Peter May: Sonics Fleeced Celtics

July 1, 2007

Peter May

Do we have to put newly minted general manager Sam Presti on the list of guys who you never want to do a trade with, joining his mentor, R.C. Buford, Joe Dumars, and Geoff Petrie? The almost universal reaction in New York Thursday was that Seattle fleeced the Celtics, getting the fifth pick and two decent players for a soon-to-be-32-year-old Ray Allen whose best days clearly are behind him, Celtics' claims to the contrary. Everywhere I turned, people asked me, "What is Danny [Ainge] doing?" I have no clue, either.

Durant and Jeff Green figure to be fixtures on the Seattle front line for a while. Presti resisted the temptation (for now, anyway) to deal Luke Ridnour and now has Delonte West to be what West should be - a decent backup who can play either guard position. He also has an expiring contract. The challenge for Presti now is to re-sign Rashard Lewis, but he will have some money available that was to have gone to Allen; the Sonics saved some $26 million in the deal.

And while Wally Szczerbiak tends to get marginalized because of his injury history in Boston, he's not exactly a wallflower when he's healthy. He can, as the saying now goes, "score the ball." (Where that came from, who knows? But Allen took it to new heights Thursday when he said "score without scoring the ball." We'll leave it at that.)

Remember how not too long ago the Celtics were talking about how deep the draft was? How they could get a potential All-Star with the fifth pick? At one point they held two picks in the first round. One went to get Rajon Rondo last year. The other went to get Ray Allen this year. And the potential All-Star at No. 5 went to Seattle.