With all of the excitement surrounding the World Series and Week 8 of the NFL season, few are taking the time to pay attention to the NBA trade that took place last night. This is especially true in Boston, where fans are trying incredibly hard to juggle the success of the Red Sox and Patriots, while still anticipating the start of what could be the most successful Celtics season in a couple of decades. However, Celtics fans may want to pay a little more attention to the trade, as these are some guys that we know pretty well. The Minnesota Timberwolves gave up two of their seven ex-Celtics last night (Mark Blount and Ricky Davis) in exchange for one fat ex-Celtic (Antoine Walker) and two expiring contracts (Michael Doleac and Wayne Simien).
In the short-term, you have to love this deal for Miami. Pat Riley has made it clear publicly that he's very unhappy with Antoine Walker's conditioning level, citing a lack of motivation as the only plausible explanation. Perhaps Antoine thought he was on the Shaq off-season conditioning plan. But, even he must know that the Diesel is held to a different standard than everybody else. So, Pat Riley dumps some excess weight in Antoine, Simien, and Doleac, and brings in two guys who can make an immediate impact for him. Everyone in Boston knows how dangerous Ricky can be on offense. He was a great player when he was here, and he has torched us ever since we traded him. Blount is a strong defensive presence down low (blocked 76 shots as a rookie) and has a nice scorer's touch. However, ever since landing an inflated 6 year contract several summers ago (in what was an absurd contract summer that was rivaled only by this past baseball offseason. We're talking about a summer in which Adonal Foyle received a max deal), he hasn't been the same player. Of course, Celtics fans saw what he could do before his big deal, and he still manages to get excited to play his old team. If Davis continues to play at a high level, and Blount becomes re-energized by his new surroundings, this move could pay huge dividends for the Heat. Hopefully these two can help the team to stay above water until the return of Dwayne Wade.
For Minnesota, this is all about the long term. Again, Celtics fans are very familiar with this: you have a young core of talented players (In this particular case, the same exact core we had give or take a few guys), you've got some stale holdovers who aren't happy that you just got rid of the teams best veteran (and one of these guys has a well-documented history of not playing hard unless he feels some source of motivation), so you get rid of your guys in their prime in order to bring in some expiring contracts and take something off the other team's hands (Antoine). This will allow you to wipe money off the books in the off-season. Added in to this scenario is the fact that there were reports of hostility between Blount and Al Jefferson dating back their days in Boston. Big Al is going to be special. Mark Blount is not worth jeopardizing any future that you may have with Al. As we've seen in Boston, this long-term plan can seem like a dead end road at times. However, if your GM plays his cards right, the payoff in the end could be big.
The most intriguing storyline in the aftermath of this deal will be to see how Ricky Davis adjusts to being in Miami (note: he did play a 5-10 game stint there early in his career). I'm sure all Celtics remember hearing Paul Pierce tell the public last year that the Celtics dancers were Davis' brainchild. Well, every girl in Miami is a Celtics dancer. This is a guy who is a well-known night owl. We hear Behind the Music: Motley Crue types of stories all the time about Ricky Davis, and yet he has still managed to stay out of trouble and has produced consistently on the floor. This has happened in places like Salt Lake City, Cleveland, Boston, and Minneapolis. Miami is a whole different beast. He'll most likely be like a kid in a candy store at first. However, I'm sure he'll adjust. I mean, this is a guy that was born in Vegas, so I'm sure there's nothing in Miami that he hasn't seen before. Maybe he'll be right at home.
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