The writing is on the wall in Boston. Father time has finally caught up with the ever popular trio Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce. With KG and Allen now 35 and 36 years old, and in the final years of their contracts, this season will probably be the swan song for Boston’s fabled “Big 3.”
Prior to the “Big 3“ coming together and immediately winning an NBA title in 2008, an NBA record 17th I might add, the Celtics suffered through two horrific rebuilding seasons where the roster was filled with scrubs like Ricky Davis, Raef LaFrentz, and Wally Sczerbiak as the team won a combined 57 games.
Almost like when legendary college coach Rick Pitino was the head man, those were some lean years that surely the Beantown faithful are hoping they will never have to endure again. That’s why Celtics GM Danny Ainge is scrambling to come up with a plan, not only to fortify the bench and get some quality big men for this season, but to find the eventual replacements for the elder statesmen of the championship triumvirate when 2012-2013 does arrive.
That’s precisely why Ainge even considered such a doomsday scenario last week, like trading All Star PG Rajon Rondo, if and only if he could bring back another big time superstar like CP3 or Dwight Howard to the Celtics.
I have no doubt that although Rondo can reportedly sometimes be a real pain in the derriere, Ainge was obviously just sending out some feelers to better gauge Rondo’s worth if worse came to worse. The Celtics more pressing need besides deciding whether or not to re-sign Jeff Green, Glenn Davis, and attempt to lure either Nene or Marc Gasol to play the post, is finding an offensive replacement for the ageless one, Ray Allen.
Because of some recent tweets from CSN Northeast Celtics beat writer Sherrod Blakely, stating that disgruntled Memphis Grizzlies shooting guard OJ Mayo is “one to keep an eye on” during the upcoming free agency period, many blogs in and around Boston are buzzing over the prospects of getting a much younger and perhaps equally as offensively potent two guard for the impending future.
Mayo is an intriguing option, considering he makes all of 5+ million this season, then becomes a restricted free agent in 2012-2013. The career 16 ppg scorer saw his production dip to only 11.3 ppg last season, after losing his starting spot to former Celtic Tony Allen because of missing several team functions and an in-flight altercation with a teammate over gambling debts.
Prior to his demotion, the now 23 year old Mayo, was one of the Association’s fastest rising stars. He finished 2nd to Derrick Rose in the ’09 NBA ROY voting and continually made everyone’s Top NBA players under age 23 lists. With Mayo still under contract, the only way to get him would be through a sign-and-trade deal, presumably with the aforementioned Green and/or Davis.
On the surface, the move looks to be a good fit as it appears that Mayo is in dire need of a change of scenery. Of course he does bring some baggage since he has been arrested for marijuana possession and was accused of assaulting a referee in HS, in addition to receiving a 10 game suspension last season for testing positive for a banned substance that he said he unknowingly ingested in an energy drink.
But he sure would look nice in green and white, playing alongside Rondo in the Celtics backcourt for the better part of the decade. For those of you that aren’t that familiar with Mayo, he’s known as one of the up-and-coming young scorers in the Association, who plays outstanding defense, and is somewhat known for making the highlight reel play.
Check out an awesome OJ Mayo Mix “Smooth As Silk”:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
