JAN

25

I was reading an article in SLAM magazine about this, and it got me thinking about how underrated and unknown this man is. This past summer, the Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves pulled off one of the biggest trades in their respective teams' recent histories. Many people believed that Danny Ainge pulled a fast one on his old teammate, Kevin McHale, by acquiring Kevin Garnett, a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame (in his prime), in exchange for Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Theo Ratliff, Sebastian Telfair, a 2009 first round draft pick (top three protected), a return of Minnesota's conditional first round draft pick previously obtained in the Ricky Davis/Wally Szczerbiak trade cash considerations, and last, but definitely not least, a man named Al Jefferson. What many fail to recognize is that, despite being 7-34, the T-Wolves actually did well in their rebuilding process. Not only that, but they got rid of one of the biggest contracts in sports today (a 2008 salary of $23,751,934) for a player who, with more experience, has the potential to be just as talented. During his first two seasons on the Celtics, the 15th round draft pick in 2004 didn't too well, as his chance to demonstrate his skills were impeded by a few injuries, which led to Jefferson playing only 8.56 minutes/game as a substitute for Kendrick Perkins. When the Celts found out that Perkins was only able to score about 4.63 points per game, and collect only 4.53 rebounds/game, they knew it was time to give Big Al a shot. Last year, he wasn't half bad, as he scored 16 points along with his 11 rebounds per game. Yes, he averaged double digit numbers for that season, as well as 1.5 blocks/game! Pretty good huh? Well, it seemed like Danny Ainge overlooked this when he traded his big bundle for just one player who you have to pay almost a quarter million bucks for, as well as being 31 years old already; you can't expect Garnett to be decent for long. On the other hand, Jefferson just turned 23 year...

Read the full post at ArmchairGM

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