Boston Celtics: 3 alternate realities had Cs not landed both Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen

Boston misses out on Kevin Garnett, wind up keeping Al Jefferson

Because of Paul Pierce’s plea for the franchise to surround him with stars, it can be assumed that the Celtics still would have acquired at least one of Ray Allen or Kevin Garnett during that summer. Because the Allen deal happened more than a month before Garnett landed in Beantown, in this reality, we say 2007’s draft-night trade still goes down.

Even with just the, then, seven-time All-Star aboard, Danny Ainge still managed to adhere to “The Truth’s” request for the team to land him another talented veteran. Though the KG acquisition automatically thrust this team into title favorites, with the shooting guard in tow, the team easily got better from what they were in 2006-07.

As some may recall, when the Boston Celtics were in the midst of trying to trade for Garnett, there was another team who was seen as just as likely a landing spot for the future HOF’er: the Los Angeles Lakers. In fact, according to former Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson, LA reportedly even had a “handshake agreement” with the Timberwolves to acquire the power forward.

"“Dr. [Jerry] Buss came to me and said, “I have a handshake agreement with [Glen] Taylor, that he’s [Garnett] going to come to L.A.”"

Reportedly, the exchange would have involved Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom, and a bevy of draft capital. And, in Garnett’s own words, Los Angeles was his preferred destination at the time.

"“I’m just being honest with everybody. I wanted to link with Kobe.”"

All reports indicate that Garnett tried numerous times to get in touch with Kobe Bryant to discuss the possibility of teaming up, however, Bryant ended up missing his calls (for unexplained reasons). Had the shooting guard actually picked up for KG, perhaps The Big Ticket would have been convinced the only place he wanted to play was in La La Land and, in turn, would have forced his way to LA.

If this happened, the package Boston ended up sending over to Minnesota would have remained in their possession. If this wound up becoming a reality, the Cs would have ended up keeping the main draw for the Wolves in the deal in third-year center Al Jefferson. And, while he wasn’t, and certainly never became close to the player Garnett was, him being the third wheel in this C’s tricycle consisting of Pierce and Allen could have proven to be pretty solid.

Despite 2006-07 being a miserable season for Boston, there were two main bright spots: obviously their star Paul Pierce and Jefferson.

In 60 starts with the team, the 22-year-old posted solid averages of 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game on 51 percent shooting from the field and the third-highest box plus/minus rating on the team.

The young big looked like a very promising young center who a team could certainly feel happy throwing into their starting lineup to man the middle. With a gifted offensive touch, a solid defensive presence, and an intimidating stature (6-10, 289 pounds) Jefferson looked to be a nice piece for the franchise moving forward.

Obviously, in our reality he did end up being traded to the T-Wolves, where he would go on to post 20.1 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per game on 50 percent shooting from the field in his three-year stint with the franchise.

Though Garnett is obviously a Hall of Famer and Al Jefferson only wound up having a solid overall career (15.7 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.2 blocks on 50 percent shooting for career) rolling out a big-3 of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Al Jefferson in 2007 could have certainly made some noise in the Eastern Conference.

A championship season? Probably not, but still, certainly a significant upgrade from the year prior.