Pros of KG deal outweigh the cons
I remember the first time I saw moving images of Kevin Garnett.
It was early 1995. It was the middle of the night at a 24-hour gym in Los Angeles, which will never be confused with the city that doesn't sleep. (L.A. gets about 10 hours a night.)
The cluster of muted TVs in the empty cardio room were tuned to ESPN. On the screens played a montage of a slender giant dominating smaller opponents. But it wasn't the usual men-among-boys stuff that would later excite NBA GMs about Kwame Brown and Eddy Curry.
This 7-foot, sleek black Gulliver was knocking down baseline turnarounds, handling the ball and making deft passes (to teammate Ronnie Fields). His game was completely polished. I'd never seen anything like it. I was thinking whoever this guy is, he would annihilate my Celtics' starting "power" forward, Dino Radja. I wanted this guy on my team, based entirely on 90 seconds of ridiculous highlights.
Farragut Academy? Scholastic Sports America? Of course. He was in high school. That's why I had no idea who he was.
But I was certain he was ready for the NBA and that — if the clips hadn't been doctored — he'd be going to the Hall of Fame. This seems prescient in retrospect, but whoever edited that montage had removed all doubt for me that this specimen would one day have a bust in Springfield.
I even got in an argument with my fellow ballers in my daily pickup game at Fairfax High, assuring them that the best player in the '95 draft would be a skinny high school kid from South Carolina by way of Chicago. This was back when it was still considered high risk to draft a prep player. I told the skeptics that there was simply no way to have his skills and his length and not dominate.
Four NBA general managers weren't so sure, passing on Garnett to take, in order, Joe Smith, Antonio McDyess, Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace. New T-Wolves GM Kevin McHale was the beneficiary of their conservatism, snagging the precocious high schooler at No. 5. (It's worth noting that none of the subsequent 12 picks in the '95 draft became All-Stars, so it was do or die at No. 5.)
Minnesota fans will argue that this was the first and only intelligent move McHale made as an executive. On Tuesday, McHale parted with his Big Ticket, dealing him to old buddy Danny Ainge and the Celtics for Al Jefferson, Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes, Theo Ratliff, Sebastian Telfair and two first-round picks.
So I finally got KG. He's not 19 and not replacing Dino Radja. He's 31, with intermittently achy knees, and he's replacing 22-year-old Big Al.
I'm thrilled, bummed, optimistic, sad, giddy, forlorn. I had hoped to reach a firm lede-worthy conclusion before starting this piece, but I just haven't been able to tally up the totals swirling between my head and heart. I'll try to do it now.
Pro: The Celtics are an immediate contender, possibly the favorite, to win the Eastern Conference. This would seem to render all cons moot.
Con: We suffered through some real growing pains with Jefferson and now that he's emerged as a dominant interior player (23 and 16 per 48 last year) someone else gets to enjoy him taking the next step to the NBA elite.
Pro: Paul Pierce doesn't have to refill his Zoloft prescription. The consummate warrior, who has spent his entire career getting battered on his way to the foul line for one pretender after another, deserves to play with a star like Garnett.
Con: With minutes and coaching, Gerald Green could emerge as one of the most exciting players in the league. His stroke is pure and I'm already missing the handful of absurd put-back dunks that will have them jumping out of their seats in Minny.
Pro: Garnett is an excellent defender. This was an area of real weakness for both Jefferson and Green. While Big Al emerged into a nightly double-double in Boston, his defensive shortcomings will no doubt be further exposed as he moves up in class by going to the Western Conference. There are just fewer easy nights on the block with a full slate of games against Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer and Elton Brand. As for Green, while he did show flashes of offensive brilliance, his defense will have to improve considerably just to be considered woeful. The guy had real trouble concentrating on D for a full 24 seconds and was constantly being back-cut to death for easy buckets. It's too bad, because with his athleticism he probably could be a plus-defender, but it's just clearly not a priority for him.
Con: Just by looking at his stats, it's hard to understand how beloved Ryan Gomes was in Boston.
Pro: Just by looking at his stats, it's easy to understand how reviled Sebastian Telfair was in Boston.
Con: Bringing in Garnett and Ray Allen to play with Pierce will invariably make us wish this could have somehow happened five years ago before they needed so many ice packs to make it through a season.
Pro: That's what Garnett is. A pro. You don't have to worry about him falling in with the wrong guys or making bad decisions. The guy shows up and works hard every day. Which is why he'll end his career down the Mass Pike in Springfield.
Okay, who am I kidding? I'm freakin' psyched!
The deal caps a bizarre couple of months for Celtics fans. We were knocked silly by the Ping-Pong Ball Massacre of May 22, then kicked while we were down by the inexplicable acquisition of Ray Allen and his surgically repaired ankles for the No. 5 pick.
The one thing the Celtics did not need was a high-scoring two guard. They needed just about everything else, but with Pierce in the fold, snagging an aging Allen seemed plain goofy.
Now it seems less so. If Ainge made the deal for Allen as part of a larger mad-scientist plan that would ultimately yield him Garnett, well, it was pretty darn shrewd. Allen on the Celtics didn't make a lot of sense as recently as last Sunday. On Tuesday he looks like a key piece of the Eastern Conference ... favorites?
Hey, our exuberance may be irrational, but exuberance has been in short supply in Celtic Nation since a certain legend left us. (I am down to a grand total of two friends with whom I can discuss the C's, confident they've seen the game I'm talking about.)
I loved watching Big Al Jefferson develop. And the nights when Gerald Green was in the zone (not the one-man zone he played on D) were pretty incredible to watch.
But it feels fairly amazing to have the Big Ticket coming to Boston and bringing with him the possibility of punching a ticket to the Finals... and maybe even... well, if Rajon Rondo can contain Tony Parker... and Ray Allen hits a couple of threes in crunch time... and...
Wow. They may not come true, but for the first time in a long, long time, Celtics fans can dream.
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