Fireworks? Don’t talk about fireworks! You kidding me? Fireworks? (With apologies to Jim Mora.)
To be fair, the big boss man of the Celtics, Wyc Grousbeck, did not promise or guarantee fireworks this summer. He only said there could be fireworks if everything went according to Hoyle.
Celtics fans, rightly, took that to mean something big. You know, big, like a certain power forward for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
But like Dylan at Woodstock, Kevin Love ain’t coming and, so far, it’s been one big dud of a summer in Boston.
The only noise of any kind has been from the league-wide head-scratching over the $32 million, four-year deal awarded to Avery Bradley. If Bradley doesn’t have a poster of Grousbeck over his bed, he should.
General manager Danny Ainge has added Evan Turner, Marcus Thornton and Tyler Zeller via trade or free agency. He added Marcus Smart and James Young via the draft. He even has added a trade exception courtesy of a Kris Humphries deal.
None of those players is to be confused with Love and – unfortunately for Ainge – the others he has on his roster do not appear to be enough to land the Wolves’ big man. Where’s Kevin McHale when you really need him?
In a league that eats its young (which LeBron James will soon discover if Cleveland’s roster stays intact), the Celtics are one big edible entrée. They have one player (Gerald Wallace) on their roster who is in his 30s. (Forget Keith Bogans and Joel Anthony.) They have some promising kids in Jared Sullinger and Kelly Olynyk. Smart may prove to be a keeper, but his next NBA game will be his first. Does Bradley excite you? Jeff Green? Brandon Bass? Wallace?
The Celtics really like their kids and all those No. 1 draft picks. Other teams? Not so much. Flip Saunders? Not at all, apparently.
Grousbeck told the Boston Globe this week that everyone is looking under every rock in search of a deal. He said no one wants another “rebuilding” year, which 2014-15 is looking more and more like it is destined to be. Celtics fans were patient last season, understanding that there would be a dropoff with the Big Three all gone and a rookie coach. The Celtics lost 57 games. They accounted for 13 percent of the Bucks’ 15 wins and 16 percent of the Sixers’ 19 wins.
But the expectation always was that 2013-14 would be a toe-dip-in-the-water type of season before everything turned around with all those draft picks (a lot over the next four years) and young kiddies. Then, just as he did in the summer of 2007, Ainge would flip the picks and prospects and get a Proven Star to convince Rajon Rondo to stick around.
The reason for urgency in getting something explosive done this summer is, in part, to sell Rondo on the Celtics long term. His deal, like Love’s, is up at the end of next season. Unlike Love – and this is not unimportant – he has not said he will not re-sign with the Celtics. He really hasn’t said much of anything.
He could take the Carmelo Anthony/Chris Bosh route, say all the right things and then take the money. Under league rules, the Celtics can offer him more than any other team. And in the end, most free agents take the money.
So not having another star right away doesn’t automatically preclude Rondo from re-signing. But it would help if he had someone else because, right now, the Celtics of 2014-15 don’t appear to be a whole lot better than the Celtics of 2013-14.
If that’s the case, Rondo would face a decision of taking the big money and staying in Boston or taking the nearly-as-big money and going somewhere else to play with a championship contender. Or the Celtics could relieve him of that decision by trading him. There are a lot of balls in the air on this one but in this particular solar system, Rondo is the sun. Everything revolves around him.
Prior to the draft, Ainge said the team’s two biggest needs were a rim protector and a closer. A month after the draft, that is still the case. But there’s another need he didn’t mention: relevance.
Right now, in terms of interest among the major pro teams in Boston, the Celtics are closer to the No. 5 Revolution of the MLS than whoever is No. 3 (and right now, it’s probably the Red Sox.) As Gertrude Stein once said of Oakland – “there is no there, there” – so it is now with the franchise that has more NBA titles than anyone else.
That’s why fireworks are needed.
Peter May is the only writer who covered the final NBA games played by Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. He has covered the league for three decades for The Hartford Courant and The Boston Globe and has written three books on the Boston Celtics. His work also appears in The New York Times. You can follow him on Twitter.
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We hate it when people get that Gertrude Stein quote wrong. She was talking about her family’s house in Oakland, not the city itself.
Its teams like the Celts, Sixers, Bucks and ORL that will prevent the East from catching up to the West this season.
Once the Love to CLE trade happens, the rest of the East will be on par with the West, at least on paper.
None of that made sense