At this point, I feel like Danny Ainge was inside the maternity ward at Isaiah Thomas’ birth offering his mom Austin Ainge and a conditional future son in exchange for her newborn. As soon as the Suns showed interest in trading Thomas, it was clear Boston would be involved. And today, finally, Ainge’s obsession has been realized… Isaiah Thomas is a member of the Boston Celtics.
For Isaiah Thomas, Boston will send Marcus Thornton and a 2016 first-round pick via Cleveland to Phoenix, league source tells Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) February 19, 2015
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThis is all still very fresh, so the finer points of this deal are trickling out. There’s some talk that it’s actually part of a larger 4-team deal involving Philadelphia and Milwaukee, but at face value, this deal looks good. Thornton was not staying in Boston anyway, and that Cavs pick is basically meaningless because it will likely be a late-round pick and, if it’s not, it’s top-10 protected until 2019 anyway. In the “what did you get” vs. “what are you giving up” game… the Celtics got the better of this deal. As for how he fits, this is something we’re going to have to watch closely. Thomas actually makes Boston’s already small backcourt gets smaller with the 5’9″ Thomas. But he might also do well in Brad Stevens’ wide open system that allows players to take 3’s at will. Thomas is shooting 39% from deep this year, so that’s nice. What does this mean for Marcus Smart? You ask… I don’t know. I will go back to the days of Rondo to suggest that there’s no reason you can’t have a 3-guard rotation. As for Prince…
Hearing Tayshaun Prince to Detroit for Jerebko and Datome
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) February 19, 2015
I have no idea if these guys will stick around or not. Gigi Datome is a restricted free agent next year while Jonas Jerebko is expiring this year. I wouldn’t be shocked to see some kind of buyout involved here.
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