Dumars reportedly vetoes another Boston Celtics trade offer

July 21, 5:46 PMDetroit Pistons ExaminerDave Ryan

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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.