Celtics At 7: How Recent Trades Could Affect the Race to Last Place
BOSTON (CBS) - The wheeling and dealing in the NBA is underway, with the Celtics pulling off their first trade of the season on Tuesday.
The Celtics sent Courtney Lee and a second-round pick to the Memphis Grizzlies for guard Jerryd Bayless (they also received Ryan Gomes from Oklahoma City but waived him upon completion of the trade), shedding the final two years of Lee's contract.
The Cleveland Cavaliers also made a big trade, sending the disgruntled Andrew Bynum to Chicago for swingman Luol Deng.
In Tuesday night's edition of "Celtics At 7, " 98.5 The Sports Hub's Adam Jones wonders if the Celtics could have gotten a better deal this past week after reviewing all the trades and off-shoots that occurred in Chicago and Cleveland.
"Could the Celtics have snuck in there and tried to put Jeff Green into that deal instead of Luol Deng?" wondered Jones. "The Celtics wouldn't have gotten the same haul back, but is there a way they could have got either an asset, or more likely, a first round pick?"
"I wonder if the Celtics aren't far off from making their own similar deal, and I wonder if they couldn't have tried harder to get in on this type of deal," Jones concluded.
"What is Cleveland doing?" wondered Rich Keefe. "Right now they're only a game better than Orlando for the second-worst record in the NBA."
"They look at the East as a two-team race, and they think they can move up. They should with the addition of Deng," said Keefe.
So what will the race to last place look like the rest of the season? Without Deng and Derrick Rose the Bulls will likely bottom out, but they still play hard for head coach Tom Thibodeau. Will Cleveland's improved roster shoot them up in the standings, and send the Celtics down a little further?
Jones and Keefe also touched on what type of coach Brad Stevens will be once he has a good roster.