You read the title right, I also couldn’t believe it. Apparently, there was a three team deal in place to send Pierce to Dallas.
It gets better. We had a deal done. We had a 3 way trade done. All teams agreed to their part of the deal. When we get on the trade call, the 3rd team killed the deal because they didnt know that a first was going to the Celtics. They chose not to do the deal at all.
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) September 7, 2021
A bit of conflicting reports about the timeline of this trade. The original post says Pierce said this happened in 2007 (before the title), Cuban says it was 2008 (after the title).
The timing doesn’t super matter because it never happened but I need to know what this deal looked like. Also, who was the third team who killed the deal at the last minute? If Cuban is right and this was post 2008 title this could’ve been the start of trying to get Chris Paul to Boston. I don’t even know what my brain would have done if this all came together the way, I imagine, Danny envisioned it.
- Get KG and Ray Allen
- Win the title
- Trade Pierce to Dallas
- Trade Rondo for Chris Paul
- Win another title
That seems like a trade that would happen today but 10+ years ago, maybe it’s just me, but this seems like too many moving parts. I’m not a trade expert by any means but there seems to be a lot more moving parts nowadays then there was in 2008.
Either way, what a crazy story. Pierce with Dirk and Kidd would’ve been another force in the West.