Question from Seattle...

[blazersforlyfe]

I know this has probably been answered here many times, but i was just curious...

If you could do the KG trade over again and YOU could choose would you rather have kept..

Rondo, and have Perkins at Center

or Kept

Jefferson and had Telfair at Point

[Bleeding Green]

Rondo at the point.

[Falstaff]

Rondo.

[nasbahceltic]

great question...hard to really give a definitive answer as we all really loved Al, but I think Perk and Rondo fit a little better with the personnel on this team. The team really suffered when Rajon went out for a couple games earlier in the year. Given that experience and our experience with Telfair last year I'd venture to say that changing the deal like this may hurt the team more than help.

Its not so much of a comment on Al its just that the discrepancy between Rondo and Telfair is so enormous. Couple that with the fact that the pg position is so incredibly important in terms of leadership and just being the floor general for the team.

Al can come back after his contract runs out in Minny though!

[TheSheriff]

I'd still rather have jefferson.

Rondo and Perk fit really well on this team, but going into the future it is certainly Big Al.

[CeltsfanSinceBirth]

I love Rondo and Perk, but a KG/Jefferson/Pierce frontcourt is just too devastating to pass up. If teams want to gamble right now, they can leave Rondo or Perk. With Al in place of Perk, that means one less guy to double team off of.

And if KG managed to get Pierce and Allen to play defense, there's no reason to think that he wouldn't have been able to get Big Al to D up.

Telfair probably doesn't get the job done though. Solution - Danny calls up Gilbert Arenas and convinces him to come play for the MLE for a few years. Hell, Danny could probably get John Stockton to come out of retirement with that roster.

[phoolishly_insane]

Rondo, and have Perkins at Center

[DynastyInTheMaking]

You people are crazy if you think Jefferson/Telfair << Rondo/Perkins

Perk had his few huge games but if it was Big Al lining up next to KG, Big Al would definitely be posting better #s than KG. You think Telfair is that horrible? He is averaging slightly less points and more assists than Rondo and that is on a BAD Minny team.

Telfair would have been in heaven in that lineup. However he may also have been used as trade bait to get Sam sooner.


But I dont think Minny would have done this supposed adjusted trade. The whole point was getting the potentially dominant young big in Big Al. Minny will be back soon with all that youth and the entire nation will know who Big Al is. I hope this years draft is very very good to them.

[Bleeding Green]

It's not so much a matter of Jefferson/Telfair being outright better than Rondo/Perkins. Jefferson is definitely the best individual player here. It's more a matter of how **** amazing a frontcourt of Garnett and Perkins is defensively. And to a lesser extent how much Jefferson is costing the T-Wolves, as well as how **** awful Telfair is.

[Taget]

I think I'd take Jefferson but certainly Telfair wouldnt be starting a PG and someone else would've been brought in under that scenario.

[3pt %]

Tough question, but you can't argue with sixty wins.

Still I would have loved to see what happened if you teamed up Big AL and Garnett...

[andyhop]

It's not so much a matter of Jefferson/Telfair being outright better than Rondo/Perkins. Jefferson is definitely the best individual player here. It's more a matter of how **** amazing a frontcourt of Garnett and Perkins is defensively. And to a lesser extent how much Jefferson is costing the T-Wolves, as well as how **** awful Telfair is.

Ignoring the the obvious flaw in the whole discussion that KG would be playing somewhere else if Al was going to stay in Boston.

As a Wolves fan I'd agree that the whole dynamic of the team would change with Al instead of Perkins and Telfair instead of Rondo.

You wouldnt be winning games on defence as you are now but Al and KG are almost the perfect offensive big guys to play together.

Al in the low post and KG in the high post would be a nightmare defensively for other teams.

Defensively Al is ok as a 4 and KG is ok as a 5 but nowhere near as good as KG at 4 and Perkins at 5.

I haven't seen much of Rondo but looking up his numbers surprised me I thought he was a lot better defensively than they make him seem, maybe they don't give a full account of his defence either that or he really isn't very good you will know better than me.

The other problems teamwise is that Al needs a lot more of the ball than Perkins does if you aren't going to waste his abilities so you then have to take shots from someone and also Al is moving onto his post rookie deal next year whereas Perkins lasts a few more years so there is a big financial cost of the alternative deal.

Boston are better off with Rondo and Perkins than with Telfair and Al becuase the pieces just fit better.

[Gant]

Nobody's a bigger Rondo guy than me, but... If you had Jefferson down low in chronic single coverage it wouldn't even be fair.

Big Baby could play point on that team and they'd still score at will.

[wigglestrue]

Rondo at the point.

QFT.

If teams want to gamble right now, they can leave Rondo or Perk.

...and Rondo's been burning them.

Can't overstate how important Rondo has been to the team. Can't overstate the chemistry issues there'd be with another "Big" who needs touches. Can't overstate the reason why this team has 60 wins: Defense. Defense. Deeeeeeeeeee-fense. Rondo and Perkins have been as perfect a complementary PG/C combo for the Big 3 as one can hope for. Jefferson would give you a top 5-10 PF/C. Rondo has already earned the right to be in the top 10 PG discussion. Which is more important to have, if you already have a big man like Garnett and two elite scorers like Pierce and Allen? The point guard. Statistically, note that Rondo's FG% is only 1 point lower than Jefferson's.

[CeltsfaninDC]

You people are crazy if you think Jefferson/Telfair << Rondo/Perkins

Perk had his few huge games but if it was Big Al lining up next to KG, Big Al would definitely be posting better #s than KG. You think Telfair is that horrible? He is averaging slightly less points and more assists than Rondo and that is on a BAD Minny team.

Jefferson is not as good defensively as Perk. They don't need more points, they need better defense on the 5 and rebounds. Perk gives them both. Having Jefferson means that KG would have to guard the 5s or have Jeff coming off the bench as the 6th man. I don't think either of those scenarios works.
Rondo is playing amazingly well this year, but he was the BIG question mark before the season. In hindsight, keeping him out of the trade with SEA was a big win for the Cs and DA.

[floyd]

For this year, Rondo and Perk easy.

3 years from now is when we'll miss big Al's scoring.

[meatball sub]

If we had Jefferson and Telfair instead of Rondo and Perk this year all of the preseason doubters would have been right. The chemistry on that team would be AWFUL.

[GoGoCeltics]

Rondo/Perk for this team.

Al Jeff for the future in general.

[tombattor]

Definitely Jefferson. PP-AJ-KG front line will make the original Big 3 proud. Not to mention Ray on the wing. Rondo's been very good, but the difference between Jefferson and Perk would make up for the loss of Rondo.

[AWalkerREMIX]

If I saw Telfair in Celtics green again, I'd shoot myself.