Shannon wrote:When that rumor was first circulated awhile back, Garnett reportedly nixed the deal, saying he wouldn't re-sign with Boston. I wonder what changed.
Just remember, he said that before the draft, when all Boston had was Paul Pierce. Since then, the Celtics have acquired a perennial All Star in Ray Allen to go along with that young core. Now KG could go to Boston and replace a couple young role players and their starting power forward, which will look a whole lot more attractive to Kevin. In my opinion, it's Boston or no where. Golden State and Phoenix have the pieces, but they are in the Western Conference where wins are alot harder to come by. Chicago refused to give up Luol Deng in any deal, so the Bulls aren't in the running any more. He can either continue to lose in Minnesota, or go to an incredibly star studded team with a 3-4 year window of winning the championship.
Boston is the best place to go if he wants to win now.
That would explain it.
For some reason I thought that rumor was going around post-draft. The big pre-draft KG rumor I was hearing was he was heading to Golden State, in a three-way trade involving Charlotte, but the deal was canceled due to miscommunication has to who the draft pick was supposed to be, who was to be included in the trade.
And I agree, Boston seems like a good destination for him. As a Raptors fan, though, I am very concerned about the improvement in the Atlantic. If the KG to Boston deal goes through, the Celts instantly become a playoff team in the East, possibly (I'd say probably) even a top-4 seed. The Randolph-Curry experiment
could net huge gains for the Knicks, though I'm skeptical about it, and personally think it will fail miserably. But there is a chance it could work, and if it does, the Knicks likely become a playoff team. That leaves New Jersey, who upgraded from Mikki Moore to Jamaal Magloire (a marginal improvement, but an improvement nonetheless), and who will also be a playoff team barring injuries, as well as the division's only real whipping boy - the Sixers.
With all that competition, not to mention the improvement of other Eastern teams, such as Charlotte and (possibly) Orlando, and the continued dominance of the perennial heavy-hitters (Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit), and it looks to be an uphill battle this year for the Raps. I don't think they've done enough to improve the team, unless Bosh, Bargnani, and Ford all improve dramatically over the off-season. That being said, I think the Raps at least would have pushed New Jersey to 7 games with a healthy Gabajosa, possibly even won the series. So in my mind they were already pretty much a second round team, which is good.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is, if this KG to Boston deal goes through, along with other player movement, the East could be a lot tougher this year.
