This Kevin Garnett trade is a true win-win situation. People seem to be taking shots at both sides saying that Boston now has no future and Minnesota didn’t get much in return.

I say Bah! to both sides.

Here is why.

Boston Celtics

Sooner or later, the Boston Celtics were going to lose 5 time All-Star Paul Pierce, either to free agency or retirement. Their youth movement, building slowly but surely into a legitimate contender, was moving more slowly than surely, often because the frequent lineup changes by coach Doc Rivers. It wasn’t very likely that they were going to make it to “Contention” before Paul Pierce made it to “Retirement”.

Doc Rivers has to play 4 players: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Rajon Rondo. The first three he has to play because they are the best players on the team, by far. The last he has to play because he has no other point guards on the team — Danny Ainge (ingeniously?) traded all of his other choices away. He can’t possibly mess with the lineup too much because the only choice he has (hopefully?) is whether to play Kendrick Perkins or some other player. Obviously Danny Ainge will probably bring in another point guard or two, but the pickings this late after the beginning of free agency are slim to none.

The Boston Celtics will now receive television time by TNT and ESPN. It has been a long time since they had much of that.

They are good enough to compete for the Eastern Conference championship for several years, as opposed to being several years away from competing for the Eastern Conference championship.

Some people are awarding them the championship outright, but I think this is a bit hasty for four reasons:

1. They traded away the whole supporting cast to pick up Allen and Garnett.
2. Allen is prone to injuries, and the other two aren’t young bucks any more either.
3. Other teams (Lakers, Rockets) have tried stacking teams and it hasn’t worked given them the conference championship.
4. You can never underestimate the power of chemistry, and we have no idea if these three players can even play together, let alone allowing them some time to gel as teammates.

People say that they have mortgaged their future for the present. Yes, they gave away a few promising assets, but the future hasn’t happened yet. There is still time available to have a good present and set themselves up for a good future. They still have draft picks and free agent signings just waiting to happen. A “no talent” future isn’t set in stone, despite what some people might think.

Minnesota Timberwolves

Minnesota had one aging All-Star, a couple of decent players, and a bit of young talent. They weren’t very good this year, even with Garnett. It is very likely that they would not have been better next year either. Or the year after that.

With Garnett getting the majority of the touches, the growth of some of their young players was being stunted. If an NBA player learns the most in a game time situation, it stands to reason that less time in a game translates to less opportunity for growth. Garnett’s departure allows for the young players to learn and grow in ways they could not have done before.

In addition, the Joe Smith debacle and the huge contract of Kevin Garnett had destroyed any chance of them having much good young talent or being able to recruit top free agents. And frigid Minnesota isn’t the easiest spot to recruit NBA players anyway. So Minnesota has been a perennially mediocre team with no chance of really becoming better and never bad enough (when they have draft picks) to use them to pick up top notch talent out of college.

Suddenly, they get a bunch of good young stars that Boston has been hoarding in the hopes of someday becoming a force to be reckoned with.
 
Someday.
 
Now they decided that someday was too far away. And Minnesota becomes the beneficiary of that move.
 
Minnesota, being able to combine the Celtic hopefuls with their own hopefuls, might very well be a force to be reckoned with in a couple of years. With the way they were going, they weren’t going to compete much this year OR in a couple of years.
 
They probably won’t compete much this year in a stacked Western Conference, but now at least the Minnesota fans have hope for tomorrow.