Boston Celtics: B/R ranks this trade as best of the decade for the Cs

The Boston Celtics were quite busy during the last decade in regard to trades, however, Bleacher Report deems one as being the best above all the rest.

The Boston Celtics have often found themselves flush with quality talent and assets throughout their 74-year existence. From Bill Russell and Bob Cousy (the Houdini himself) to Larry Bird and Paul Pierce, the franchise has been lucky to have called some of the game’s best ballers their own.

And though these aforementioned players were shamrocks right from the getgo, there are a plethora of others who have donned the green and white threads that were skillfully pried from another region.

In other words, they were traded for.

In regard to the team’s past trade endeavors, they have taken part in some of the most luxurious deals in the history of the association, with a prime example involving the 2007 ordeal that brought Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to Beantown to form their 2000’s version of a big-3.

Since this fateful night, the Boston Celtics’ front office has continued to scour the trade market in search of bettering their team moving forward and, thanks in large to the genius of General Manager & President of Basketball Operations, Danny Ainge, they’ve sustained their level of success in this area.

Just this past decade Boston found themselves involved in some of the most polarizing exchanges the league would see, including, but not limited to, the Rajon Rondo trade back in 2014, the Isaiah Thomas trade in 2015, and the Doc Rivers trade in 2013.

In the eyes of us here at the Houdini, it’s certainly an open debate as to which trade could be deemed as “the best” from the 2010s. However, according to Bleacher Report, there’s only one clear-cut choice.

In an article penned by Mandela Namaste entitled Every NBA Team’s Best Trade of the Past Decade, it was decided that the July 12th, 2013 trade that sent Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jason Terry to Brooklyn reigned supreme over all the rest.

The trade, for those who don’t remember, looked like this:

• Boston Celtics Received: Keith Bogans, MarShon Brooks, Kris Humphries, Kris Joseph, Gerald Wallace, four first-round picks
• Brooklyn Nets Received: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Terry, D.J. White, a first-round pick, a second-round pick

Namaste’s justification read as follows:

"Those four first-round picks the Brooklyn Nets sent to Boston, whether directly or through subsequent trades, turned into Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Kyrie Irving. Though every other player and pick was fairly inconsequential for the Celtics, those three are more than enough to make this their best trade of the 2010s."

All in all, these are incredibly fair points in regard to his justification.

In a nutshell, the Celtics exchanged the twilight years of Pierce and Garnett for two All-Stars in Kyrie Irving (Cleveland received Brooklyn’s 2018 first-round pick as the main draw) & Jayson Tatum (Cs traded Brooklyn’s No. 1 overall pick in 2017 for Philidelphia’s No. 3 pick, where he wound up being selected) and an arguable All-Star snub/ potential future star in Jaylen Brown.

While we still believe there are other past deals that one could choose as the best of the last decade, B/ R makes a very compelling argument as to why 2013’s trade trumps all the rest.

Do you agree with their choice? Perhaps you would argue another deal as being the best from the 2010s?

Share your opinions in the comment section below!