Danny Ainge willing to break up big three

[JonLP24]

Danny Ainge does not want to see another decline in the franchise like the one that happened after the Boston Celtics' original Big Three dried up, and he's reportedly willing to break up his current star trio to ensure that.

The only problem is that he's not seeing any worthwhile deals to make.

The Celtics have limped to a 5-8 start behind 34-year-old Paul Pierce, 35-year-old Kevin Garnett and 36-year-old Ray Allen. Ainge, the Celtics' president of basketball operations, told The Boston Globe that he would consider a trade if it would help the team get younger and be poised to be competitive in the next era.

Ainge saw the Celtics pass up deals when Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish were aging, and the result was a steady deterioration that saw Boston not make the playoffs or advance beyond the first round from the 1992-93 to 2000-01 seasons.

http://espn.go.com/boston/nba/story/_/id/7478868/report-danny-ainge-willing-break-boston-celtics-big-three

[chelsea0011]

1. Allen and Pierce and Garnett will all be gone.

As a Boston fan, I have watched them this year and they are slooooooooooooooow. And the "D" just isn't there on a consistent basis. And "D" is what makes them go. Those bad times after the original Big Three were brutal. You couldn't watch a game. They never had a chance.

[madinmaryland]

2. I read an interesting article about this yesterday.

IIRC, Garnett and Allen are in the last year of their contracts. Whereever they go next year they are not going to command top dollar, and may make it easier to keep them with a lower salary and less playing time, and use them as a lure to bring in younger blood.

[taterguy]

3. The Celtics 90s decline was because they wasted the 86 #1 pick on a crack head

In their defense, most of the top picks that year had drug problems.