
Ray
BBD
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