NBA Confirming Danny Ainge Broke the System
The NBA is further confirming that Ainge did something to the Nets that should be illegal
Everyone knows that the 2013 trade that sent Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets will go down as one of the most lopsided trades in the history of any sport. The Boston Celtics were the top seed in the East, while the Nets were the last, and the Celtics are still due yet another draft pick.
In fact, the NBA thinks that Ainge fleeced the Nets so bad that rules need to be put in place to protect front offices from destroying themselves the way the Nets did in 2013 (Via NESN).
The NBA already has a rule in place where you cannot send a team consecutive first round picks. The Celtics and Nets trade, however, got around this rule but using a pick swap in 2017 instead of trading the pick straight up.
As we all know, that pick swap landed the Celtics the number one picks in the draft, meaning that is likely going to be the most damaging part of the entire deal for the Nets.
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The post on NESN quotes Zach Lowe saying that the NBA is discussing whether or not they should make a rule preventing a team from even swapping a first round pick the way the Nets did with the Celtics.
To be quite honest, this rule change really should not be much of a surprise. The Nets are not only the worst team in the league, but they are in the worst position to grow. They have absolutely no established players because that 2013 core melted down immediately, they have no young players because that was a win now window when the trade happened, they cannot get any new top prospects because the Celtics have all their picks and they are the last team any top free agent will consider because of how embarrassing the state of the franchise is.
Having a team in the state of the Nets is just bad for the NBA, except for the fact that they are the one bottom dweller with no incentive to tank. It just shows how bad the situation is when the one team with no incentive to tank, is the team that ends with the worst record in the NBA.
The Celtics are setting themselves up for a decade, and the vast majority of that was accomplished in that one Nets trade. This is a completely different situation if the haul the Nets got worked out even slightly, but anyone who saw that trade could know that the Nets were setting themselves up for this kind of situation, even if that 2013 core had some success (which, of course, they did not).
The Nets had the smallest of windows in that trade, and now there is no clear window for when they will get out of this wretched situation.
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So thank you Danny ainge, for completing a trade that was so good for the Celtics and so bad for the Nets, that the league might have to put a new rule in place to protect teams like the Nets from GMs like Ainge.