WALTHAM, Mass. — The Nets paid a hefty price in salary, luxury-tax commitments and future unprotected draft picks to acquire Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett from the Celtics.
But don’t count Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge among those who think the Nets overpaid for players who have played too many minutes and have little left to offer their new team.
“Heavens, no,” Ainge said after the Celtics’ press conference to discuss the trade and introduce Keith Bogans, MarShon Brooks and Kris Humphries at the team’s practice facility. “They’ve got a lot left in the tank, especially [because of] the fact that they don’t have to do it every night. If Paul and [Garnett] had to go out there and be player A and B every night and score 20 and 10 every night, yeah, there’d be some concern.
“But we just saw [Garnett] get 17 rebounds a game three games in a row in an NBA playoff series, so I would not be feeling sorry for [the Nets] now.”
Ainge said he would have been perfectly comfortable heading into next season with Pierce and Garnett on the roster and giving it one more go with both of them. Before the Nets came along, Ainge didn’t think he was going to get an offer to convince him to move either of his future Hall of Famers, in addition to Jason Terry.
“If there were no good offers, which there hadn’t been over the last couple of years, it would have been very easy to [bring them back] and try to fill in the roster,” Ainge said. “They were under contract — KG for two more years and Paul for another year — and we would have kept everybody together.”
But the Nets used owner Mikhail Prokhorov’s cavernously deep pockets to take on both players and present Ainge with the kind of offer he needed to move two of the most iconic players in the history of the league’s most iconic franchise — three unprotected draft picks spread over the next five drafts, along with the rights to swap picks in another.
Ainge said it was a “really good offer,” one the Celtics couldn’t help but take in order to begin to rebuild after the third member of the Big Three, Ray Allen, left for Miami before last season, and after Doc Rivers left last month to both coach and run the basketball operations for the Clippers.
Ainge admitted he wasn’t sure why there weren’t more teams trying to trade for Pierce and Garnett, who he repeatedly insisted have plenty left to give.
“I was surprised there wasn’t more interest,” he said. “But, again, it’s the unknown. I guess I’m surprised because I know who they are. I know their health. I know what they have left in the tank, and I think a lot of people just look at the age and finances and with the uncertainty, it’s probably a scary thing to take on 37-, 38-year-old contract guys.
That paved the way for the Nets to find a way to suddenly transform their roster — combined with retaining Andray Blatche and signing Andrei Kirilenko — into one many feel can contend with the Heat in the Eastern Conference.
Count Ainge among that group. He thinks the trade allows the Nets and the three veterans to contend for a title in the short term and lets the Celtics turn the page under new coach Brad Stevens.
“The fact they’ve been able to go together to a team will be an ideal fit for them,” Ainge said.
“They won’t have to carry a heavy load with three other All-Stars [Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez] on the team. They’ll have a great deal of depth. It’s pretty ideal for them.”
“But collectively, individually, there were no better offers for us at any time over the last few years. So rather than have [Garnett] play one more year and us not be the standard we used to be, and Paul with one year left, it definitely was the right move for us in trying to fast forward the rebuilding process.”