The Celtics used their last Nets pick on Kyrie Irving, for better or worse

A few years ago I was having a conversation with a Celtics front-office person about the intrinsic value of the Nets picks. The Nets weren’t quite the hollowed-out shell of a franchise they would become, so while the picks were obviously valuable, there was some discrepancy about just how treasured they were as assets.

It has always been my belief that the Nets picks were more valuable to the Celtics than everyone else because of the intangible benefits of having them in their back pocket.

They granted admittance into every star-centered trade talks and offered a reprieve from the monotonous drudgery of a slow rebuild. Essentially, they offered the rarest of NBA commodities: An escape route from the land of good, but not quite great.

Win 48 games and get knocked out in the first round?

No problem. Nets picks.

Host Game 1 of the conference finals and still get blown out in five games?

No worries. Nets picks.

Their actual value has been something quite different, fluctuating from moment to moment and even taking on different meanings with the same player. The Nets picks were occasionally an impediment, holding up deals for players like Jimmy Butler or Paul George because the other team demanded them. Other times they were in play, but still not enough of an enticement. Once they were even on the table for the chance to draft Justise Winslow.

So, I asked this person what would be an acceptable outcome for the Nets picks. The Celtics would need to come out of this with at least one franchise player was the answer. And what would be unacceptable? Anything less.

As the years rolled along and The Big Trade never materialized, the Celtics began using the Nets picks on young players. First came the forgettable James Young, then the intriguing Jaylen Brown. This last draft produced Jayson Tatum, who became a summer league sensation.

(Trading back to take Tatum No. 3 also earned the Celtics a future, potentially valuable pick via the Sixers. This is a derivative of the Nets trade, not a direct gain.)

Brown and Tatum may one day wind up becoming the pair of bookend forwards who will take the Celtics into the new age. But they are not, at the moment, franchise players.

That left one more pick. And suddenly, at long last, the Nets picks are all gone. The last remaining choice has been traded for Kyrie Irving, a mega-talented offensive superstar who has all the traditional markings of a franchise player.

Irving is one of the best one-on-one scorers in the game, a four-time All-Star, and a Finals hero to boot. Defensively ... well, Irving is a great offensive player. That makes him one of the more polarizing players in the league. (I’ll point you to the excellent Tom Ziller because I don’t feel like repeating his own points on the topic.)

The Celtics didn’t just trade the Nets pick to get him. They also dealt Isaiah Thomas, a point guard with remarkably similar levels of production to Irving, who also happened to be the most charismatic player to come through town since Paul Pierce was traded and the whole Nets Picks Era began.

They also traded Jae Crowder, a super-useful forward whose below-market contract made him a household name. They also traded Ante Zizic, a 7-footer whose hype didn’t quite match the reality this past summer, but is still seven feet of prospect. Add it all up and that’s ... a lot.

On paper, this is a tremendous deal for the Cavs. It gives them an able replacement for Irving, two potentially important rotation players, and a quality pick for the future. It’s a credit to new Cavs general manager Koby Altman that he was able to get this much in return for a player whose trade demand rocked the league in an environment when Butler, George, and DeMarcus Cousins were each traded for 75 cents on the dollar.

The Cavs are the favorites in the East for as long as LeBron James wants to continue playing there and it’s hard to argue that they got demonstrably worse with this trade. They may have even gotten better in the short term, while positioning themselves for a quick recovery if James bolts next summer.

There are a few caveats here. Thomas is three years older than Irving, has one year left on his contract, and is due for a big raise. He’s also coming off a tricky hip injury that may hinder his ability to maintain his star-level form. Maybe. No one should ever get too comfortable doubting IT’s ability to maximize his abilities.

Regardless, the Cavs are not on the same timetable as the Celtics and even if Thomas has shown us the best of what he has, this is still a worthy haul for Irving. At the very least they can enjoy life in possession of the last remaining Nets pick. (It really is a fun thing to have around.)

From the Celtics point of view, it’s just business. With this move and the Avery Bradley trade, Danny Ainge has shorn off every last bit of sentimentality in constructing his roster this summer. The Celtics are younger, healthier, and more talented. Are they better? Probably. Are they finally good enough to be a legit contender?

That question comes back to the idea of Kyrie Irving. With Gordon Hayward and Al Horford already on board, he doesn’t have to be the lone wolf, but he is the most accomplished of the three. If it’s not HIS TEAM, Irving will certainly set the tone for a club that returns only four players from last season.

While Horford and Hayward were signed with cap space and no small amount of tricky roster maneuvering, Irving is arguably the crown jewel of the rebuild. The machinations that brought Thomas, Crowder, and even Zizic to Boston are now legend. Irving is the final payoff to all those savvy moves and he’d better be as good as they want him to be if they are going to get back to the Finals.

The Nets picks are now gone. Long live the Nets picks. They didn’t restore the Celtics to viability all by themselves, but they certainly made them relevant even when they were far from respectable on the court. Their ultimate value, like everything else that happens in this league, can be debated long into the future.