Boston Celtics: What could have been for Rick Pitino’s Celtics

Rick Pitino became his own worst enemy with the Boston Celtics by trading away some very good players before they had a chance to be good players

It’s back to school week, so let’s open our History books to page 97 – The Boston Celtics in the Rick Pitino Era. This is a period that many fans like to forget. It was the post-Big Three, post-Reggie Lewis era where the Celtics were the doormats of the league.

Now, being a doormat is often a necessary thing when it comes to rebuilding. Bad record equals a good draft position. From 1995-96 through 2000-01, the Celtics averaged 29 wins per season and never made the playoffs.

Rick Pitino was the coach for four of those six seasons, from 1997-98 until about halfway through the 2000-01 season. He was also GM and president of basketball operations.

Let’s look at his record as a GM rather than as a coach. He made some moves that facilitated his exit out of town. When he took over at the start of the 1997-98 season from M.L. Carr, he inherited one good piece in Antoine Walker, the No. 3 pick in the 1996 NBA Draft.

Walker had a good rookie season averaging 17.5 points, nine rebounds, and 3.2 assists. He was named to the All-Rookie team.

Pitino took the reins after the 15-win 1996-97 campaign and was looking at getting the prize of the draft, Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan. As we all know, the ping-pong balls did not go the Celtics way and they wound up with the third pick. The San Antonio Spurs got the No. 1 pick and took Duncan and the rest is history. Pitino has long lamented that turn of events. The Celtics had the worst record and Pitino expected to get the No. 1 pick – Duncan. But what he didn’t appreciate at the time was the guy he did get, Chauncey Billups at No. 3.

I don’t have to tell you about Billups’ credentials. We all know how great a player he turned out to be. He would never have the opportunity to be great with the Celtics because Pitino traded him 51 games into his NBA career to the Toronto Raptors for Kenny Anderson, among others.

Anderson was a good player, but he never became anywhere near the player that Billups was. Billups was a five-time all-star, three-time All-NBA selection, two-time all-defensive team selection, NBA champion, and 2004 Finals MVP. As Billups explained in an article he penned for The Player’s Tribune, it was a desperation move by Pitino.

"“Coach will take you aside, and tell you that there’s a lot of pressure on him to make the playoffs — even in his first year with the team. He’ll tell you that, in order to contend, he feels like the team needed a veteran point guard. He’ll tell you that he’s always been a fan of Kenny Anderson’s — I don’t know, I guess the whole New York thing. He’ll tell you that he still feels you’re going to be a great player — but that, with the pressure on him, and the current roster, he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do,” Billups wrote. “Finding out about that trade will be a complete shock. No warning, no nothing.”"

So, instead of having a nucleus of Billups and Walker, they had Walker and Anderson. They did not make the playoffs that year, finishing 36-46 – 12th in the Eastern Conference. That brought Pitino another lottery pick, and once again, he hit a home run by getting Paul Pierce.

Obviously, Pierce became a great player, finishing his career as the second all-time leading scorer in franchise history. He was a 10-time all-star, four-time All-NBA selection, NBA champion, 2008 Finals MVP, to name a few of his career highlights. Pierce had a great rookie year but the young Celtics only went 19-31 in a lockout-shortened year. Walker, Pierce, and Billups would have been a nice nucleus heading into the 1999 season, but it was just Walker and Pierce.

One of the worst moves that Pitino happened in the 1998-99 season. He traded journeyman center Andrew DeClerq and a top-3 protected first-round pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers for a slightly better journeyman center, Vitaly Potapenko. The Celtics were once again in the lottery which would have given them to 8th pick in the 1999 draft, but now, thanks to the Potapenko deal, the Cavs had the 8th pick. They selected guard Andre Miller, who had a long and successful 17-year NBA career. Or the Celtics could have taken Shawn Marion or Jason Terry, who were picked No. 9 and No. 10, respectively, that year. But for the purpose of this hypothetical, let’s say they took Miller.

So, had he kept the picks – the Celtics would have had a backcourt of Billups and Miller and a frontcourt of Walker and Pierce. Instead, they had Walker, Pierce, Potapenko, and Anderson.

The Celtics went 35-47 that year and missed the playoffs again, setting up what turned out to be Pitino’s final lottery pick in 2000. At No. 11 he took Jerome Moiso, who you’ve probably never heard of – for good reason. That was probably the worst draft class in recent NBA history so you really can’t fault him much there.

Pitino quit after going 12-22 to start the 2000-2001 season and Jim O’Brien took over. The Celtics finished that season with a record of 36-46.

In 2001, with Pitino gone, the Celtics made another great draft pick by taking Joe Johnson at No. 10. Again, I don’t have to tell you how good a player Joe Johnson turned out to be. Johnson was a seven-time NBA all-star and was selected once to the all-NBA team in his 17-year NBA career. He’s actually trying to make a comeback this year by earning a tryout with the Sixers.

The Celtics went on to have a good year in 2001-02, finishing 49-33 and making it to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they lost the Nets in six games. But they traded Johnson after 48 games for Rodney Rogers and Tony Delk. While Rogers and Delk did help them reach the ECFs, the gain was short-lived. After that season, Anderson and Potapenko were traded away and Rogers left in free agency.

So the players they got for Billups, Miller, and Johnson were all gone. Had they kept those players, the Celtics would have had a nucleus of Walker, Pierce, Billups, Miller, and Joe Johnson – with Tony Battie at center. If those players had been allowed to mature and gel, the Celtics would have been conference contenders for years to come.

Of course, Danny Ainge came along and cleaned up Pitino’s mess when he landed Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen and won an NBA championship in 2008. But it’s interesting to look back at how Pitino became his own worst enemy by being impatient.

Okay, now back to current events.