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As far as Joe Dumars is concerned, Maxiell is staying in Detroit
Danny Ainge just can't help himself, can he? After being laughed at mercilessly for a previous trade offer earlier this summer, the Celtics' general manager cooked up yet another whopper (okay, this probably isn't a whopper) and sent it in Detroit's direction. The proposed deal had the Pistons sending power forward Jason Maxiell and a future first round draft pick to the Celts for Glen Davis and D-League talents J.R. Giddens and Gabe Pruitt. Is it any surprise that Joe Dumars immediately pulled the plug?
Now I understand what Ainge is trying to do here (which is basically to rip somebody off), but he must be crazy to think that the Pistons would even have any sort of interest in this trade. First of all, power forward is a sore spot right now in Detroit. Our projected starting four man plays like a small forward and has the size of a center. I'm all for Charlie Villanueva being one of the centerpieces of this franchise, but I'd be lying if I said I was comfortable with him playing 40 minutes a night right out of the gate. Can he do it? Sure. But should he? That's debatable.
Villanueva is still a young guy who has seen extremely sporadic playing time so far in his NBA career. The person backing him up for the initial year or two of his new contract needs to be a strong, physical presence; mostly because I don't get the sense that Villanueva really brings that to the table right now. I'm talking about somebody who can come off the bench to defend bigger guys, score down low and rebound at a high rate. Glen Davis is not this guy. Jason Maxiell, however, most certainly is.
I know that I questioned Maxiell's future with the Pistons only a few days ago, but I want to make it clear that I'd only support the idea of shipping him away if the deal in question was actually worth it. Getting a smaller, less physical version of him is not what I consider worthwhile. Throw in the fact that we'd have to tack on a future first rounder and this deal starts to reek of even more desperation (is that even possible?) on the Celtics' behalf. It seems to me that Ainge finally realizes that Glen Davis isn't quite as coveted as many people blindly assumed he would be, and now he's trying to sell him off to anybody within shouting distance. Remember, with Kendrick Perkins, Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace all likely to be in the neighborhood of 30 minutes on most nights, the Celtics really don't have much room for Davis on their roster anyway. Thankfully, it appears the Pistons don't either.
Comments
Glen Davis is the man & he should play with the Celtics because if he leaves he will leave many fans including myself disappointed & if he wants time on the court he should send a message to Doc Rivers with his performance on the court.
I agree that he should stay, though I think he has earned his time based on his playoff performance alone (I believe it was 18ppg and 7 or 8rpg, but I could be wrong).
I imagine it will happen, and I can't wait to see Perk, KG, Big Baby, and Rasheed all on the same team...
Also, if Big Baby was looking for big bucks, I know it is a strech, but a contract extension now would probably bring him up to the time when the big three start to dropoff (36,37ish). Then the Celts will REALLY want to keep him...
Well I'm glad Dumars rejected this deal, I want BBD back and he fits our team better than Maxiell right now. Plus he knows the system.
BBD >>>>> Maxiell
Huh? BBD is much better than Maxiell and guards bigs especially well. He can guard centers despite his lack of height as he's impossible to get good position on down on the blocks. He's actually a really good post defender. I think Ainge is trying to extract some value from BBD while he can instead of having someone show up with 6mm that he would be forced to match. I think they will match any offer, but don't want to pay that much, so will try to get some value in the meantime.
Dumars can keep laughing at Ainge, but Ainge will be laughing in June. Dumars destroyed a championship team as fast as he built it. Also is it really a stretch to think Dumars would be stupid enough to go for one of these deals, he did draft Darko over Melo and trade Billups for Iverson?
The one thing that I think some of you guys are missing here is the first round pick. Is Big Baby is a better player than Maxiell? Maybe he is. But there's really not much of a difference, regardless of what each city thinks about their current guy. The first round pick (likely from 10-20) is the entire trade here as far as I'm concerned. I'd trade Maxiell or Davis straight up in a heartbeat if I could wind up with a first rounder somewhere around the lottery. Most NBA teams would do the same. Ainge offered up a very fair 1-for-1 trade, added two scrubs (although I was a big fan of Giddens at Kansas/New Mex) on his end and hoped the Pistons would shell out a future first rounder too just for the hell of it? How can we not chuckle at this trade offer?
Not sure how you see this as rip off for Boston when it looks like a fairly even trade. Big Baby can play in the post and not be moved out. While Maxiell is a good energy and can cover but he is no big man in the post by any means.
I am glad this trade did not happen as I like Big Baby a lot and think he can be a player and starter in this league. I don't feel the same about Maxiell.
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