NBA Trade Rumors: Danny Ainge Needs to Blow Up Boston Celtics' Big Three

The Boston Celtics are not going to win the NBA title this year. Not with the roster they have and not with the pieces they try to acquire, either.

But GM Danny Ainge does need to make a move while he still holds some leverage.

Boston fans (like this guy) have tried to maintain that this team could have won a title this year had Ainge made the right moves—and they could have been right—but the reality is that Big Three's championship window has now closed.

As Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe writes, the GM knows that change is an option:

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Ainge said he would consider trades if they would net younger talent. He has maintained he does not want the franchise to go through a 10-year span of insignificance as it did following the departures of the previous Big Three of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish, who remained with the team past their primes.

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Washburn quotes Ainge as saying:

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"We have gone through some really ugly, bad stretches before, and so I have to be careful to not overreact to a situation that’s going bad vs. a situation that’s not going to get better or even if it does get better, it’s not going to be good enough. That’s my job to evaluate."

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Any evaluation Ainge does will ultimately result in him seeing this Celtics team, currently 5-8 and ranking 26th in points per game and 28th in rebounds per game, as incapable of winning the title.

What he'll also see is the expiring contracts for two of the Big Three—Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett—and a number of teams that would be willing to talk.

Ainge's blatant neglect of the center position is obviously one of his biggest mistakes, but there is nobody they'll be able to add now that can help enough to make them a contender.

Although we're only talking about 13 games into an abbreviated season, his job is to look out for the future of the franchise as well. He doesn't want this team to go through a long rebuilding phase, but he also can't hold onto the past when it can help the relatively immediate future.

Ray Allen's talents and expiring contract will garner plenty of attention, especially from contending teams, should he be put on the market.

There certainly won't be many happy fans if the sharpshooter also known as Jesus Shuttlesworth were traded, but he's arguably the most valuable asset this team has outside of point guard Rajon Rondo.

Paul Pierce would also attract a fair bit of attention should he ever be put on the market, but unlike Allen, he's still under contract through the 2014 season between $15-$16 million per year.

Ainge doesn't want to trade this team into irrelevancy, but he also cannot hold onto it, hoping for some type of miracle when there is none to be had.

What he can do is find the best deal possible for a piece, or pieces, of the Big Three and start putting things back together around Rondo.

The Celtics are not going to win the NBA Finals this year either way, but they're much better off working toward the future rather than slipping into mediocrity with what they currently have.