Isaiah Thomas and the best trades in Celtics history

BigSoxFan

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Where are we ranking the Isaiah Thomas trade (Marcus Thornton + 2016 #28 pick) in Celtics history?
 

BuellMiller

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Gotta put DJ for Rick Robey in the top 3. Got us 2 championships.
I agree with this strongly. If not top 3, definitely top 5. Plus getting Robey away from Bird was a good thing, supposedly, and we got a 1st out of it, too (granted it was only Greg Kite...but not like there was much after him at 23...Doc Rivers, Craig Ehlo, or Mark West, and not a whole lot else, unless i missed someone).
 

Hoya81

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The Allen/KG acquisitions, if viewed jointly, rival some of Red's best work.
 

lexrageorge

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My ranking of the Top 10 Celtics trades:

Honorable Mention: The KG and Paul Pierce to Brooklyn Nets trade. I only put it here because so far all we have to show is James Young and Jaylen Brown. The fruits of this trade are obviously yet to play out, and could certainly vault into the Top 5 (or better) depending how things play out.

Honorable Mention #2: Kermit Washington, Don Chaney, and a 1st round pick in 1978 draft for Charlie Scott. The Celtics were in free fall from their 1976 title appearance. So Red acquired a player he always coveted in Kermit Washington. Unfortunately, Washington had been suspended for 60 days for sucker punching (and nearly killing) Rudy Tomjanovich. Scott's best days were behind him, and he would have limited impact for the Lakers, and would end his career in Denver. Chaney would play a contributing role as a defensive specialist for the 1981 title team.

Why is this trade listed here? The reason is that the Celtics would own the 6th (their own) and the 8th pick in the 1978 draft. With 2 picks in the top 10, Red was able to use the 8th pick to draft Freeman Williams, while using the 6th pick to draft an underclassman forward from Indiana State that would be a year away from playing.

10.) Tiny Archibald, Marvin Barnes, Billy Knight and two 2nd round picks for Washington, Kevin Kunnert, Sidney Wicks and Freeman Williams. Tiny would end up playing a key role in the 1981 title team. Best of all is that this trade would mark the beginning of the end of the infamous Wicks-Rowe era. And as for those 2nd round picks: one would be used to select an infielder for the Blue Jays.

9.) Charlie Scott for Paul Westphal. A trade that would have interesting ramifications, as the two players would meet later that season in the NBA Finals match between the Suns and Celtics. The young Westphal had trouble cracking the backcourt rotation that was anchored by JoJo White and Don Chaney. In a GFIN move, the Celtics decided to complement an aging roster (Havlicek was 35, Don Nelson 34, and Paul Silas 32) with the high-scoring backcourt player (24.8 ppg with the Suns). The move paid dividends as the Celtics were able to squeeze one more title out of the often overlooked Cowens/Havlicek/White era.

8.) Bailey Howell for Mel Counts. Howell helped the Celtics replace the retired Tommy Heinsohn during the final Russell years, and was a key playoff contributor to the 1968 and 1969 title teams.

7.) Bill Sharman for Chuck Share. Hall of Famer Sharman was a key contributor to the Celtics first few titles during the Russell era.

6.) Paul Silas for Charlie Scott. The young Celtics needed a rebounder, and they got a good one for their often overlooked 1974 and 1976 title teams. Upon completing an outstanding NCAA career at UNC, Scott decided to spurn the NBA join the Virginia Squires of the ABA. In a forward looking move, the Celtics end up drafting Scott in the 7th round, thereby retaining his rights in case he should decide to return to the NBA. By the time Scott had grown tired of the ABA, the Celtics had plenty of offense in the backcourt with JoJo White, so Scott was shipped to the Suns, where he would establish he could score in the NBA as well. Scott also gets a nod for being part of 3 memorable Celtics trades.

5.) There may be some recency bias here, but the IT4 trade certainly needs to land in the Top 5.

4.) DJ for Rick Robey. The early playoff exit in 1983 showed that the team had some serious issues in the backcourt. Tiny was at the end, and Buckner and Henderson were JAG's. Noone could believe all it took to acquire the 4-time All Star was a redundant backup center.

3.) KG trade. I put it up here, as while it wasn't as lopsided as some of the others, it made the team relevant among the local fan base again. It also gave Paul Pierce a well-deserved NBA crown.

2.) McHale and Parish for JBC and Rickey Brown. Even with Bird, it would have been a long way to a title without the 2 big guys in the middle.

1.) Bill Russell trade. The difference between possibly 2 or 3 titles and 11.

Toughest omission: The Ray Allen trade, which really belongs in the Top 10.
 

