Is Kevin Garnett the NBA's Herschel Walker?

by Tom Lewis on Jul 31, 2007 6:38 AM EDT in Indiana Pacers News

Kevin Garnett's trade to the Celtics may be the NBA's version of the Herschel Walker Trade where down the road people will marvel at how a talented Minnesota Timberwolves team was developed off of one guy. But that is a future story that needs time to develop. Right now, the trade makes the Celtics a tough out in the East. Mike Wells latest blog entry bumps the Celtics up to number two in the East behind Detroit. I can live with that, although I'd bump the Bulls up to number one and move Detroit down to number three.

A key for the Celts is Rajon Rondo running the point. He has to be the happiest man on Earth this morning. Suddenly, there's no need to scrutinize his lack of an outside shot because with Pierce, Allen, and KG there shouldn't be too many shots for Rajon to take anyway.

What does this do to the Pacers? For one, it buries them behind another team in the East for at least a couple of years. It may make a J.O. trade more appealing since Garnett's deal just set the market for maxed out All-Star forwards. Maybe now the Pacers will consider clearing out the Lakers' roster including recent number one pick Javaris Crittenton and leaving Lamar Odom in LA. That would require taking some less than palatable parts like Kwame Brown and Brian Cook, but their contracts and future picks would give the Pacers plenty of flexibilty for a full rebuild.

Just thinking out loud here since the Celtics just made the East a tougher place to live for the Pacers even with J.O. on the roster.

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that's a really interesting point

i hadn't thought of KG as a parallel to the herschel walker deal but you could be right.

What shocks me is that the T'Wolves didn't demand Rondo in return. The Wolves did pry away almost all of the Celts other young talent, but if they were going to make this move, they should've done so before the Draft. This deal would've looked alot better if they got Jefferson, Green, Rondo, Theo's expiring deal and the #5 pick.

As it stands now, the Celts appear to be a sinch playoff team (ah, praise the Eastern Conference!), meaning that there's about a 95% chance that the '08 first round pick they were able to pry away from Ainge won't be in the lottery.

by schultz950 @ Indy Cornrows on Jul 31, 2007 9:02 AM EDT reply actions

this could work out though for Minny

I say that becuz of the conditional 1st rounder they have to send to the clip joint. So in that sense it might be much easier to do certain things that would be much more difficult to ascertain otherwise.

As far as what this does for the Pacers it just puts them further behind. The C's were already clearly better but that isn't much when there is so little difference between teams in the "L"east.

When the tough get going the going gets Cornrows.

by pookeyguru on Jul 31, 2007 5:13 PM EDT up reply actions