Boston Celtics: 3 alternate realities had Cs not landed both Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen
By Mark Nilon
Boston misses out on Kevin Garnett, trade for Pau Gasol
Let’s say the Celtics still trade for Ray Allen, similar to what we talked about in the first slide. However, in this scenario, the team isn’t satisfied with just the shooting guard coming to town and Pierce still feels like they need to do more to adhere to his needs.
As we pointed out already, the Los Angeles Lakers were the greatest threat to Boston in regard to landing KG. Similar to Pierce with the Cs, Kobe Bryant expressed dissatisfaction with the makeup of the Lakers roster and even stated he’d rather leave than stay in LA with their current situation.
After losing out on Garnett, the franchise entered the season with the same young roster and a disgruntled Bryant. However, by February of that year, the team managed to strike a deal to land another star big man — Pau Gasol.
Through 39 outings, the Spanish baller was boasting averages of 18.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game on 50 percent shooting from the field. The Lakers managed to acquire the 27-year-old for a package of Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, the rights to Marc Gasol (Pau’s younger brother), and for their 2008 and 2010 first-round draft picks.
By the time of his departure from the Grizzlies, Gasol was the holder of twelve franchise records including games played, minutes played, field goals made, free throws made and attempted, offensive, defensive, and total rebounds, blocked shots and points.
With all this in mind, had Garnett partnered with Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, might it have been wise for the Celtics to play their hand in acquiring the future HOF big in Gasol? The Houdini believes it certainly would have been!
Though not as dominant as KG, Gasol established himself as an all-around star up to this point. With his impressive offensive game, defensive prowess, and rebounding skills Gasol very easily would have filled a similar role that Garnett wound up having in Beantown.
With him on board, the Celtics would have rolled out a star-studded big-3 of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Pau Gasol. Back in 2007, this would have certainly been in the running for the best trio the league, let alone the east, had to offer and, in our humble opinion, would still have been seen as one of the favorites to represent the conference in the NBA Finals.
In actual reality, the power forward went on to have an incredibly successful career with the Lakers, going on to earn three more All-star selections (six for his career) and compete for three NBA championships, winning two and losing one — twice, of course, seeing the Celtics in the big game where they split the series one title apiece.
No, replacing Garnett with Gasol in this alternate reality doesn’t equate to equal value. Despite Gasol proving to be a fantastic player himself, he never was the individual talent KG was.
However, in this alternate reality, the Boston Celtics still get a trio of star talents on their roster and, like how things actually played out, would very likely have been in the running for championships during their tenure together.