Danny Ainge isn’t afraid to take risks. At last year’s trade deadline, Ainge traded for Isaiah Thomas and Jonas Jerebko and these moves allowed the Celtics to climb up the standings and into the Eastern Conference playoff picture. This season the Celtics have been in a battle with the Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat and Charlotte Hornets for spots five through nine in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. This season Ainge should make a move for a player who can separate the Celtics from the rest of these second tier teams and, quite possibly, lead them to the conference semi-finals.
Many Celtics fans will ask why trade for Rudy Gay? For one, the Sacramento Kings appear to be willing to deal Gay for nickels on the dollar. He was offered to the New Orleans Pelicans for a package centered around Ryan Anderson. The Celtics could make a more attractive offer of Jared Sullinger to the Kings.
Sullinger is a player that the Celtics could afford to lose and yet is a younger and a better defender than Anderson. It is expected that the Kings would send an additional asset with Gay to the Celtics, Kosta Koufos perhaps? The Celtics would have to send David Lee to Sacramento as well, to make the money work.
If the Celtics acquire Gay, he would join Isaiah Thomas as the only Celtics with the ability to score off the dribble, a trait the Celtics would certainly value as they are just 10-14 in close games. Isaiah Thomas is the only Celtic who can consistently create his own shot without the Celtics’ head coach, Brad Stevens, drawing up a brilliant play. Adding Gay could push the Celtics over the top in these close games. These additional wins would push the Celtics ahead in the standings and they would likely find a more favorable matchup in the playoffs with these additional wins.
If the Celtics choose to acquire Rudy Gay, Brad Stevens would have to figure out where he fits in the Celtics lineup. Gay is natural small forward, however, Jae Crowder is having a breakout season and is one of the Celtics’ most important players, so sending him to the bench wouldn’t be an option.
Stevens would more than likely turn to small ball and have Gay play the Power Forward where he has spent 27% of his minutes this season. This in turn would put more pressure on Amir Johnson to perform defensively as starting Gay at the four would leave Johnson as the Celtics sole interior defender. This could lead to problems for Boston. Johnson has had his fair share of injuries over the last few seasons and losing him to injury would have catastrophic effects on the Celtics defense if they turned to small ball with Gay.
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