BigSoxFan

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Great list, lex. I'd like to add a trade for consideration (probably on the outside looking in but still a very good one):

Eric Montross and #9 pick in 1996 draft (they took Samaki Walker)
for

#6 pick in 1996 (Antoine) and future pick (became #6 pick in 1997 - Ron Mercer)
 

Sam Ray Not

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Without the benefit of 20-20 hindsight ... for a while it looked like Auerbach's late-career master stroke when he snagged Seattle's 1986 first rounder for Gerald Henderson :,-(
 

SumnerH

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Without the benefit of 20-20 hindsight ... for a while it looked like Auerbach's late-career master stroke when he snagged Seattle's 1986 first rounder for Gerald Henderson :,-(
Looking at that draft, I forgot Sabonis was drafted by Portland that year at the bottom of the first round (after having been drafted a year earlier by the Hawks but having that selection nullified because he was under 21).

9 years between being a first-round draft pick and making your NBA debut has to be a record, no?
 

lexrageorge

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Without the benefit of 20-20 hindsight ... for a while it looked like Auerbach's late-career master stroke when he snagged Seattle's 1986 first rounder for Gerald Henderson :,-(
Gerald Henderson would, in turn, be traded by Seattle for the pick that would become Scottie Pippen, who Seattle traded on draft night to the Bulls for the immortal Olden Polynice.
 

snowmanny

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The MLCarr compensation trade (dumping Bob McAdoo to the Pistons for two #1 picks, which were turned into Parish/McHale) needs to be on the list.
 

southshoresoxfan

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Are we going to ignore how Ainge acquired Thornton and the 1st rd pick that they used for IT?

In that 3 way trade w the Cavs and Nets back in 2014 to free cap space for the Cavs the Cs absorbed Zeller into their midlevel exception and got Thronton from the Nets as well as a 1st rd pick attached to Zeller to sweeten the deal.

Initially the Cs were to surrender a 2nd rd pick. There werre so many protections on it that they never did.

The 1st rd pick they flipped along w Thronton for IT was the pick from the Zeller deal.

So they got IT for literally...nothing.
 

bakahump

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IT4 is only in the lower half of the top 10 because the Celts literally stole a half dozen HOF players. 95% of the teams his trade is top 3.
 

snowmanny

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IT4 is only in the lower half of the top 10 because the Celts literally stole a half dozen HOF players. 95% of the teams his trade is top 3.
Absolutely. Throw in draft picks where they took someone that other teams backed away from because of signability (e.g. White, Bird, Ainge) and inking three Knicks to offer sheets to scare NY away from signing McHale in 1983 and their history of outsmarting the rest of the league is even more remarkable.
 

reggiecleveland

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Tiny Archibald by the San Diego Clippers with Marvin Barnes, Billy Knight, a 1981 2nd round draft pick (Danny Ainge was later selected) and a 1983 2nd round draft pick (Rod Foster was later selected) to the Boston Celtics for Kevin Kunnert, Kermit Washington, Sidney Wicks and Freeman Williams.

King Become Robey, Robey and Foster become DJ, (and Greg Kite) Ainge was a steal because he he tried baseball.

This trade netted:
Tiny starting PG for 3 years title team
Robey Valuable bench guy championship team, becomes
DJ and Ainge Back-court that won two titles.
for
Kermit Washington very good PF that played 3 more years
Freeman williams a pretty good scored, that flamed out after 4 years.

Washinton and Williams for Robey and Tiny would be a fair trade. Add Ainge DJ, and a steal. Also Greg Kite was aback up center just like Sidney Wicks.
 

saintnick912

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The trade to acquire Rondo from the Suns has to be up there, if not top 10, because he played a key role in bringing a title to Boston and the cost was very little.

The Celtics gave up the 2007 Cleveland pick, which ended up being the 24th selection and used on Rudy Fernandez. Phoenix traded his rights for cash again.
 

RetractableRoof

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Late to re-visiting this thread...

My ranking of the Top 10 Celtics trades:
That's a hell of a list and reminds me of how little I really know about the Celtics before Bird. Mostly just the surface stuff that most people know.

Without the benefit of 20-20 hindsight ... for a while it looked like Auerbach's late-career master stroke when he snagged Seattle's 1986 first rounder for Gerald Henderson :,-(
The excitement for him was just palpable. I still have the damned SI issue. That trade would have paired Reggie (assuming they still took him) and Bias, joining the remnants of the title teams (right when Bird's back started to fail him). Who knows what would have been.
 

snowmanny

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I have an idea. Bias was ridiculous.

I saw a Maryland-UNC game where the announcer said "Now UNC is playing a box and one with the box on Bias."