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Nets: Another year without a Celtics title is music to our ears

By Jerry Trotta

WALTHAM, MA - SEPTEMBER 26: General manager Danny Ainge of the Boston Celtics speaks with the media during Boston Celtics Media Day on September 26, 2016 in Waltham, Massachusetts. (Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images)
WALTHAM, MA - SEPTEMBER 26: General manager Danny Ainge of the Boston Celtics speaks with the media during Boston Celtics Media Day on September 26, 2016 in Waltham, Massachusetts. (Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images) /
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Another year without the Celtics winning a championship should be music to Nets fans ears.

Remember when the Brooklyn Nets mortgaged their entire future by agreeing to acquire aging veterans Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry — each of whom were in the twilight of their respective careers — from the Boston Celtics in exchange for spare parts and THREE unprotected first-round draft picks back in 2013?

The trade has gone down was one of the worst in NBA history, and rightfully so, as the Nets set themselves back for years without any real playoff success to show for it. That veteran core spent just two seasons in Brooklyn and never even made a Conference Finals appearance.

The Nets embraced a full-scale rebuild following the 2014-15 campaign and it took them a whopping five seasons to crawl out of that hole and post a winning record. That epic fail of a trade only added to Boston’s assortment of draft capital, and many pundits predicted them to capture a championship within the next few years as a result.

Amazingly enough, it hasn’t exactly panned out like that for the Celtics, who were eliminated in Game 6 of the ECF on Sunday night, marking the 10th consecutive season they’ve failed to reach the Finals, and we can’t stop laughing.

Celtics general manger Danny Ainge seems to think that stockpiling picks is more important than adding finishing pieces to a championship-caliber roster. Why else do we think Boston hasn’t advanced beyond the conference finals in their last three appearances?

Head coach Brad Stevens’ side has been missing one piece for a handful of years now, but the 61-year-old executive insists on keeping a hold of his high draft selections. 2020 first-rounder (No. 14 overall) Romeo Langford has played a combined eight minutes in the last two series.

The Celtics had three of the first 34 overall picks last June. Rather than parlay them in a trade for a commanding big man or three-point marksman, two of their most glaring needs, Ainge held on tight and drafted just one player (Grant Williams) who was regularly used off Stevens’ bench in the playoffs.

What’s just as satisfying about the Celtics’ humbling playoff exit was that fans in Boston can now no longer complain that Kyrie Irving, who averaged close to 24 points and a career-high 6.9 assists for the team in 2019-20, was preventing them from reaching their ceiling.

The NBA is a superstar-driven league, and the Celtics seem to think that a handful of solid players — Jayson Tatum is the closest thing they have to a superstar — is enough to get them over the hump in the playoffs.

Considering the extent to which the Boston media slandered the Nets for the disaster blockbuster trade of 2013, fans in Brooklyn are wholly justified in celebrating the fact that the Celtics’ championship drought reached the decade mark following Sunday’s loss to Miami.

So much for that dynasty, right?