The Boston Celtics have reportedly agreed to send Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets in a blockbuster trade that rocked Draft night.
The Brooklyn Nets named Jason Kidd as coach, and Thursday suddenly became the best team in the NBA. There is much talk of the “Big 3s” in basketball, and at the start of the night there were six teams with three of the top 45 players in the league according to ESPN’s Value Added system (see list below). No team had more than three until the Nets raided the Boston Celtics for Paul Pierce (24th) and Kevin Garnett (45th) to join Brook Lopez (9th), Deron Williams (14th) and Andray Blatche (43rd) for five players who are not even in the top 200 and future draft picks.
The Nets also landed Jason Terry (168th) in the draft, who is better than all five players the Celtics received in return to shed salaries just days after dropping the coaching salary of Doc Rivers (now with the Clippers).
The rankings of the players going to the Celtics are: Kris Humphries, 211th; Reggie Evans, 212th; Gerald Wallace, 221st; Tornike Shengelia, 358th; and Keith Bogans, 468th.
Kevin Garnett had to agree to waive his no-trade clause to seal the deal, which does give the Celtics the Nets first round pick in 2014, 2016 and 2018. As good as the Nets should be after the trade, those picks may come near to the end of the 30-team first round.
| Rnk | Top 45 Player |
|---|---|
| 9 | Brook Lopez, BKN |
| 14 | Deron Williams, BKN |
| 24 | Paul Pierce, BKN |
| 43 | Andray Blatche, BKN |
| 45 | Kevin Garnett, BKN |
| 17 | Marc Gasol, MEM |
| 30 | Mike Conley, MEM |
| 50 | Zach Randolph, MEM |
| 1 | LeBron James, MIA |
| 8 | Dwyane Wade, MIA |
| 21 | Chris Bosh, MIA |
| 7 | Carmelo Anthony, NY |
| 34 | J.R. Smith, NY |
| 41 | Tyson Chandler, NY |
| 2 | Kevin Durant, OKC |
| 5 | Russell Westbrook, OKC |
| 32 | Serge Ibaka, OKC |
| 18 | LaMarcus Aldridge, POR |
| 27 | J.J. Hickson, POR |
| 46 | Damian Lillard, POR |
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